The New Year Is the Perfect Time to...
Test Your Children

The New Year- time to hang unmarked calendars, make resolutions and revel in the feeling that we can start over.

While it does feel as though our collective slates have been wiped clean, let's not forget that our children are smack in the middle of the academic school year. Are they making adequate progress? Will they be ready for the next grade?

January is the ideal time to answer these questions.

Most learning is cumulative, meaning that we must master today's lesson to be able to learn tomorrow's. As anybody who has missed only a few days of school can attest, it is easy to feel completely "lost," and it may take weeks to catch up to the rest of the class. Imagine being months (or years) behind in reading or math- you may never make up lost ground.

Parents, don't wait for a disappointing report card or low test scores- find out NOW if your child is on target in both reading and math.

If your child has been receiving tutoring help, you still need to make certain that progress is being made. You can easily find out the most important information by testing your child yourself.

1. Reading Tests

Educators have created test (assessments) to tell us if key skills are being mastered throughout the year. Depending on your child's grade level, there are a number of reading tests you can administer. At a minimum, every child needs to be given a fluency test to measure reading speed and accuracy.

A student's fluency rate should steadily increase throughout the school year. For example, at the beginning of the school year, the average 2nd grade student reads about 53 correct words per minute (CWPM); after three months, one would expect that number to have increased to 70 CWPM. With a little instruction, most parents find fluency tests easy to administer.

For more information about reading assessments, check out my book, Tutor Your Child to Reading Success or ask your child's teacher for grade-level tests.

2. Math Tests

There are also simple math assessments that will tell you if your child is making steady progress in the following areas: number sense and operations, mathematical reasoning, statistics, geometry and algebra. Start here for good, grade-level math tests.

Once you have tested your child in reading and math, you can either (hopefully) relax for a while or devise a plan for the rest of the school year. Your child's teacher and/or tutor should be doing their own assessments as well. By all means, talk to them, share your feelings, compare notes!

You want as many people as possible working on your child's academic success, but as the parent, you are the most important member of the academic team.Don't wait for others to tell you how your child is doing. It doesn't matter if you have a feeling that things aren't going well, you are certain that your child is floundering, or you think everything is Just Fine.

Do basic reading and math assessments for a great second half of the school year!

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