In a few years I will send to college one more kid who is now a middle schooler. I hope to help him fully develop/realize his potential in the meantime so he will fall into a good fit college. But being in an average school district in the flyover country I am not certain what his potential is. How can I find that out? I have no interest in subjecting him to long standard tests, e.g., SAT/PSAT/SSAT.
I googled and my first hit was a functional assessment of short test (FAST), only 6 min long, many countries use it, but for bipolar disorder, not for a normal kid. Instead of googling more, I suspect that on CC there are many experts, educators, and experienced parents who’ve helped their students/kids, started way younger than mine, into the best fit colleges. So you may some short assessment instruments or secret rule of thumb to share. I am interested in evaluating many areas, academic or nonacademic alike, and sub-areas, e.g., if math, strengths and weakness in algebra, geometry, logic, or what have you.
In middle school, it is generally too early to be looking at college choices. Of course, general stuff like making sure that the student is correctly placed in academic courses in middle and high school is important. As a parent, you want to use the time between now and when s/he goes to college to make sure that your financial plan is sufficient to afford a range of possible colleges.
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by finding out his potential. As his parent you probably already have an idea of his strengths and weaknesses. What does he do well at in school? What do his teachers say? What does he say? And I think it’s important to look at what he chooses to do in his free time. Also, don’t you have other standardized test scores? Many schools are testing every year. Our middle school used the MAP tests as well as state required subject tests.
I would not worry specifically about colleges. He’s only in middle school. Encourage him to try out different activities and see what he likes. You and he may both be surprised. Also encourage him to read.
If you are specifically wanting to develop math talents, see if his school has a math club or Mathcounts program he can join next year. Is he on an appropriate track for starting high school level math? Listen to what he says about math class at school–is it about right or way too easy? You can find math tests on the web from various math textbook publishers if you feel he is inappropriately placed at school. Other than that, I don’t see why you would need to test him.
Not sure what the point is now. If you think he is gifted and want some additional enrichment activities for him, then the talent searches (which do require standardized testing) are a good option. NUMATS is the Midwest program run out of Northwestern – my D2 tested through them (SAT), but you can use the results for things like CTY programs or Davidson Institute THINK.
Other than that, let him pursue his interests. Encourage him to take the most challenging classes in school that are offered for his grade.
If you are really worried about “fit”, then trying to figure out “potential” is an odd way to go about it.
The college that is the best “fit” for him will not be apparent until at least junior year. The “best” college for us in 8th grade (what a bizarre statement) will almost certainly not be what is best in 11th/12th.
Encourage him to explore interests. The best way to figure out what “strengths” and “weaknesses” are is through trial and error.
Your own school district is probably giving him umpteen standardized tests every year. Have a sit-down with his guidance counselor about those exam results. While you are there, find out which teacher is currently working toward a school counseling endorsement and needs someone to practice testing models and techniques with. Chances are that person will be delighted to administer any number of exams for free.
From your previous thread, you appear to have a “fixed” mentality - that people are born good in areas A and B and weaker in C and D, and that the goal is to maximize A and B. There is some truth in that, of course, but your job at this point is to encourage exploration and a love of learning, not to identify specific areas to hyper focus on.
Kids change. One of my kids went from showing talent and interest in area A to showing a passion for area C, which we never saw coming. This occurred between 9th and 10th grade, if I had tried to predict a good-fit college in 9th, it wouldn’t have worked.
The most relevant information in lieu of tests is grades in core courses of the middle and high school curricula. Is he on track? What are his strongest areas of interest and performance? What are his extracurricular interests and talents? Does he have the resources needed to explore and develop them?
While we recognized certain talents and interests in both kids from an early age, we didn’t steer them in the least but instead provided resources and opportunities for them. Music, art programs (beyond school), sports, etc. So one turned out to be a math-head and another an artist, these were just areas of intellectual strength and did not necessarily define what type of college they would end up going to, or even what they might major in.
Provide opportunities, resources, and encouragement for them to explore. Then climb aboard and watch them take off.
Thanks, Sue22. I sometimes look at different approaches to raising kids as akin to strategies for fertilizing roses, especially newly planted bare-root roses. Two basic approaches: Kick-in-the-Pants and Pat-on-the-Back. Some people favor fertilizing roses early to stimulate budding and growth; some favor waiting until the roses bud out, and then fertilizing.
Kids differ a lot in temperament, talent, energy, interests, sociability, etc. Some need a figurative kick-in-the-pants, and some do not or will not respond well. With our kids we found it was better to let them show interests or abilities that we might reward and help them to explore or develop. Of course we exposed them to all kinds of opportunities, and let them discover or show their talents and interests. Once they did show the talent and interests, the pat-on-the-back approach worked very well. This pat was with love, words of advice, and resources.
When my S was in middle school he attended a school with a grading scale of Exceeds, Meet, Approaches, Falls Far Below. And, since the list of standards were constantly changing, I could never put my finger on what kind of a student it was. I worried about his HS readiness and whether we needed to intervene with a tutor. On state standardized tests he’d do well in math and science and do poorly in reading. But, he seemed very “smart”. He read a lot. He talked a lot. He had a list of facts longer than I wanted to hear. There just seemed to be a disconnect and the grading scale at school was difficult to follow (think 10 - 30 standards graded on per class. A 10 page report card with just a bunch of Es, M+, M-, etc. So frustrating).
So, I took him to a neighborhood tutoring center where they do HS test prep, SAT/ACT test prep, plus class tutoring. I explained my concerns. They worked with him over the summer between 7th and 8th grades. One thing they did was give him the HS Entrance Exam (For Catholic schools) to see what he knew and how he compared to other test takers. What they concluded was that he stumbled over the multiple choice… he could figure out a way that all 4 answers could be correct. He had a terrible time choosing an answer. He hated questions like “What do you think the author meant…” He thought it was a matter of opinion.
He went to the tutor 6 - 8 times that summer and never again. I relaxed about the MS report card.
He entered HS in the top 5% of test takers that year and has been on the honors / AP track ever since. On the ACT, he did better on the Reading and English than the Math and Science (he wants to be an engineering major ).
It’s what worked for us. I wasn’t thinking about looking at colleges. Rather, I wanted to be sure we didn’t get too far before we intervened.
Those standardized tests are mostly testing reading comprehension and basic math skills. I don’t see how this is going to identify your budding archaeologist or business person or even tell you something you didn’t already know. Don’t parents have a pretty good idea where the reading and math skills are at, after all the years of grades, parent conferences, observing the child working, looking at the assignments, and the many standardized tests the school is giving? What books does the kid read and what level does he seem comfortable with? How fluent does he seem when he reads out loud? Does he breeze through the math homework and get 100% on everything or is there some struggle and some missed questions?
Fair enough. It’s possible that I got influenced by Taoism (i.e., just be?) without realizing it, and the older I get the stronger I believe that people are born unique, changeable but along the lines of his/her uniqueness. It seems what many posters above say is that he’ll show what his A/B/C/Ds are in the next few years. I’m trying to know in advance his A/B/C/Ds on a finer scale with some shorter tests if exist.
Whether to maximize A and B and/or to stretch C and D is a different issue.
This sounds like a good approach.
Our school is like that, including the yearly tests.
That’s what I think of SAT/PSAT/SSAT. Given that kids prepare for the test, comparing results may be related to comparing preparation, let alone the limited utility of such a comparison.
Yes, it is too early. All this advice is spot on, particularly @romanigypsyeyes and @Pizzagirl . Your child will change a lot and become interested in new things and lose interest in other things. The best thing to do at the moment is encourage your kid to explore interests. I have a senior, and since applying in October, she has lost interest in a couple of colleges she applied to. If you really need to keep yourself busy, you can get a college guide book and start reading about the 4000 colleges in the country, but bear in mind that guidebooks become dated too. I also have a freshman, and though I have been through the process, I won’t try to help him get a list of colleges going until he finishes tenth grade. Too much change occurs.
And as someone said above, your school system is going to subject your student to standardized testing. And if you are so concerned about your child’s future, thinking of his not taking standardized tests will limit the schools he can apply to (though more and more schools are going test optional, and who knows what the testing landscape will look like when your kid is ready to apply to college). So at present, relax. See where your child shows interests and abilities. No need to pursue aptitude or interest testing at this point. If you don’t like tests, don’t test.
Kids change, a lo,t from middle school through high school. I used to despair about my athlete/musician ever reading a book for pleasure let alone being able to write a paper. Now his favorite classes are English and Philosophy and he loves to talk, and write, about a range of topics. He grew up, and into himself. Athletics and music are still essential parts of him, but what I used to despair about as weaknesses are now, if not strengths, at least abilities.
I wouldn’t sweat it. Give your child plenty of opportunities to explore, and let them see where it takes them.
Ditto on it being much too soon. btw- your average, middle of the country HS could be far better than you realize. Iowa and Wisconsin, maybe Minnesota have usually been the top ACT scoring states- well above the national average. Most of those kids go to ordinary HS’s. Do not fear that coming from neither coast is a disadvantage.
You have a few years before your child’s college testing. I see no reason s/he can’t spend a morning doing a test like everyone else. Test scores will show high, middle or low results. The reason for these national standardized tests is to compare apples to apples. Grades of any kind alone do not tell enough of the story, no matter what format they are in. If your child has special needs and won’t be able to take tests find out what to do then.
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