iReady score went down from fall to winter--what's going on?

[Anonymous]

I would not read too much into iReady scores, as there is a lot of variability based on how a kid happens to feel on a particular day. As it so happens, my kids' highest iReady scores were when they went back to in-person learning at their schools. After a year of in-person learning, their scores actually dropped pretty meaningfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted above about a 2e kid who sometimes can't be bothered to try on iReady, so scores are all over the place, and I don't assign any value to them for that kid anymore.

I also have a neurotypical and bright kid, and she scores better on a relative percentage basis in the fall than in the winter or spring. I think it's because we supplement over the summer with AoPS and reading (maybe 30 minutes of AoPS plus 30 minutes of reading every weekday). A better curriculum plus one-on-one help from an adult (me) wins out over whatever instruction she gets in the school year.

OP here. Is she in AAP as well? I am not surprised that a bit of AoPS and reading at home each day goes a long way vs school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is this already posted on ParentVue for you??

Yes, but it was not where I was expecting it. It was under 'documents' when usually it is under 'tests'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would not read too much into iReady scores, as there is a lot of variability based on how a kid happens to feel on a particular day. As it so happens, my kids' highest iReady scores were when they went back to in-person learning at their schools. After a year of in-person learning, their scores actually dropped pretty meaningfully.

Interesting. Do you think it was because when they were home you were assisting more with learning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not read too much into iReady scores, as there is a lot of variability based on how a kid happens to feel on a particular day. As it so happens, my kids' highest iReady scores were when they went back to in-person learning at their schools. After a year of in-person learning, their scores actually dropped pretty meaningfully.

Interesting. Do you think it was because when they were home you were assisting more with learning?

Same. Kids whose parents supplemented at home didn't not have the "learning loss" attributed to the pandemic. (I think that's where a lot of the "equity" push came from.). Children who were supported learned to read chapter books in preschool, soared in math during, etc. But there will be gaps in other areas unless there was a concerted effort to follow the FCPS curriculum. Those are not nearly as important as a good head start in reaching and math though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not read too much into iReady scores, as there is a lot of variability based on how a kid happens to feel on a particular day. As it so happens, my kids' highest iReady scores were when they went back to in-person learning at their schools. After a year of in-person learning, their scores actually dropped pretty meaningfully.

Interesting. Do you think it was because when they were home you were assisting more with learning?

Same. Kids whose parents supplemented at home didn't not have the "learning loss" attributed to the pandemic. (I think that's where a lot of the "equity" push came from.). Children who were supported learned to read chapter books in preschool, soared in math during, etc. But there will be gaps in other areas unless there was a concerted effort to follow the FCPS curriculum. Those are not nearly as important as a good head start in reaching and math though

Yes, I was surprised to see those gaps on the Benchmark assessments, but then I remembered DC reads fluently and I'm not worried about it. It's amazing to me how little focus there is on actual reading practice. The kids who do well are those who are being encouraged to read/do math at home.

[Anonymous]

My kids used to drop scores from fall to winter or fall to spring because our supplementing over the summer was more challenging than school during the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids used to drop scores from fall to winter or fall to spring because our supplementing over the summer was more challenging than school during the year.

Great point! But they shouldn't really regress though, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids used to drop scores from fall to winter or fall to spring because our supplementing over the summer was more challenging than school during the year.

Great point! But they shouldn't really regress though, right?

PP here and we stopped supplementing during the school year, so they legitimately would. It got better in the upper grades (4-6) of AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids used to drop scores from fall to winter or fall to spring because our supplementing over the summer was more challenging than school during the year.

Are you sure that’s why? There are many reasons why they could’ve dropped scores in that time, completely unrelated to your summer supplementing. For example, my kids frequently drop from fall to winter (although, not this year) and we do absolutely no supplementing during summer months. No idea why they drop, but they do. Maybe bc they’re oftentimes sick in winter. I have zero concerns since they’re dropping from high 90s anyway and iready is a garbage assessment tool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids used to drop scores from fall to winter or fall to spring because our supplementing over the summer was more challenging than school during the year.

Are you sure that’s why? There are many reasons why they could’ve dropped scores in that time, completely unrelated to your summer supplementing. For example, my kids frequently drop from fall to winter (although, not this year) and we do absolutely no supplementing during summer months. No idea why they drop, but they do. Maybe bc they’re oftentimes sick in winter. I have zero concerns since they’re dropping from high 90s anyway and iready is a garbage assessment tool.

I guess I'm not sure, but it was consistent enough that it was a plausible explanation.

I also had zero concerns about it. SOLs were always fine.

[Anonymous]

can someone explain the test for me? what is the highest score you can get? only were they tested with same level questions or the questions vary depending on the questions the student got right during the exam?

[Anonymous]

You really don’t need to be concerned unless it’s a major, major drop in scores. DD fluctuates with every test. This winter math was up, surprisingly and reading dropped a bit, but she’s an amazing reader and I know that she didn’t just lose her skills suddenly. So much depends on how she’s feeling that day that she took the test (especially with adhd.)

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I didn’t realize that math and reading scores were on a different number scale until this winter. I always thought DD just scored lower in math, but the reading scores actually have a higher max score than math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can someone explain the test for me? what is the highest score you can get? only were they tested with same level questions or the questions vary depending on the questions the student got right during the exam?

Use the internet to do some research on it. I recall on this forum someone said it's always the same qs, but I'm not sure if that's true.

The range of scores is not by grade level, but the percentiles are scaled to grade. So you can see from looking at the charts where your child's score would put them for higher and lower grades, which is somewhat informative.

I don't think the test is "trash". It's a data point, and better than the other totally subjective assessments that go into the AAP packet.