Focus Standardized Testing

Young ChildrenElementary School YearsHigh School Years

Sep 24

Written By Jacob

THE USES OF TESTS

TALK WITH TEST CRITIC

[SS:] When Pat and I spoke at the 'Ninth Annual Test, Measurement and Evaluation Conference’ in New Hampshire this March, we learned that the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, or FairTest for short, operates right near us, in Cambridge, Mass. Those of us who want to oppose standardized testing but feel we lack the ammunition to do so will find an ally in FairTest, which publishes a newsletter, The FairTest Examiner, that I recommend highly. ($15/yr. from FairTest, PO Box 1272, Harvard Square Station, Cambridge MA 02238; 617-864-4810). In April I spoke with John Weiss, the group’s executive director:

Susannah Sheffer: How did FairTest get started?

John Weiss: FairTest was formed two years ago at a conference I organized in New York, at which we brought together sixty civil rights and education activists. Our goal was to try to figure out what needed to be done in the area of standardized testing reform. We found that there was a great deal of knowledge about testing misuses and abuses, but the people with this knowledge are scattered all over the nation, so our first goal is to bring them together. Our second goal is to systematically educate decision-makers - legislators, school officials, the media - about these critics' knowledge about standardized testing. We find that it's not very hard, that most people are sympathetic to what we’re doing.

The third area for us is direct social change. We're fighting to get the federal government’s clearinghouse on tests and measurement to be run by someone other than ETS [SS: Educational Testing Service, which sells the SAT and hundreds of other standardized tests]. The clearinghouse distributes information about standardized tests and other methods of evaluation, so right now ETS controls the flow of information that the government and the general public receives about tests. They blatantly toot their own horn. We're trying to get a group that has a much broader interpretation of "assessment" than a test company does to be in charge of this clearinghouse.

We’ve also worked to extend and strengthen bills that open up the testing industry to public scrutiny - we find that when the facts about what's going on are disclosed, it looks pretty bad, even to the general public.

SS: What's an example of something you might try to educate the decision-makers - about?

JW: Recently we’ve worked to publicize the ‘Larry P." decision, which is a 1986 case in California that banned the use of lQ tests to track black children into classes for the mentally retarded. The judge ruled that these tests are culturally biased. This court case went on for 18 years, and we’re trying to bring it to public attention. We’ve also been working to discover gender bias.

SS: How did you get involved in that?

JW: A reporter called us up and asked us to comment on the fact that 80% of the National Merit Scholars in her district are male. So we started, investigating it and we issued a report which went national. We found that many tests discriminate against females. For example, on the SAT, girls score 61 points lower than boys. The test is supposed to predict college grades, yet women's college grades are slightly higher than men's grades, so it isn’t very accurate there.

Some of FailTest’s recommendations to the College Board:

College should independently evaluate their need for the SAT. Right now, colleges rely on studies generated by the Educational Testing Service itself which, says FailTest, is "like asking General Motors to evaluate what brand of car you should buy."

Make the test as fair as possible.

Withhold SAT score from institutions which misuse them.

Many schools and scholarship programs specifically violate the College Board's guidelines for proper use of the SAT.

Require colleges, not students, to pay for the test. Rename the SAT. 'Aptitude" is misleading, and no one has been able to define it or prove that this test measures it.

Study whether coaching actually improves SAT scores.

Inform students about the experimental section. Each SAT includes a difficult experimental section, and though it will not count toward their final score, students are not told which section it is. FailTest says that this is akin to experimenting on human subjects without their informed, written consent.

For a copy of FairTest’s complete letter, send a SASE with 39 cent stamp to FailTest.

SS: Are the biases inherent in the questions, or in the style of the test?

JW: Both. There are often biases on particular exams - we’ve found examples of class bias in SAT questions which use words like "golf," "polo." The test pigeonholes people, too. Students who are unusually perceptive - artists, poets - tend not to do as well. Then there's the speed element - students who are more thoughtful, who are trained to answer bigger questions, won't be able to finish the test. It's a test of how fast you can answer certain questions superficially. One of the things that coaching schools tell you is "Don't think about the question." A Native American just called me and told me that it's against their culture to guess - you say something or you don't say something. So their kids don't guess, and that penalizes them.

SS: That's certainly true of homeschoolers, who are often used to delving deeply into things.

JW: We also find that the SAT narrows the high school curriculum, directs it more towards regurgitation skills.

SS: I'm very interested in the recommendations that you submitted to the College Board [an association of colleges which currently hires ETS]. Has there been any response?

JW: Don Stewart, the president, has agreed to meet with us. One question we are pondering is whether ETS is analogous to a nuclear plant, in the sense that even if you bring good people in and make some regulations, you're still making nuclear power, a very centralized and dangerous method of making electricity. Can you do a good job, can you make it safer?

SS: Yes, it's like John Holt's analogy of the humane prison guard - if you're doing bad work, how humane can you be?

JW: And the question is, would it be better to try to be more humane? Maybe someone is using that position to try to do meaningful work, to create real change, but I don't see that coming. The testing industry is a well over a billion-dollar-a-year business. They won't reform themselves. I think changes that occur will take place outside the leadership of the College Board, through the membership - most colleges and many high schools are members of the College Board.

SS: What does that mean to be a member?

JW: They pay $100, and then they can vote. The College Board hires ETS, so technically they could fire it.

SS: That's interesting, because colleges always sound so enslaved by ETS.

JW: Well, 90% of the Board's money comes from ETS. But if the colleges were organized, they might be able to do something.

SS: In your letter to the Board, you recommend that colleges independently evaluate their need for the SAT. How might they do that?

JW: Ernest Boyer’s book, College, found that some large percentage of colleges don't use the SAT at all in decision-making, they just require it to look prestigious. If they ask, 'Who would we have accepted or rejected if we had used the scores?" they find that they would have accepted 98%of the same students. So they find that they don't really need it. Jim Crouse at the University of Delaware has also done considerable research on this subject, and come up with similar conclusions.

The few very selective colleges are really looking at a lot of other factors besides the test anyway. When these institutions examine their use of the test, they find that they are over testing the kids - that they don’t need the SAT and the achievement tests. So when they decide to eliminate one of those, as some have recently decided, [SS: see story below] it’s a step in the right direction, but-they're not yet saying that they’re opposed to standardized testing in general.

SS: It seems that your other recommendation, having colleges pay the cost of the SAT instead of the students, would have to go hand-in-hand here, because if they don’t bear the cost, they have no incentive to evaluate their need for it.

JW: Yes, we think that that, and changing the name of the test - which wouldn’t cost a dime - are the two most important reforms. The biggest problem with tests, the SAT in particular, is not the biases or the narrowing of the curriculum but the fact that people-internalize the scores. They erroneously believe they’re dumb or smart.

SS: Your proposal is to remove the word "aptitude" and rename it 'The test that attempts to predict freshman grades in college," but some people argue that it doesn't even do that effectively.

JW: We'd like truth-in-advertising. I actually would call it 'The test of how fast you answer 70 questions in 30 minutes." That's what is.

SS: I can't help thinking that people will continue to believe that the SAT is important' even with some colleges making it optional, as they have. What other steps can we take to reduce its importance?

JW: We need to publicize our research, and we haven’t yet systematically informed the decision-makers. The test companies do it systematically, but it’s always-one-sided. We'd like to get into some sort of debate with the test companies, because the facts are all on our side. We also try to get them to stop using bad tests, as in the Larry P. case. We don’t always push for everything that we want with what we think we can get. Right now we're working for a more accountable, more open industry, because we think that with a lot of this information they will hang themselves. I used to work for a group called Project De-Test (Demystify the Established Standardized tests). John Holt was on our advisory board. Now we're FailTest, and this is a sign of the times.

SS: As a tactical approach, that idea of working for what you, think you can get is very like what many homeschoolers do when they lobby for favorable legation. And yet, what if you are opposed to testing in general? What should you do then?

JW: Some parents have resisted IQ tests, tests with results that are going to follow the kid around forever. They’ve raised public consciousness by doing this, but we only have a few examples. If any more of this is going on, I'd like to hear about it.

SS: Another one of your recommendations is that SAT scores should be withheld from institutions that misuse them. What kind of misuse is going on?

JW: There are so many misuses, but we've been focusing on the most blatant one, which is scholarship agencies awarding money solely on the best of test scores. This is in violation of test company regulations about test use - their standards are so minimal, and important decisions affecting the lives of individuals." Then, a similar statement from the College Board: 'Test scores should not be the sole factor in determining the admission of an applicant." But if you're applying to the University of Texas and you live in Massachusetts, they won’t ever look at your application lf you don t have an 1100 on the SAT. So that’s a violation. But ETS says, 'We just sell a product, we're not responsible for how it’s used."

SN: What suggestions do you have for people who have to take standardized tests?

JW: First, you should treat the test as a game, a hurdle something you have to-do that isn't otherwise important - this is true for any multiple-choice test.

Then, get a sample copy of the exam. Have the child take the exam and have them explain why they gave the answers they did. Sometimes children have perfectly logical reasons for giving an answer that is not the wanted answer, and you can tell them that their answer makes sense, but is not the answer that the test wants. So, downplay the importance of the test, and for homeschoolers, stress how particularly unsuited it is to the open curriculum you've been used to. Give specific training in how to take a test - all the strategy and games. Don't pretend you’re learning math, think instead what you’re learning SAT math. It's very different.

SS: Homeschoolers are often concerned about the test environment, and the familiarity of the person administering the test.

JW: There have been studies that show that black children do better on IQ tests when they are administered by blacks, not whites, even when both administer the test in the same way.

SS: Can we look to your organization for help?

JW: We have limited resources, but within the limits of our ability, we would like to correspond with homeschoolers, answer specific questions lf we can. If they have problems or victories, we would like to hear about those and turn them into case studies. We’d like homeschoolers to see our newsletter, we'd like to print their specific queries. Many people who are experts in testing see our newsletter, so they may be able to help.

COLLEGES MAKE SAT OPTIONAL

In late April, Middlebury College in Vermont and Union College in New York announced that they were dropping the SAT as an admission requirement. Students will now have the option not to submit these scores, but those who do want their scores to be considered may submit them as usual.

Both of these colleges are small, and student Eutdebooks would describe them as "selective." I spoke with Kathy Lindsey, an admissions dean at Middlebury, who said' 'We think the whole system has gotten enslaved by the SAT. We're captives to the public perception of its importance." She said that Middlebury will make the SAT optional for the next two years, after which they will "look to see if we’ve attracted different kinds of candidates." By "different kinds" she means students in parts of the country where the SAT is less accessible, and those groups - minorities and women, for example - against which some say the test discriminates. Dean Jerry Weiner at Union College says that Union has suspended the SAT indefinitely, because "by denying ourselves the SAT, we lose no information that we can't get elsewhere." Elsewhere, in this case, refers to the ETS-made Achievement Tests, which Union and Middlebury will continue to require, as well as the other information usually considered (high school record, interview, etc.).

Weiner said he fears that "because people think it's a true measure of their ability, they wind up discriminating against themselves - they don't apply to colleges where they think they won't have a chance of getting in. l'd rather that they let us make that decision"'

The SAT is apparently not as universally mandatory as many of us may have supposed. Other colleges have for several years allowed submission of scores to be optional. William Hiss, Director of Admissions at Bates College in Maine, which has not required the SAT since 1984, says, 'We wanted to send out a broad signal to young people and their families to use the high school years for forward motion, for experimenting, rather than spending 400 hours studying word analogies. What we're trying to measure is intelligence, zest, drive, and humor - not skill at test-taking." Homeschoolers may argue about how accurately these elusive qualities can be measured, but it will surely be easier to make a case for homeschooling as effective preparation for college when "zest, drive and humor" are what colleges are looking for.

Bowdoin College in Maine stopped requiring the SAT in 1969, although only 1/5 of the entering class chose not to submit their scores last year. "We made the decision for students who don't believe the SAT reflects their ability," said Mellissa Walters, on the admissions staff. She added that a few of this year's students have been home educated, one through 11th grade.

In some ways even more interesting them the fact that some colleges have stopped requiring the SAT is the fact that even colleges which do require it may place less value on it then we think. Dean Weiner at Union told me that ‘colleges have been dis-counting SAT scores for years – we want to get this out to the public.’ How true is this? If it is true at all, the public should indeed know about it. Let’s keep our eyes on what colleges decide to do about the SAT in coming years.—SS

STUDENTS PROTEST SAT

About 70 students at Brown University have formed a group called STUDENTS AGAINST TESTING, which aims to "abolish the SAT, or at least have it reviewed by all colleges using it now," according to student Mark Safire. ‘l don't think people understand what the test is supposed to be predicting, and I don't think it's doing what it’s supposed to be doing, either," he said.

The Brown students have sent letters to college newspapers around the country, asking for the support of students at other schools. So far, says Mark, the response has been encouraging. He says that Students Against Testing also has-the support of Theodore Sizer, author of the book Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High school.

Michael Salter, another student involved with the group, says that the effort "is not directed at Brown, but at ETS. lt's a matter of supporting something that is unjust, and we can't do that." He said Brown students plan to ask others to join them next year when representatives from student governments meet at the annual "lvy Council." - SS

MEASURING INTELLIGENCE

From The Magic Feather, by Lori and BilI Granger (see GWS 56), a book about learning disabilities we are considering for our fall catalog:

[The IQ test] was developed in 1904 by Alfred Binet, who had been commissioned by the French government to find a way to identify children in need of help in schools... He devised the IQ test as a series of questions and tasks, graded in difficulty according to the age of the average child presumed to be able to accomplish them. The child proceeded through the tasks until he could no longer do them. At that point, his mental age was pronounced, and if it was markedly lower than his chronological age, he was marked out for special work.

...It is important to see how the IQ test has changed in value since Binet's experiments. Binet himself never claimed he was measuring some fixed, inborn trait that amounted to mental horsepower. He believed, in fact, in changing one's intelligence quotient through mental calisthenics that would get children off the rolls of the retarded. He also protested the idea that his test could be used to rank all children on a single scale to define the quality of their minds. He said that would be a dangerous use of his test. 'The scale," he wrote in 1905, "properly speaking, does not permit the measure of the intelligence, because intellectual qualities are not supposable, and therefore cannot be measured as linear surfaces are measured."

Of course, what Binet warned against is exactly what has come to pass. The IQ test in the United States has always been used to measure literally a fixed idea of intelligence. That intelligence cannot be measured in this way does not stop testers from doing so in millions of tests given every year.

Binet was terribly afraid his methods might be used by teachers and bureaucrats to justify creating “self-fulfilling prophecies" in children they wanted to judge as inadequate. "lt is really too easy to discover signs of backwardness in an individual when one is forewarned," he said.

...At a child-guidance clinic in a Chicago suburb, a tester and valuator said blithely that IQ is "like a gas gauge. It tells you whether the tank is half empty or half full." Nonsense. The IQ test is a bit of a fraud, and even a leader in the educational use of such tests to label kids admitted it once. Psychologist E. G. Bortng allowed that "intelligence is what intelligence tests measure," but he went on to push for their widespread use in the school.

...The IQ test is rigorously defended in American society as an absolute judge of intelligence, and parents have tended not to question its validity - even though the founder of the IQ test had more than a few questions. Of course, IQ tests must call the same children stupid that the teachers do. The IQ test would not be any use if the kids it called stupid succeeded in school and the high scorers did not. So the IQ testers, over the years, have chopped and changed the scale to coincide with teachers' judgments.

WHAT TESTS WERE FOR

From Frank Smith's Insult to Intelligence (see review, p. 15:)

It was through the testing movement that psychology gained its initial hold over education. At first, experimental psychologists needed educational data for their own research, and then test results were used to make instructional decisions concerning the placement of children and type of instruction they should receive. Educational research was almost entirely a matter of testing children, until a decade ago when a few radical researchers began looking at the ecology of classrooms and the behavior of teachers.

The systematic testing of school children that began in Britain in the early years of the present century was closely linked with an influential eugenics movement... Some of the most historic names in statistics and educational psychology were involved in both the eugenics movement and the mass assessment of schoolchildren's abilities. Germaine Greer recently documented the association in her book Sex and Destiny in which she asserts that "modern society is unique in that it is profoundly hostile to children." She points out that geneticist Francis Galton, who proposed that the state should deliberately breed its most gifted men and women to increase the genius of the race, was the first person ever to carry out a systematic examination of a school population. Galton developed methods of - mathematical analysis that are the basis of contemporarily testing statistics.

...Raymond B. Cattell, director of the Schools Psychological Clinic in Leicester, author of The Fight for Our National Intelligence... was offered an award by the Eugenics society in 1935 "for the investigation by tests of the intelligence of a typical urban and typical rural population of school children with a view to determining the average size of the family at each level of intelligence." Cattell's teacher at University College, London, was psychology professor Cyril Burt, who was knighted for his nineteen-year service as a designer of mental and scholastic tests (and subsequently discredited for faking his data). Burt was convinced that the intelligence his tests measured was inherited, and was lowest and declining in the "general population" which also tended to have more children, a fact that he was concerned "might produce serious cumulative effects if at all sustained."

It is the descendants of these tests, predominantly produced and promoted in the United States since the time of Sputnik, which underlie the efforts to evaluate constantly the learning of children today, no matter how trivial and disruptive that learning might have to be to facilitate the testing.

TESTING EXPERIENCES

NOT MEANT FOR FUN

From Susan Richman (PA):

I remember one year in high school taking an official IQ test - one of those affairs where hundreds and hundreds of students were sitting at those awful "elbow" desks spread in rows and columns in the school gymnasium, with instructions read over the loudspeaker system. I remember being pleasantly surprised, even delighted, by the test. Why, it was actually full of intriguing puzzles and brain-teasers, the sort of thing you might even choose to do on your own on a rainy day inside. Lots of visual puzzles of the type "All of these shapes are bleeps, which of the next group of shapes is not a bleep." Being a visual oriented kid, that was a delightful change from the usual verbal, read a boring paragraph and answer the three boring questions test. I was readily imagining to myself how well I must be doing, how high my IQ must be. But then somehow I happened to glance over at Michael Wolfe's answer sheet in the next row. Now, I wasn't the cheating type, and anyway he was too far away for me to actually see any of the answers he'd filled in on his computer answer sheet. What I did see that shook me was that he was at least 60 or so questions ahead of me, and I knew this kid was not as 'bright" and certainly not as flexible a thinker as I fancied myself to be. It suddenly hit me like an iron weight that the test makers had not been trying to find a way for me to have a jolly two hours in the school gym doing delightful mental acrobatics. They were testing me. They didn’t care about my almost laughing aloud when I discovered a solution to one of their problems. They cared only about right answers, and not only that, the cared only about my speed in marking those answers down on an answer sheet. I was using a bad "test taking strategy" to be taking time to savor and chuckle over some of the "good’ questions, as you could readily do curled up with a book of brainteasers at home in the rainy day scenario. This was a test scenario. I remember then feeling only stressed by the test, all sense of fun stolen.

FEELING COMFORTABLE

Sharron Lerew (PA) wrote in her family newsletter:

Dory's experience with achievement tests this year brought home to me once again my responsibility as a parent. Last year I made arrangements with the principal in the fall so that the girls would be assigned to teachers that they knew and were comfortable when it came time to take the tests in the spring. Jennifer had the 1st grade teacher she had gone to for reading the year before when she attended kindergarten, and Dory had Jenny’s old kindergarten teacher whom she knew from going with me for the two previous years when l volunteered in her classroom weekly. Achievement test week went smoothly; the girls both had good experiences and while I question the results of these tests for children taught at home I felt the girls enjoyed taking them and in the process had learned something of taking this type of test.

This year I made no early arrangements and I didn’t know what teachers the girls would have. I guess I just assumed they would handle the situation beautifully. I think also that because we have had very little contact with the school this year I was intimidated by the thought of doing anything different from what we were told to do - which was to bring our children to the school at 8:00 on Monday morning, leave them in the principal’s office, pick them up at the appointed time, and repeat this process for the next four days. Jennifer handled the situation just as I expected her to and by the second day was referring to "the way we do things in our, room." She loved every minute of it and she loved her teacher whom she had never met before.

Dory was quiet as she left me the first morning and she got quieter each day. I remember asking friends about the teacher Dory had been assigned to - she was new in the building and I didn’t know anything about her. But I wasn’t concerned enough to actually do anything. Halfway through the test time on Thursday morning, the teacher brought Dory out to where I luckily was waiting. Dory was sobbing. I barely listened to the teacher saying - that if we came back at noon she could give Dory the rest of that day's test during her lunch hour. I just wanted to get Dory out of there. Yet I tried to stay positive for Dory's sake. I knew that no matter how I hated it that realistically we would probably be going back. I remember praying for wisdom all the way home. And I remember trying very hard not to ask questions but just to be there for whatever Dory wanted to tell me. (She still hasn’t said a lot about what actually went wrong - she says she ‘was scared" and 'didn’t understand the work.')

Somehow in listening to her I felt that Dory had lost her sense of identity in that classroom and then I remembered a feeling I had gotten from the teacher when she brought Dory out that she was treating her as though she-was a little bit slow. Then it hit me - not only didn’t Dory know the teacher BUT the teacher didn’t know Dory. She didn't know that Dory was an intelligent, loving child who came from a "normal" family.

I asked Dory how she would feel if I went back in with her and we talked to the teacher together and told her a little bit about Dory and found out a little bit about her. I could see the relief in her eyes. When I asked the teacher if I could come into the room while Dory took the test, I could see her stiffen but she said it would be all right.

As we walked down the hall I began talking. I was my normal, friendly self and she responded. She found out a little about Dory and about us. And we found out that she had twin boys that were in the first grade, too. I could see the teachers feeling about Dory changing. She brought her up from a desk separated at the back of the room and sat with her to finish the test. I could also see Dory relaxing.

My mouth still dropped open when Dory announced at dinner that she was "packing her lunch," too, because she was going to stay all day on Friday. Children are able to flip-flop. So both girls ended the week with a good feeling about school.

I will not take their being able to adapt so easily for granted again next year, however. I will remember this year and as long as they have to take the tests, we will meet with their teacher beforehand.

[SS:] What a vivid illustration how strongly children need adults to be people, not abstract figures of authority. Something as simple as a brief, genuine conversation made Dory feel comfortable in a situation that a short while ago had seemed terrifying.

STAYING IN THE ROOM

From Mary Maher (MA):

A few years ago when Mandy (now 11) was scheduled to take the achievement tests, she was really nervous about being left alone with strangers. She is always uncomfortable with people she doesn't know. Her big concern is that the person may be "mean." I kept reassuring her that I would stay with her during the testing, although I wasn't really sure how I would accomplish this, as I had already been told by the principal that under no circumstances would I be allowed to stay.

The morning of the test arrived and Mandy was very nervous. I took her to the school to meet the teacher who would be administering the test. She was very sweet to Mandy and tried to put her at ease. She told us how long the tests would last and then asked me to leave. Mandy put her arms around me and began to cry. I asked the teacher if I could stay, but she said it was forbidden.

I had to think very fast as my eyes scanned the room, I saw a table and chair in the opposite corner. Without saying anything else to the teacher, I looked at Mandy and said, "See that chair over there? I'm going to sit over there and you'll be able to see me" Immediately she stopped crying and I walked over and sat down. The teacher was surprised at what I suppose she thought was my defiance, but it was really done out of a loving concern for Mandy, who only needed to know that lf she looked across the room I would be there.

The interesting thing is that there was nothing the teacher could do about my decision to stay, so she accepted it and we remained on friendly terms, which is all I we wanted in the first place. Mandy was able to do the tests, and the next time we had to go, Mandy was willing to let me leave. But this time it was her decision and she felt comfortable with it.

USING AN ORAL TEST

From Sharon Boyd (IL):

In response to the query in GWS #55 from Linda Hugdahl ("Which Tests are Best?"), we chose to have our 8-year-old daughter Branduin tested last September for the first time. We wanted an oral test because we felt that a written test would be very stress producing. We do lots of oral math, etc. at home, but we don't use workbooks or do paperwork much, and we wanted her to be on familiar ground.

I was fortunate enough to run across a woman who has a one-woman office called the learning Clinic. She is an ex-public school teacher who felt she could do more for kids by helping "on the side" (tutoring and testing, I guess). She suggested the Peabody Achievement Test, which is completely oral and is administered individually. The tester had a triangle-shaped flip board on which she flipped cards with questions of increasing difficulty. The test covers five specific areas: math, reading recognition, reading comprehension, spelling, and general information. There are just a few questions for each grade level in each category.

Branduin thoroughly enjoyed her first test, and I was very pleased too. The entire test took only about an hour, which included our informal conversation. I was there the entire time and was welcome to speak as long as I did not give answers. The testing in each category goes on until the child misses five consecutive answers. Fortunately. Brandy was tested in math first - her favorite academic subject. The woman administering the test was very interested in and supportive of our homeschooling and laughed and had a great time as Brandy, who was her first homeschooled subject, made it up to 10th grade level before she had to quit (which averaged out to a sixth grade level). That got the testing off to a fun start.

Reading is Brandy's least confident area. Because the test was oral and unpressured, she scored in the second and third grade levels in the three areas involving reading. Her score would probably have been quite a bit lower had she taken a standard written and lengthy achievement test.

I suggest that you interview, at least by telephone, the person who would be administering the test. While the test itself is not intimidating, the person giving it could be. Since the Peabody Test was so much fun for Brandy and a real ego boost, we will use it again when we feel the urge to have her tested again and will use it for our other children as they get bigger. The fee was $25.

We mailed the results to our local school superintendent. I assume they felt it was adequate and acceptable. We have not heard anything to the contrary. However, in Illinois we are not required to test, so it was our choice to send in the results. It would be wise for anyone wanting to use the Peabody Test to first ask the school officials if it is an acceptable test in your school district or state.

COMPARING TESTS

MOST OBJECTIVE

And from Jan Hunt (BC):

I worked as a psychometrist for several years in the U.S. The only intelligence test I was willing to use was the Raven Progressive Matrices (Psychological Corporation). As it was originally designed to eliminate racial or social bias, it is the most objective test available. It uses nonverbal testing, only designs, which are more enjoyable and much less stressful for the child (at least if it is untimed). I recommend this test if is really necessary to obtain an IQ, though I feel in most cases intelligence testing is unnecessary and meaningless.

GWS 57

Jacob