FAQ for Parents: Scantron's Performance Series

What is the Difference Between an Achievement Test and an Ability Test?

Wilmette uses multiple measures to assess the achievement and ability of your child. Day-to- day teacher assessments, combined with information from standardized tests, offer a comprehensive picture of each child’s individual progress. These standardized tests fall into two distinct categories: achievement tests and ability tests.

Achievement tests measure skills and knowledge that students have acquired in specific content areas. Both the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments and the Performance Series Reading and Math Tests are classified as Achievement Tests. They measure individual student achievement with respect to the Illinois Learning Standards. The Illinois Learning Standards (available at http://www.isbe.net/ils/Default.htm define a core of essential knowledge and skills that Illinois public school students are expected to know and be able to do at each grade level.

Information from achievement tests provides parents, teachers, and administrators with information about each student’s academic progress. Teachers and administrators also use this information to inform instructional practices and to make curricular decisions at each grade level.

Ability tests measure individual cognitive ability and reasoning skills that are not explicitly taught and are not specific to any particular content area. Wilmette District 39 uses the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) at grades 5 to measure each child’s potential to succeed in school-related tasks. Scores are measured as verbal (verbal classification, sentence completion, and verbal analogies), quantitative (quantitative relations, number series, and equation building), and non-verbal (figure classification, figure analogies, and figure analysis). The CogAT is not used to indicate the need for curricular modification or change in instructional practices.


How is this test different?
Performance Series is a computer-adaptive test, which means that the computer adapts to your child’s individual level based on his or her responses to multiple questions. Computer-adaptive tests challenge students when appropriate, and do not waste student time by giving them questions that are too difficult. By using a computer-adaptive test like Performance Series, as opposed to a paper and pencil test like the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, we are able to see a more accurate picture of each student’s individual achievement and knowledge of the standards over the course of the year.

Tests like the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments provide a single snapshot of a student’s achievement with results reported once a year. Performance Series is administered in fall and winter in grades 3-7 and in grade 2 fall, winter, and spring. Results from each administration of Performance Series are available immediately and can be used to target instruction based on a student’s strengths and weaknesses.

The Performance Series tests are flexible in their administration. Traditional standardized achievement tests are timed tests, usually administered in 40-50 minute blocks of time. Students are often constrained by the limits of a timed test and have a heightened sense of stress during these testing sessions. Performance Series is not timed, thereby allowing each student to work at his or her own pace, to stop and start as needed, and to make up the test if he or she is absent.

When does my child take each test?
The testing sessions are scheduled at each individual school according to computer availability (laptop carts and lab times) and the number of students taking the test at each grade level (this varies at each school). Teachers may give the reading and math tests at their discretion (during their scheduled block of time), and students may begin one test after finishing the previous test. Tests are generally given in two separate testing sessions (math and reading) and each test generally takes about 40-50 minutes for students to complete. At Wilmette Junior High School, a special schedule is set up so that all students are tested over a four-day period.

If my child answers a question incorrectly, does the test just stop there to determine his proficiency level/scaled score?
No. The computer-adaptive nature of the test gives your child multiple opportunities to answer higher-level questions in an effort to determine that student’s achievement level. Think of it like negotiating the price of a car: The dealer posts a price on a vehicle and the buyer offers to pay a much lower price. The two parties trade offers back and forth until a sale price is eventually agreed upon. Performance Series works in much the same way, giving multiple questions at higher and lower levels as it narrows in on that student’s appropriate proficiency level.

What if there is irregularity in the testing?
Performance Series provides a retesting option in the case of some irregularity in the testing. If, for example, a student records all "Bs" during the testing session, it triggers the program to signal the teacher or test administrator that there was irregularity in that testing session (meaning that it “spoils” the test). If an irregularity is noted, the student is then asked to retake that test.

How are national percentile rankings helpful?
National Percentile Rankings help to compare District 39 students to students across the country. Scantron’s Performance Series tests’ NPR norms were established from test results from students in all 50 states. You can think of the NPR in terms of quartiles or fourths. The bottom quartile would be the 25th percentile and below, the second quartile 26th to 50th percentile, the third quartile would include the 51st to 75th percentile, and the top quartile would be 76th percentile and above. On average, students in District 39 who are performing at the district average scaled score attain an NPR of the 70th percentile or above meaning that our district average is in or near the top quartile for the nation.

I noticed that my child’s scaled score went down. Why did this happen and should I be concerned?
There are many factors that could account for a dip in the scaled score. The information that is most meaningful is the growth. Currently in development is a new study to indicate expected growth ranges for fall to winter testing for each grade level.

Keep in mind that Performance Series is only ONE measure that the district and teachers use to get a full picture of each child’s achievement. As with any test, students can have many unforeseen circumstances arise during the testing session or on the testing day. Students may not feel well, may need to take a break due to other stresses in their lives, or may just have had a bad day. This is why we use many different assessments to look at a child’s overall performance. If there are questions or concerns, classroom teachers know that your child’s performance in the classroom on a day-to-day basis better than any test can measure, so please discuss any concerns with your child’s teacher.