BJU Press Blog

homeschool testing

4 Thoughts on Retaking Tests

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how do you feel about retaking tests?
I looked at my daughter’s spelling test in disbelief. She had failed it. She had never failed anything before, so the fact that she had missed almost half her spelling words was a bit of a shock. And I was now faced with a question I had never faced before in my homeschool: was retaking tests the way to go?

Retaking tests is something that I, as a homeschool mom, have the liberty to allow. But is it a good practice? Here are some considerations.

  • I want my child to master the content being taught.

Tests really have one main purpose—to help me as a mom know if my child is learning what he or she is supposed to learn. A failed test is not something that I can ignore because it means that my daughter didn’t learn the content. She needs to learn that content, and I need a way to assess whether she learned it. Allowing her to retake tests is one of several ways for me to verify that she has truly mastered the material. But some other concerns come into play.

  • I want my child to learn academic diligence.

We as humans have a sinful bent toward laziness. I know I do. That’s why the book of Proverbs spends so much time encouraging us to be diligent. It tells us that the diligent will “have plenty of bread,” “will rule,” and “will be made fat [or rich].” In contrast, the lazy person “craves and gets nothing” and “will be put to forced labor.” I want my daughter to learn diligence in all areas of life—including her schoolwork—but if she knows that she can retake a test whenever she receives a poor grade, she will be less likely to be diligent in her test preparation.

  • I want my child to learn academic honesty.

Let’s say my daughter takes a science test and earns a 60%. She then goes and studies really hard (especially the questions she knows are on the test), retakes the test, and earns a 95%. Is it honest for me to put that 95% in my gradebook? She had an unfair advantage over most students, and that 95% is not an accurate representation of her level of mastery of the material.

As a mom, I want my daughter to look good. I want her to be smart and successful. But it is more important to me that she be a woman of integrity.

  • I want my child to learn how to deal with failure.

In life, we often don’t get second chances. If we botch a job interview, we won’t likely get called back for another one. If we forget to pay our mortgage bill, our credit score is going to be affected. I want my daughter to learn from her mistakes, and she must also learn that mistakes usually have consequences. It may sound harsh, but I believe that it’s OK to let my daughter fail and face the consequences for her failure. Learning to deal with failure is an important part of the maturing process.

So what did I do about that failed test? I had my daughter review that same spelling list the next week. But I didn’t change her grade. Since that test, she’s become more diligent in her weekly test preparation—and her grades testify to her diligence. I think she learned something even more valuable than a list of tricky spelling words.

Interpreting Test Results for Your Homeschool Child

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interpreting test results
Standardized achievement testing is an important part of my homeschool. We test our children every year to see how they’re growing academically. And as I mentioned in my post “How My Family Benefited from Standardized Testing,” we’ve found that standardized testing provides a lot of other benefits too.

Nevertheless, if you’ve never tested your child before, the test result PDF you receive on your BJU Press Homeschool account may be a little intimidating. You might find yourself wondering “What does it all mean?” and “What should I do with all this information?” Let me walk you through interpreting test results so that you can understand where your child is academically and how you can best help him or her in the future.

Interpreting Test Results

Understanding Norms

It’s important to understand that your child’s test results don’t compare him or her to other current homeschool students in a particular grade. Your child’s score is a comparison to a norm group. A norm group comes from a group of students in a particular grade across the nation—from both public and private schools. These students all took the same test at a similar point in their academic year.

However, keep in mind that the Stanford Achievement Test was recently re-normed so that your child is being compared only to students who attended private schools. This means that the average score on the current Stanford Achievement Test is going to be quite high.

National Percentage Rank (NPR)

If you are using The Iowa Test® (the test that my family uses), you will probably notice right away the national percentile rank (NPR) score for each subtest on the first page. The NPR score indicates the percentage of students who scored lower than your child. For example, if your child had a NPR rank of 89 in Social Studies, that would mean that your child did better than 89 percent of students who took that same Social Studies subtest. Since NPR rankings above 75 are considered above average, an 89 would be a very good score. Scores ranging from 25 to 74 are considered in the average range, and scores 24 and lower are considered below average.

So—hypothetically speaking—if your child scored an NPR of 92 on the Math Total, you could be very confident of his or her readiness to tackle some more advanced math concepts. But if he or she scored a 32, you would probably want to note the weak areas and possibly slow down on (or even re-teach) some of those more difficult concepts before moving on.

National Stanines (NS)

The single-digit numbers that you see on your test results are national stanines. Stanines are another way to communicate where your child is in relationship to the average. An NS score of 5 is average. Scores between 6 and 9 are considered above average, and scores 1 through 4 are considered below average.

Grade Equivalent (GE)

The grade equivalent score is perhaps the most confusing and the most often misinterpreted score in your achievement test results. What does it mean if your third grader has a GE of 8.7 in reading? It doesn’t mean that your student is ready for eighth grade work. And it also doesn’t mean that your third grader is reading at an eighth grade level. It only means that your child did as well on this particular test as an eighth grader would.  High GE scores can be confidence boosters—they indicate that your child has mastered the material on the test. They don’t indicate what grade your child should be in.

Drilling Down to Spot Weak Areas

When you look at your achievement test results, you will want to look deeper than just composite scores. Be sure to check the breakdown of scores for each subtest to see if there are any problem areas. For example, let’s pretend that your child has a composite math score of 88 (a great  score), but when you dig deeper into the report, you notice that the geometry score was actually only a 29. This is valuable information—now you know that your child probably needs some extra practice with those geometry concepts.

If you don’t understand what some of those breakdown categories are, or if you need some ideas for how to strengthen some of those areas your child is weak in, please call BJU Press Testing & Evaluation. They have some awesome, very knowledgeable staff members who would love to talk with you.  You can also explore the various achievement tests they offer through Testing & Evaluation.

Take the Stress out of Standardized Testing

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standardized testing bubble sheet
Standardized Testing can be stressful.

It’s cool in homeschooling circles to hate standardized testing. Since the No Child Left Behind Act was passed, standardized testing has had a huge impact on public schools. Many parents and classroom teachers alike have pushed back. Their distaste for standardized testing has reached into the homeschool movement as well.

Of course, there are legitimate concerns about the overuse of these “bubble tests.” They can’t tell everything about a child or a teacher, but government bureaucracy relies on the scores to judge both. And that leads to one of the biggest problems with big government testing—it’s creating what’s called high-stakes testing.

High-Stakes Testing

Standardized tests have far-reaching implications for the test-takers. Your score on a high-stakes test might determine if you pass a course or if you get into medical school. Preparing for such tests becomes all-consuming for a student and introduces copious amounts of stress into the test-taking  experience.

Low-Stakes Testing

In contrast, low-stakes tests have limited impact on the test-takers. Such a test contributes to determining a student’s grade or placement, but the test is only one small part of the grade or one factor among several. Think of a yearlong course with fifteen tests. Each test matters, but none of them is a make-or-break situation by itself. If you fail one test, you can make up ground later on. These tests place some pressure on a child but not overwhelming stress.

No-Stakes Testing

What kind of test would have little to no impact on the test-taker? That’s the case when the results are only for the parents’ benefit or to set the child up for what he or she is going to learn next. One example would be a pre-test you give your child over what you plan to teach, but there is no grade on the test. This test puts no pressure on the child to perform at a certain level but informs you about what your child needs help with since the results provide clear insight into the child’s knowledge and skill level.

Removing the Stakes

The key to successfully using standardized testing is to remove the stakes. Make sure your children know that these tests won’t determine their grades or whether they go on to the next grade. Let them know that they should do their best because you want to know how great they’re doing. But also tell them that their results won’t change how proud you are of them.

As a homeschooler growing up, I was tested in our homeschool group every year; my mom made sure of that. But she always told me to do my best and not to worry about the results. I knew she used the results somehow, and I thought it was to determine what grade I would be in the next year.

Then the day I finished third-grade standardized testing, as I climbed into our white minivan, I glanced in the front seat. There I saw a bag containing all my fourth-grade curriculum. “Mom!” I said. “How do you know how I did on my tests? I just finished!”

My mom explained to me that my standardized tests didn’t determine what grade I was going into. She already knew I was ready for the next grade.

That experience changed my view of testing. I knew that my academic career didn’t hinge on the test.

Homeschool families test for a variety of reasons. You may test because you find it provides valuable feedback. Or perhaps you have to test because you live in one of the twenty-two states that require it. In any case, consider eliminating the stakes.

Two Questions

This advice raises two questions, which we’ll address in upcoming blog posts. First, if there aren’t any stakes, why test? So in our next post, my wife will talk about some benefits we’ve seen through testing our daughters.

The second question that arises is how to remove the stakes and make mind-numbing bubble-filling tests fun. Jenna will post six tips on how to make standardized testing enjoyable for children.