Tracking your child's achievement

One way parents can track children’s academic achievement is through standardized testing scores. Examples of nationally normed, grade-level achievement tests given by schools include the California Achievement Test and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Parents typically get testing reports that provide national percentiles comparing their child to other children across the US who are in the same grade and have taken the same test. The reports also break down the child's score by sub-tests, such as mathematics or language arts. Parents can compare scores from one year to the next to track their child’s progress.

Tracking the results of these grade-level tests, however, may not be as useful to parents of gifted children. Gifted children typically score at the top ("ceiling") of on-grade level achievements tests, and these tests cannot measure further growth. It is like using a yardstick to measure the height of a child who is already over three feet tall: the measuring instrument is not sufficient. For gifted children, above-grade level testing supplies more information.

Northwestern University's Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS) uses tests typically given to older children, providing a higher ceiling (i.e. a better “yardstick”) to measure growth and achievement among gifted children. The chart below will help you use NUMATS from 3rd grade through 9th grade to assess growth. We hope this information can assist you in deciding when, why, and how to test or re-test your gifted child.