| What are the "Standards Set" on the order form? Which should I select? One of A+LearningLink's most powerful features is its ability to benchmark your students test results against a set of educational standards. The results report will show you which of your state's standards your student is ready to tackle next.
You MUST select a standards set on the order form. A single asterisk (*) next to a standard denotes standards sets that the test creators think may be most meaningful to homeschoolers in selected states, but it is up to you to pick the standards set that is most meaningful to you or that is required by law, if at all, in your state. There is no such thing as a national standard, but standards sets preceeded by double asterisks (**) denote standards that are used by many states, and might be a good choice for you if you aren't required to benchmark against a particular state's standards.
Here are some widely used standards you might consider using:
ITBS - Iowa Test of Basic Skills (by Riverside Publishing)
SAT - 9 - Stanford Achievement Test
Terra Nova - Harcourt Assessment |
| Can I use A+LearningLink as a "test prep" for my state's standardized test? To the extent that your state's standardized test reports results on a Lexile or Quantile scale, the A+LearningLink test is predictive of how well your student will perform on your state's test. It is not designed to be a practice test.
There is a big difference between a predictive assessment and a practice test. You can buy a "practice" book online or a Barnes and Noble for many of the National tests, such as the ITBS. That's a whole different ball game from taking a predictive scaled assessment such as A+LearningLink that tells you WHAT you need to work on to pass a standardized test. That's where A+LearningLink is valuable. It will tell you how well your student is likely to do on the ITBS (for example), what standards the student needs to learn next at a specific level for the ITBS, etc. However, it's not a "practice" test.
Also, keep in mind that your A+LearningLink tests can be taken only once (once each for the math and reading versions of the pre and post tests). Therefore, it is not a good idea to use it for practice. It is intended to give you an accurate measure of your student's Lexile and Quantile scores.
The best way to use the A+LearningLink assessment results is to use the Lexile information available at http://www.Lexile.com and the Quantile information available at http://www.Quantiles.com . |
