Coaching and Test Scores

Earlier in my teaching career, I worked for a large K-6 public elementary school in a large public district. This school was located in a mostly upper income neighborhood. And one year the norm-reference test scores for our school were below what was expected for the income level of the neighborhood.

We had an assistant superintendent from a different large public school district come to speak at one of the classes I was taking for my state administrative certification. In the middle of his talk he mentioned that often parents would call and say “how do I find your best schools?” He said he wanted to say to these parents “how much house can you afford?” Continuing, he explained that statistically scores went up as the different schools income levels rose. If school “A” had an average of $50,000 a year in per family income, their scores were significantly less than school “B” which averaged $100,000.

Returning to the elementary school I was at, by the time the next norm-referenced test was taken the next year, we raised our scores to the district’s satisfaction – meaning our income level. How did we do it? The school invested money in a practice test which would familiarize our students with the test. Nothing changed as far as instruction, class sizes or instructional materials. All we did was familiarize our students with the test by using a practice test just before the real test.

This thought goes along with the recent news of a study released by the National Association for College Admission Counseling which found that test-preparation courses for the SAT and ACT may not help as much as advertised.

The Wall Street Journal also reported on Wednesday, May 20th that the group which oversees the SAT, CollegeBoard, recommends familiarity with the SAT to give the biggest boost for short-term gains for students. There are practice tests on the CollegeBoard site for a small fee which can provide this familiarity for a student.

Caution is the word when looking for ways to support your child in preparing him or her for those college-entrance exams.