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Tracking Your Child's Achievement Using NUMATS
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. 

The Midwest Academic Talent Search (MATS) 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 MATS 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.

MATS TESTING
 Grade First Time Testers Subsequent Testers
3rd EXPLORE test for students scoring at the 97th percentile or above on a relevant subtest of a nationally normed achievement test  
4th EXPLORE test for students scoring at the 95th percentile or above on a relevant subtest of a nationally normed achievement test  
5th EXPLORE test if scoring at the 95th percentile or above on a relevant subtest of a nationally normed achievement test Re-test on EXPLORE if trying to track achievement and Explore subtest scores in grade 4 are below 15.
6th EXPLORE test for students scoring at the 95th percentile or above on a relevant subtest of a nationally normed achievement test Re-test on EXPLORE if trying to track achievement and EXPLORE scores in grade 5 were below 15
7th Take either the SAT or ACT test if scores on a relevant subtest of a recent, nationally normed achievement test were at the 97th percentile or above or EXPLORE scores were at 18 or above in the 4th or 5th grade.  
8th Re-test on EXPLORE if trying to track achievement and EXPLORE scores in grade 5 were below 15.7th grade Take either the ACT or SAT if scoring at the 95th percentile or above on a relevant subtest of a nationally normed achievement test.
Take the test not taken in grade 7 (either SAT or ACT).
9th Take SAT if testing for the first time, and scoring at the 95th percentile or above on a relevant subtest of a nationally normed achievement test. Take the ACT if not taken before and scoring at the 95th percentile or above on a relevant subtest of a nationally normed achievement test.


Note: If nationally normed achievement tests have not been taken, students can qualify through parent nomination or alternative tests.


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by Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Ph.D

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