ERB tests??

[Anonymous]

What the heck are they? All of a sudden, my son's fourth grade teacher announced that the kids will spend all next week taking them. What are they/do they matter/should I care?

[Anonymous]

Standardized tests. Private schools use them to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their curriculum. You'll get a breakdown that shows you your DC's scores, the scores of everyone in DC's grade at the school, and then medians for national, private school, and suburban public school (IIRC) students.

It's worth noting that there's a breakdown by subsections and you see not only percentile and stanine data for cohorts, but also the absolute numbers (e.g. DC correctly answered 6 of 8 questions asked on this subtopic). Note that in some cases the subtests have so few questions and scores in some cohorts are so high that even a perfect score won't put a kid in the 90th+ percentile of a private school cohort.

[Anonymous]

Interesting to know - the ERB standard reports don’t include the stats of the kids that were allowed extra time to take the test (not sure what those kids receive). Sad, but funny, one year in my DC's class 14 kids took the exam, my DC received a report based on 2 kids. So, not only could I determine how many kids had extra time allowed, I also could determine what the other kid’s score was.

[Anonymous]

how do you prepare for them? I know that you aren't supposed to, but I am sure that some people do.

[Anonymous]

If it is your kid's first time taking a standardized test, I would just remind him to take his time, answer every question (even if guessing) and to check his math work. Otherwise there is not much else to do to prepare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:how do you prepare for them? I know that you aren't supposed to, but I am sure that some people do.

At our school, ERBs were used only for curriculum evaluation. So, there’s no need to prepare your DC because it doesn’t effect the individual child. However, if your DC has never taken a bubble test (which mine hadn’t), I’d practice bubble tests. PP is correct, for ERBs, wrong verses blank answers are scored the same, so instruct DC to fill in answers that weren't finished.

[Anonymous]

Well, but if it's for curriculum evaluation only and doesn't affect the individual child, then filling in bubbles for unanswered questions is counter-productive.

Guessing may make sense, but random filling in does not.

[Anonymous]

Are there any ERB tutoring centers in the Bethesda area?

[Anonymous]

No, but I hear there's a franchise out of NYC looking to expand into the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, but if it's for curriculum evaluation only and doesn't affect the individual child, then filling in bubbles for unanswered questions is counter-productive.

Guessing may make sense, but random filling in does not.

9:12 here, PP, I see your point in the fact that it may result in false correct answers. However, 1) I viewed the strategy as teaching my DCs test taking techniques in what is the beginning of a long line of standardized tests (it’s opposite of the SSATs, SATs); 2) all of the kids are using the same strategy (my kids were instructed by their school to fill in the unfinished answers), so although it may result in false corrects, all of the kids are on the same playing field; and 3) the kids do talk about their scores, so ultimately you want your child to do the best and feel good about themselves. Lastly, believe it or not, parents will call you and ask for your child’s score!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any ERB tutoring centers in the Bethesda area?

There's a place called Superior ERB (SUPERB) Testing Prep just off Wisconsin if memory serves. It's been a while, but we used them for DC and were quite pleased with how we improved our scores from 3rd to 4th grade. It was a really stressful year for all of us (I lived in constant fear other parents would deduce that DC had done so poorly in 3rd grade), and the countless practice tests nearly drove DC to tears, but in the end we scored better and I was able to share with everyone in my social circle how brilliant DC is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any ERB tutoring centers in the Bethesda area?

There's a place called Superior ERB (SUPERB) Testing Prep just off Wisconsin if memory serves. It's been a while, but we used them for DC and were quite pleased with how we improved our scores from 3rd to 4th grade. It was a really stressful year for all of us (I lived in constant fear other parents would deduce that DC had done so poorly in 3rd grade), and the countless practice tests nearly drove DC to tears, but in the end we scored better and I was able to share with everyone in my social circle how brilliant DC is.

Too funny!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any ERB tutoring centers in the Bethesda area?

There's a place called Superior ERB (SUPERB) Testing Prep just off Wisconsin if memory serves. It's been a while, but we used them for DC and were quite pleased with how we improved our scores from 3rd to 4th grade. It was a really stressful year for all of us (I lived in constant fear other parents would deduce that DC had done so poorly in 3rd grade), and the countless practice tests nearly drove DC to tears, but in the end we scored better and I was able to share with everyone in my social circle how brilliant DC is.

Too funny!!

Funny. When parents (and even grandparents) asked me I just said "I have four kids, the scores just blur together".

[Anonymous]

The ERB's are relatively meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Please do not even think of "prepping" or tutoring for ERBs, besides how to fill in a bubble. Let this be your kids relatively low stress introduction to standardized testing (and thank God you are in private school, and only have to do this once a year at most and it is not "high stakes" for anything.

There is plenty of time to worry about "real" tests eventually like SSATs if not in a K-12 school, PSATs, SATs APs

The ERB's can perhaps help you get an idea by later elementary school whether your kid is a natural at test taking or whether the process/structure/stress is going to be an issue going forward. But my kids ERBs jumped around a huge amount from year to year (I think based on how bored/tired/annoyed she was at taking them, whether a cute boy was next to her, whether she had a soccer game that evening she was thinking about instead, who knows the mind of 8-12 year olds).

The only possible difference for anything the ERBs could make is that kids that score very high on them are referred to the Hopkins gifted and talented program (can't remember what it is called now), but all it means is the kid is then invited to take one of their tests (for more money!) to see if "qualify" for their program-then pay more money to participate in the weekend or summer classes. I got the impression that a huge number of kids at my two kids big 3 school got invited to participate, some parents did pay for all the testing just to see "how smart" their kid is but didn't participate (seemed a waste of time and money to us) and our kids were getting plenty stimulated overall in their own schools, so the thought of driving to Baltimore or wherever on weekends for more school did not appeal (and they wanted time for athletics and music). Some kids did participate in the programs and found them quite good, but has to be for a kid that wants to be inside and sitting at desks for "fun", the kids that did it were kids that did not do really many other extracurricular activities, and I suspect appeals more for kids perhaps at less stimulating school environments to be around other really academic kids in a different setting-so not really as important/enriching for kids from top DC area private or public schools.