What's the purpose of the Erb?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the purpose of this is for the school's own benefit (to determine teaching effectiveness, etc.), then why do they waste the time of every student to take it, rather than testing a representative sample of students?

(As a side note, I was always a good standardized-test taker and a middling student. People always thought I was lazy, but it turned out that I had a learning disability that affected my scores in subject matter tests.)

Would you be willing to share how you discovered the disability and what the solution was? Thank you.

[Anonymous]

13:19 poster here:

Over time, the disparity between my test scores (good) and regular academic performance (fair) increased. My teachers and parents could never understand this, as I appeared to (and did) work hard on my school work. Everyone thought that I was "smart," but my grades never reflected this. Eventually, someone suggested that I be tested for learning disabilities (this was mid-high-school) and it was found that I had several issues that were the cause of my less-than-stellar school performance. Ultimately, I learned some strategies for dealing with these problems as well as received some accommodations in school. My last two years in high school were quite successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:19 poster here:

Over time, the disparity between my test scores (good) and regular academic performance (fair) increased. My teachers and parents could never understand this, as I appeared to (and did) work hard on my school work. Everyone thought that I was "smart," but my grades never reflected this. Eventually, someone suggested that I be tested for learning disabilities (this was mid-high-school) and it was found that I had several issues that were the cause of my less-than-stellar school performance. Ultimately, I learned some strategies for dealing with these problems as well as received some accommodations in school. My last two years in high school were quite successful.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

I know some think it is ridiculous to prep for the ERBs, if someone still wanted to what type of prepping can you do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know some think it is ridiculous to prep for the ERBs, if someone still wanted to what type of prepping can you do?

Attend school and read books. Don't you want a true assessment? This test has no stakes. Get the accurate information about your child, and then use that if you want to supplement their education. So if the test shows a weakness in reading comprehension, get a reading comprehension workbook for the summer. Or do some logic puzzles if quantitative reasoning is lagging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know some think it is ridiculous to prep for the ERBs, if someone still wanted to what type of prepping can you do?

But...why would you want to? It's a test that has no real-world implications.

[Anonymous]

Yardstick for the school. A way to measure against peer schools and also possibly indicate effectiveness of curriculum changes. For example: school changes math curriculum, then looks at ERB (as ONE data point) over the next few years to check for changes, and if changes are present, what subskills were most affected.

Private schools are often so small that the size of a "representative sample" would cast doubt on any trends.

It can also act as an additional data point for kids that may need support. Is a kid acing ERB while performing poorly on class assignments? The opposite? There are parents who will reject teachers' opinions that a child could benefit from additional support but who will accept a pattern of poor test scores as more "objective."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yardstick for the school. A way to measure against peer schools and also possibly indicate effectiveness of curriculum changes. For example: school changes math curriculum, then looks at ERB (as ONE data point) over the next few years to check for changes, and if changes are present, what subskills were most affected.

Private schools are often so small that the size of a "representative sample" would cast doubt on any trends.

It can also act as an additional data point for kids that may need support. Is a kid acing ERB while performing poorly on class assignments? The opposite? There are parents who will reject teachers' opinions that a child could benefit from additional support but who will accept a pattern of poor test scores as more "objective."

+1