How to Help Your Child Prepare for Standardized Testing

Standardized testing plays a major role in today’s schooling. Your child may have to take one or more standardized tests each year and the teachers will devote a significant amount of class time to help prepare students. No matter how you feel about this controversial assessment tool, it’s important that your child does their best.

What do standardize tests measure?

Achievement tests measure subject-specific knowledge, while Aptitude tests predict your child’s ability to learn by measuring skills; such as reasoning or problem-solving. These tests can provide you and the teacher with insight about progress and identify areas for improvement, as well as help schools and districts decide where they need to focus more attention.

What are the limitations to standardized testing?

While testing companies strive to create effective evaluation tools, several factors can affect your child’s performance. The conditions in the testing room, how well the school curriculum fits the material, whether she had a good night’s sleep, and her test-taking ability can all affect the score. As a result, you may see inconsistencies between her grades and test scores. It’s best not to place too much emphasis on a single test result.

How can I help my child prepare for standardized testing?

Teachers always say that successful test-takers tend to be students with good attendance, homework, and study habits; therefore, your daily assistance with homework and attitude toward school have the biggest impact performance. However, there are key ways you can help develop their test-taking ability.

• Optimize brain power.
  Make sure your child is getting an adequate amount of sleep every night and is eating breakfast every morning.
• Encourage good study habits and challenge critical-thinking skills.
  Reviewing test-taking strategies is important, but monitoring overall academic progress and staying in good communication with the teacher will help you ward off potential problems. Good reading skills factor heavily in a timed test, so encourage reading (consider magazines, newspapers, or even comic books if he shies away from books) as much as possible. Testing also measures critical-thinking ability, so ask your child to discuss ideas and voice opinions to stimulate these thought processes.
• Know what to expect.
  Most teachers will send home information about the test schedule and class preparation plans well before the test date. However, if you don’t hear from your child’s teacher you should contact him/her and find out:
  • What is the name of the test and what will it measure?
  • What’s the format? (multiple choice, essay, short answer, etc.)
  • How will the class prepare in school?
  • How is it scored? Will students be penalized for incorrect answers or should they guess randomly when stumped on a question?
  • When will you receive the results?
  • What are the test’s implications? Will it affect your child, school, or both?
  • Are there any specific ways you can help your child prepare?

How should I interpret standardized testing results?

Because assessment varies from test to test, it would be impossible to include all the terms you may encounter here. However, the scores should be accompanied with information to help you interpret them. Do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher if you have questions or need help understanding the results. You could also talk to the PTA or school administrator about inviting a testing expert to host an information session for parents.