How are your kids' fall iready scores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please understand that this test is not in line with the county’s curriculum. It is meant to be a screener. It also is a poor format for a test, because if kids get bored or accidentally hit the wrong answer and can’t fix it, it looks like they did worse than they really are capable of. I have seen so many kids just skim the screen and pick an answer to get it over with, especially they think recess time is coming and they might miss it. They won’t, but they think that. This kind of test really depends on the motivation and work habits of the kid, and especially for math, if they took the time to use scrap paper to write a problem out. Don’t panic about these scores.

If you are really concerned, ask for a parent conference and ask to see work samples of what your kid can do in class.

I’ve never seen a teacher pay much attention to these test scores, because we know it’s a poor assessment. The conscientious kids do well, and the others just click away to get done.

OK, but if the scores are drastically different county-wide this year, that says something about how the county's curriculum is performing or how poorly kids did with virtual and hybrid. Did not having teacher led instruction on Mondays hurt? If the scores are generally lower, then maybe it did. That sort of thing.

Individually it may mean squat, but at an entire district level compared to 2019 it means something.

Scores are always vastly different. Schools serving more FARMs students have lower scores in iReady and the SOLs, and probably any other screener that they might use, then schools serving fewer FARMS students. It tells us exactly what we already know, kids who come from families with money and/or educated parents do better in school then kids from poorer families and whose parents are not educated.

Kids from wealthier and or better educated families had more enrichment at home because their parents could afford to provide and/or could provide it on their own. They read to their kids, played number games with their kids, and probably found different experiences that were educational in some fashion. Their kids started kindergarten knowing their letters and numbers, probably writing or reading a bit,. They knew their shapes and colors. They probably attended a preschool and knew the basics of classroom behavior.

Kids from poorer and/or less educated families probably did not know their letters, numbers, shapes, or colors when they started Kindergarten. They probably did not know how to behave in a classroom. They start school behind the kids from wealthier families.

But we know this.

I would guess that the already existing gaps grew after last year.

The number of FARMs students did not change that much between 2019 and now. So if the whole county sees a drop in scores or an increase in kids below the intervention level, something county-wide caused a change. Maybe something like basically canceling school in spring 2020 and having only 4 days of school all last year, much of that not in the building. Maybe...

You'd need the full data to tell.

Given the wide open southern border since January 2020, the numbers of FARMS kids nationwide is skyrocketing and set to go much higher soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please understand that this test is not in line with the county’s curriculum. It is meant to be a screener. It also is a poor format for a test, because if kids get bored or accidentally hit the wrong answer and can’t fix it, it looks like they did worse than they really are capable of. I have seen so many kids just skim the screen and pick an answer to get it over with, especially they think recess time is coming and they might miss it. They won’t, but they think that. This kind of test really depends on the motivation and work habits of the kid, and especially for math, if they took the time to use scrap paper to write a problem out. Don’t panic about these scores.

If you are really concerned, ask for a parent conference and ask to see work samples of what your kid can do in class.

I’ve never seen a teacher pay much attention to these test scores, because we know it’s a poor assessment. The conscientious kids do well, and the others just click away to get done.

OK, but if the scores are drastically different county-wide this year, that says something about how the county's curriculum is performing or how poorly kids did with virtual and hybrid. Did not having teacher led instruction on Mondays hurt? If the scores are generally lower, then maybe it did. That sort of thing.

Individually it may mean squat, but at an entire district level compared to 2019 it means something.

Many kids had ZERO instruction on Mondays. Of course deleting 20% of the school year matters! And that's if you don't count starting late, all the other random days off, and how much shorter the learning time was compared to a normal year.

[Anonymous]

My AAP 5th grader scored at 65% for 5th grade math, even though his class is learning 6th grade math.

He scored at 3rd grade for reading, We have never had any indication that reading was an issue for him.

All 3s and 4s last year in fake school and never heard a peep from his teacher about any problems (but she never corrected their work, either. When I would pull up his google slides, they were full of errors that we would go over with him).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1658: grade level and school (school pyramid at least)? AAP or LI?

Grade 3. Not AAP or LI (language immersion?). I just happened to be in looking at I-Ready today for math groups.

In comparison the Reading percentiles (again, FWIW):

90th-99th percentile: 7 students
81st-89th: 6 students
60th-71st: 7 students
42nd-52nd: 4 students

Over half of the class is above the 80th percentile in a gen ed classroom? Is this in Great Falls or somewhere equally wealthy? These results are extremely atypical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1658: grade level and school (school pyramid at least)? AAP or LI?

Grade 3. Not AAP or LI (language immersion?). I just happened to be in looking at I-Ready today for math groups.

In comparison the Reading percentiles (again, FWIW):

90th-99th percentile: 7 students
81st-89th: 6 students
60th-71st: 7 students
42nd-52nd: 4 students

Over half of the class is above the 80th percentile in a gen ed classroom? Is this in Great Falls or somewhere equally wealthy? These results are extremely atypical.

I suspect that is why there was a question about AAP or language immersion, both programs tend to have higher scoring kids. I can see this distribution in a Gen Ed class in a normal year. The number in the 81-99th percentile is not shockingly high for Grade 3. This is the reading score so I can easily see half the class reading at near grade level or above grade level. The material is challenging for some kids but not that hard to grasp for kids that are above average intelligence without LDs. Reading seems to be one of those things that many kids seem to grasp and then do well in or struggle to grasp. But the questions the kids are asked are not diving into subtle details.

What is surpsing to me is the lack of kids in the 72-80th percentile and the kids in the 53rd-70th percentile. Not one kid in either band? The distribution seems wonky.

[Anonymous]

Looked up the kids' scores.

Grade 3 - 91st percentile math, 85th percentile reading. Child was in FCPS last year. We supplemented *heavily* at home, especially for math.

Grade 1 - 98th percentile math, 95th percentile reading. Child went to a private K, and we supplemented a bit.

[Anonymous]

I have a 5th grader AAP student who scored meets expectations on everything and was already at the EOY benchmark level.

I have a 4th grader in special education with dyslexia and a math learning disability who scored a mix of meets expectations and approaching expectations on both tests. Both scores were below the end of year cutoff.

Both kids passed their SOLs last year. The 5th grader with flying colors, the 4th grader barely eked out a passing score in math and passed reading somewhere in the 430s I think.

We did not supplement during virtual learning last year. But they were constantly working, even on Mondays with all their asynchronous work. I'm pretty happy with where they ended up and their scores all fit pretty well in line with their abilities and my expectations.

I'm more interested in the VGA scores and wonder when those are going to be shared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I suspect that is why there was a question about AAP or language immersion, both programs tend to have higher scoring kids. I can see this distribution in a Gen Ed class in a normal year. The number in the 81-99th percentile is not shockingly high for Grade 3.

But this is the class after the top 20% of the kids left for AAP. It's shocking to see over half of the kids in the FCPS bottom 80% still score above the 80th percentile. The PP's math distribution was not as high, but relatively similar. Unless this is an extremely wealthy school, the distributions make no sense for a gen ed 3rd grade classroom, especially after a year of pandemic schooling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1658: grade level and school (school pyramid at least)? AAP or LI?

Grade 3. Not AAP or LI (language immersion?). I just happened to be in looking at I-Ready today for math groups.

In comparison the Reading percentiles (again, FWIW):

90th-99th percentile: 7 students
81st-89th: 6 students
60th-71st: 7 students
42nd-52nd: 4 students

Over half of the class is above the 80th percentile in a gen ed classroom? Is this in Great Falls or somewhere equally wealthy? These results are extremely atypical.

I suspect that is why there was a question about AAP or language immersion, both programs tend to have higher scoring kids. I can see this distribution in a Gen Ed class in a normal year. The number in the 81-99th percentile is not shockingly high for Grade 3. This is the reading score so I can easily see half the class reading at near grade level or above grade level. The material is challenging for some kids but not that hard to grasp for kids that are above average intelligence without LDs. Reading seems to be one of those things that many kids seem to grasp and then do well in or struggle to grasp. But the questions the kids are asked are not diving into subtle details.

What is surpsing to me is the lack of kids in the 72-80th percentile and the kids in the 53rd-70th percentile. Not one kid in either band? The distribution seems wonky.

I posted the range of scores. I hadn't noticed that, so I went and double checked. For reading nobody fell between 72-80 and 53-59. Maybe it's just the luck of the draw? (Nowhere near Great Falls.) The breakdown is:

Reading: 99th, 95, 95, 91, 91, 90, 90, 89, 87, 86, 85, 81, 81, 71, 68, 68, 67, 65, 62, 60, 52, 48, 46, 42.

Math: 99, 99, 97, 95, 94, 94, 87, 84, 83, 79, 78, 75, 71, 67, 64, 59, 59, 53, 46, 42, 38, 38, 36, 29.

[Anonymous]

Not every kid leaves the Base School for the Center, especially when there is COVID happening. Last year was weird and this year was unpredictable when you had to make the decision to move kids. I can see parents at a strong base school without Level IV choosing to stay for third grade and planning to move a kid in fourth grade after things settle down, especially if the school has Advanced Math starting in third.

And if it is at a better off school you probably had enrichment at home. I know we read a lot and DS did AoPS for math.

[Anonymous]

DS (4th grade) has 565 (99%) on Math and 623 (98%) on Reading. Teacher said his math is mostly at 7th grade level, but did not comment on reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not every kid leaves the Base School for the Center, especially when there is COVID happening. Last year was weird and this year was unpredictable when you had to make the decision to move kids. I can see parents at a strong base school without Level IV choosing to stay for third grade and planning to move a kid in fourth grade after things settle down, especially if the school has Advanced Math starting in third.

And if it is at a better off school you probably had enrichment at home. I know we read a lot and DS did AoPS for math.

All of that is still indicative of a very high SES school. High SES families supplemented effectively, and their kids did not lose ground under the distance learning or even perhaps gained ground. Lower SES kids lost a full year of school, which should be reflected in the iready scores. Teacher PP's scores would only make sense for a very high SES classroom.

[Anonymous]

To make people feel better, my kid is in AAP.

below grade level in math. Approaching grade level on language arts.

Passed last year's SOL with a high pass or whatever it's called.

Son in first is way below on both. Around 28th percentile

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My AAP 5th grader scored at 65% for 5th grade math, even though his class is learning 6th grade math.

He scored at 3rd grade for reading, We have never had any indication that reading was an issue for him.

All 3s and 4s last year in fake school and never heard a peep from his teacher about any problems (but she never corrected their work, either. When I would pull up his google slides, they were full of errors that we would go over with him).

This seems to be a recurring issue. There was a long thread on here about kids in 6th AAP last year who had all great grades in math who were failing this year. A subset of teachers absolutely did not check or correct any work last year. Shame on them.

[Anonymous]

So what exactly does national norm percentile mean?