Education Experience Unlocked: Interpreting Assessment Scores

Testing season is upon us (more so on our children)! Depending on your county, your child is taking some combination of NWEA, Dibels, FAST, iReady, etc. It is important to understand what exactly these assessments intend to assess, as well as how to interpret the results based on your child and not just on a proficiency scale.

As we likely all can agree, not all assessments are created equal. When it comes to adaptive assessments, like NWEA and iReady, you can expect to see your child’s progress over time. From an educator perspective, I always focused on student’s individual growth as it related to standards more than I focused on proficiency. I aimed for all to be proficient, however, some students have significant gaps and meeting proficiency can take several years! For those students, sitting to discuss data and constantly being told about reaching proficiency may cause them to feel discouraged and shut down, which is not helpful to their progress. On the contrary, setting goals related to their individual abilities allows opportunity for them to experience pride when their goal is met or exceeded. This may seem counterintuitive, but allow me to elaborate. I believe that when a student is engaged and empowered on their educational journey, they will experience higher achievement. This achievement may not always correlate directly with the assessment they will take, as all learners progress and process at different rates.

My job, first and foremost, in the classroom was to ensure that my instruction met the needs of each student in my classroom. As a result of this, I also must scaffold instruction and provide additional support to keep students motivated in their growth. This is easier said than done, particularly depending on the number of students in a teacher’s class. So, once we have the results of the assessments kids have taken, what do we do with that information?

First, discuss the results with your child. Ask them how they felt while taking the assessment, what they felt they did well on, and what they struggled with. Discuss what growth looks like for them as they move forward after the assessment. In some cases, students may say they feel they aren’t getting everything they need from the lessons presented in class or that they need more practice activities. Others may say they’re distracted or anxious during the assessment and it has impacted their score. Whatever their answer, reassure them that you are part of their problem solving team, and that you believe they can grow and succeed. This may sound odd and you may be thinking, ok duh, why wouldn’t I do this? I hear you. However, as a parent I know that there are times when my child’s interpretation of a conversation does not align with my intentions. As they’ve grown older, the conversation has shifted to the choices they make related to education, and the positive and negative consequences associated with each potential outcome. I am not advocating for a lack of expectations. I am advocating for reasonable, age appropriate expectations, and ensuring that the back end conversations provide kids with the skills they need to analyze a situation and make their best decision.

Once you’ve had the discussion, discuss goal setting. This may require you to reach out to the teacher and determine how you will know if growth is happening from one assessment type to the next. For example, iReady provides growth goals within the platform, and for students who are behind, it provides a stretch goal. This stretch growth goal is important to closing gaps! If a student was to only reach their typical growth goal for that school year, they would essentially carry with them a gap to the following year. By goal setting toward the stretch growth goal, the gaps begin to narrow whereby allowing the student to be “caught up” after several years. This is just one example of leveraging the results to achieve success. Without knowing what each of the goals set mean, neither students or families can accurately determine steps to reach those goals. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification of score reports you receive. Ask questions like, what number of points/levels should I expect to see for appropriate progress? What specific skills are areas of strength and how can we use those to encourage continued growth? What areas are in need of support, and what strategies work well with my child in class?

This is where I tend to play devil’s advocate a bit. You see, for me, I love when parents want to understand the assessments, what is being assessed and what the scores really tell us in detail. I can’t say that every teacher is really able to explain at the level of detail that’s needed, however. This is due to a number of factors such as lack of adequate training or exposure to the assessment results. All of that to say, keep asking until you receive an answer that makes sense. When you as the parent can align your understanding to the report, you can begin to leverage time and effort to the most critical areas.

Finally, celebrate the small wins. Especially when you have a child who may be struggling, take time to acknowledge when their hard work pays off. Sometimes life gets so busy that the small things trickle through the cracks. Use those moments to encourage and empower your child. They may be feeling like that effort wasn’t enough, and they need validation from you, as their parent and first teacher, to know that they are seen and their efforts do matter. When the next round of assessments roll around, take time to recognize their progress, even if they aren’t yet proficient. Proficiency just compares them to the standards, not to their own unique path. Have questions or ideas to share? Drop them in the comments, we love to hear from you!