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Anne writes: "I read your article about evaluations and test scores and found it very helpful. I went into an IEP meeting thinking that I had a handle on the results of her recent evaluation - and I was really thrown for a loop.

 My daughter's Key Math test results from the Spring of 1997 and September 1998 were unchanged. I assumed this meant she made no progress.

 The school said "No change is good."

They said no change indicated that she was at the same level but since the test gets harder each year she was actually making progress. On some subtests her score dropped. I was told that this was fine because as the child gets older, expectations increase so this doesn't really mean that she is going 'backwards'.

Is this true? I am including the actual scores so you can see what I mean.

KeyMath Subtests
 Spring 
1997
Sept. 
1998 
Change
SS
%
SS
%
Basic Concepts
107
68
96
39
down 
Numeration
10
50
8
25
down
Rational Numbers
11
63
10
50
down
Geometry
13
84
8
25
down
Operations
82
12
89
23
up 
Addition
7
16
8
25
up 
Subtraction
7
16
8
25
up 
Multiplication
6
9
7
16
up 
Division
6
9
6
9
unchanged
Mental Computation
8
25
10
50
up 
Applications
106
65
113
81
up 
Measurement
11
63
11
63
unchanged
Time & Money
15
98
11
63
down 
Estimation
10
50
12
75
up
Interpreting Data 
11
63
11
63
unchanged
Problems Solving
10
50
8
25
down 
 I wanted to graph these test results but from what I was told, they are not significant. They seem significant to me. I am wondering what the real story is??

Thank you,
Anne

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