Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Mom is Missing a Few Brain Cells

My oldest son's Stanford Achievement Test results came in the mail last week. I glanced through them and was surprised to see results equal to 6th and 7th grade results. There were two results that said "PHS."

What does "PHS" stand for, I asked the school counselor. That means the student scored "Post High School," or college level, she replied.

Oh cool, my son at least had two results in the PHS range.

When I showed David the results of his test, he said, "But Mom, that test was so easy. How could I score so low in some areas?"

I shrugged. Maybe it was a bad day--everyone has an off day, you know?

I was at my friend Beth's house over the weekend and she asked me about David's scores. She was showing me her daughter's scores and going through the papers, explaining that one of the forms was just a sample.

Uh oh.

I went home and looked more carefully at the test results. I was indeed looking at the sample results and interpreting them as David's results. The paper that I thought was simply a deaf norm comparision was actually the test results for David. He scored a "Post High School" in every catagory.

David was happy to learn that his brain cells were working fine.

Mom, however, is still trying to figure out where hers went.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

LOL! That is SOOOOO cool! love, Jodi

Anonymous said...

Would this be the SAT-HI? Hopefully your son will take either the regular SAT or ACT at the appropriate time; colleges require either (preferably both!) scores. AFAIK, Gallaudet doesn't require either score, go figure!

groovyoldlady said...

That's hilarious! I'm sure glad your friend helped you realize your error or your poor son would be facing the rest of his life feeling inadeuquate!

Unknown said...

When I see some of my kids test scores, I think to myself, I think they got my mom's brain because I don't have the "smart" in me. LOL

My mom was all honors in her school days.

Jim

Karen Putz said...

David plans to go to RIT so he'll be taking the regular SAT or ACT (I'll have to look and see what RIT requires).

Anonymous said...

You must be SO proud!!!

When I got the ITBS scores back, I emailed to all the grampas/grammas and aunts/uncles!

Dory

leah said...

LOL- I think the instant you become a mother you lose half of your brain. RIT is a great school- it's only about 3 hours from us!

Karen Putz said...

We'll come visit you!

Unknown said...

Haha, funny..it happened to me making such mistakes especially when being in hurry.

The SAT-HI in my children's school no longer uses the grade level to determine the results. Instead, they use percentile to let us know how much a child is able to answer correctly out of XXX number of questions. The reason for this can be misleading giving parents false impressions that their child actually can perform at a college level which is not really the case. This test is to compare with other Deaf and Hard of Hearing kids based on the norm. If they take regular SAT, I believe you don't see PHS as one of the results.

IMHO, it is just a flawed system how SAT-HI scores are interpreted. It was the main reason why my kids' school changed on how it should be explained to the parents. I am surprised that this is still happening since I thought it is a national level to make such changes.

The change made by my kids' school occurred two years ago. I would recommend you to ask the school if they have considered a more effective way to interpret these results.

From my understanding for the enrollment requirement at RIT, a deaf student needs to have a high school diploma and at least 14 or 15 points of ACT. I believe a regular SAT is not required. This information is received from a guidance counselor at my kids' school.

Karen Putz said...

Thanks for the helpful info, Barb!

Anonymous said...

Way to go, David! Karen, the only plausible explanation for this story is that your brain cells have gone into David's head. At least he's putting them to good use!