iready winter math score is lower than fall score - how?

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. If you were to sit and watch the kids take the test, you would see that so many of them skim the reading passages, go to the questions, and skim for answers. On the math, many don’t use paper to write anything out. They are so tired of testing and just want to get it done. The games are not exciting, but they still like them.

There is no way that these are accurate results, unless your child is a very dedicated student who wants to please adults and will put forth their best efforts.

The kids also never know their scores, so there is no motivation to beat their score. It’s an incredible waste of time.

[Anonymous]

I have never been in a meeting where a teacher said that looking at Joey’s scores shows her that he needs to review fractions. We don’t know what type of fraction questions he missed. We get very general reports.

For most kids, the teacher could tell you by October which kids are struggling with what. But, nobody would authorize extra services based on the teacher’s opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. If you were to sit and watch the kids take the test, you would see that so many of them skim the reading passages, go to the questions, and skim for answers. On the math, many don’t use paper to write anything out. They are so tired of testing and just want to get it done. The games are not exciting, but they still like them.

There is no way that these are accurate results, unless your child is a very dedicated student who wants to please adults and will put forth their best efforts.

The kids also never know their scores, so there is no motivation to beat their score. It’s an incredible waste of time.

So we teach students from a young age to blow off tests on a computer. And then we expect them to take tests on the computer such as the SOLs and later SATs etc. seriously. That doesn't make a lot of sense.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused about this test as well. My son's math score was 10 points higher in spring of last year than in January. His reading score went up between May and September and then fell. Meanwhile he had a great CogAT. Wth?!

[Anonymous]

I hate Iready. It doesn't help kids improve, just stresses them out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a long and boring test and my son has a history of rushing to play the game. They notice it the first time, so for the second assessment they slow him down and his scores shoot up. Then by the 3rd assessment they don't keep an eye on him and next thing they know he is playing the game and his scores dropped like the stock market.

How were the scores initially? Often if they are on or above level you don't see much growth and scores can evewn drop because the school focuses on bringing the low ones up.

In winter and fall they were both above grade level. He's in 5th grade AAP and in the fall his teacher said they should be above grade level beause he's doing 6th grade math and language arts. So while they were both above grade level I just don't understand it they dropped after 5 mos of school.

10 points is measurement error on this test. He might have not been feeling as well that day etc. Also if he's getting advanced instruction, he might have gotten a touch rustier on some earlier grade level concepts compared to the beginning of the year where they are focused on review. On adaptive tests you miss a question that is a lower level and it takes a long time to get back up to the higher level questions and kids are often bored in that process.

[Anonymous]

It’s unfortunate because the iready is the critical test kids take during the year. We use this for everything. Even AAP identification

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's the same test. Lots and lots of kids did worse this time around. We're a pilot school for the math lessons and they are SO sick of iReady. It's the same test as fall and it's really long (60-90 mins average) and the kids just blow it off, so it's not an accurate assessment. Franky it's a HUGE waste of instructional time and if I was a parent I'd be raising hell about how much time is wasted.

If it’s adaptive, how can it be the same?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a totally stupid assessment. Please do not put any stock in it. I swear it’s a scam. The scores are depressed so that everyone freaks out and then buys the even more stupid online “interventions.” Because that’s what kids need to be doing...spending more time on some stupid computer interventions.

We don't have the online interventions.

The students took i-Ready in the fall. They took it again this winter. That's about it. End of story.

This is about right.

ES Teacher

[Anonymous]

Yep, DC math score also went down. There’s no info to know what topic to review. Useless.

[Anonymous]

I thought FCPS only did winter iready if fall scores were low?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The scores for my kids seemed pretty accurate, and both rose by about the expected amount. Is most of the opposition to iready that people had over-inflated views of their kid's ability?

No. It's a bad test. It's way too long, it's the same test three times in the year, and it doesn't reveal useful information f'd the vast majority of kids on grade level. I could see an argument for using it for kids needing intervention but even then I think it's iffy. It's a huge, expensive, time-wasting resource suck.

Assuming you're a teacher, what are you seeing with this test? Do the results seem grossly inaccurate for your students, and if so, how? Are the scores generally too low or too high? Is your school using just the assessment part or also the intervention part? What grade level are you teaching? We have been given so little info about this test and what the results mean.

Assuming...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Devil's advocate for the test. FCPS needs someone or something external to show them the current situation is not working. I think at our school it has revealed that across the board the curriculum has gotten soft. Many kids are testing below where they should on iReady. As a parent, I think the curriculum at my kids' school is very, very weak. One of my kids picks things up super fast so he gets all of it. My other kid needs repetition, reinforcement and explicit teaching versus implicit and the school does none of those things with math or language arts. And it shows in iReady. The curriculum is weak compared to many publics across the country and iReady is given nationally so its metrics for success are national standards. FCPS is lagging way behind my friends' school districts in other areas and the iReady has shown it.

I agree completely. Even in the AAP forum, a lot of posters said that their AAP children were at or below grade level in iready. Of course, those parents still seemed to think that their kids needed to be in their own special gifted program and segregated from the gen ed kids.

It really seems like the majority of parents are pissed off about iready because they don't like seeing that their children are at or below grade level.

Bright children scoring below grade level indicates a failure of those children’s teachers to educate them.

BS. There are many reasons other than teaching kids score lower than expected. Mine flies through the test to play games when he is done.

Oh please. The games are really lame. And the teachers are notified if the kids go faster than expected.

Oh please. My first and second grader like the games especially the cat. Teachers are notified and can talk to them about rushing but they can't make your kids care,

[Anonymous]

I was just looking at the dates on this thread. It started in 2018 and each year or two the same topic is complained about. Nothing is changed. The students still take the Istupid test with poor, meaningless results that no one uses. Insanity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just looking at the dates on this thread. It started in 2018 and each year or two the same topic is complained about. Nothing is changed. The students still take the Istupid test with poor, meaningless results that no one uses. Insanity.

They are used if there's an issue. Most kids don't have an issue, but they can be very helpful when there is one.