What a Difference a Year Makes
Last evening I went to report card night at school while Ping took Cici to the orthodontist. In addition to Cici's report card, I received her standardized test results from last October. This is going to be brutal, I thought, because I knew how difficult it was for her the previous year. But I was wrong. The advances she made in a year were amazing to me.
The first standardized test she took was just a few months after she arrived in America. I wasn't surprised to see that her English score was only in the 6th percentile nationwide. In a single year of studying in America, though, she sprang from near the bottom to the 56th percentile. Wow, I thought, this is a quantum leap to be making in one year.
The jump in math was less dramatic, but she didn't start as low. The only reason it was low at all was because of her inability to read and understand the word problems. Nevertheless, she moved from the 52nd percentile to the 93rd percentile.
Science was somewhat like math, so the move was from the 61st percentile to the 93rd percentile.
This test result moved her dramatically upward in the projected ACT score as well, though still not where she wants to be. It projects a score in the 17 to 21 range, but the computer has no idea what is happening with our daughter. The computer assumes that she has pretty much reached her skill level, and it expects little change from this point forward. The computer is wrong; Cici has only gotten started.
I was talking with Cici about this last night and she agrees with me. It is as though someone flipped a switch during this school year, and her ability to read and understand English took a dramatic step forward. She pulled out the Honors chemistry test she had received back yesterday and handed it to me. Her score was a perfect 100. I started reading the questions, and they were quite difficult. Cici, you could not have understood these questions last year, I told her. I know, Papa, she said, but now it is easy for me.
I was one of the few parents who showed up at report card night last night. Usually there are a lot of parents there. I wonder why so few people came, I said to one of the teachers. I think that at this point in the school year they believe there is nothing they can do to change how their child is performing, he responded.
That is odd, I thought, because every day Cici and I are focused on improving her performance in her classes. We believe we can move her standardized test scores even higher, and not just by a point or two. We believe we can move her into the 21 to 25 range for her projected ACT score on the standardized test she will take this fall, which is the level for getting into colleges like the University of Texas.
And now, with her new level of confidence, Cici is raising her hand and answering questions -- in English class! Her English teacher told me this last evening. Yes, a determined child can learn a lot in a year. She has done me proud.
The first standardized test she took was just a few months after she arrived in America. I wasn't surprised to see that her English score was only in the 6th percentile nationwide. In a single year of studying in America, though, she sprang from near the bottom to the 56th percentile. Wow, I thought, this is a quantum leap to be making in one year.
The jump in math was less dramatic, but she didn't start as low. The only reason it was low at all was because of her inability to read and understand the word problems. Nevertheless, she moved from the 52nd percentile to the 93rd percentile.
Science was somewhat like math, so the move was from the 61st percentile to the 93rd percentile.
This test result moved her dramatically upward in the projected ACT score as well, though still not where she wants to be. It projects a score in the 17 to 21 range, but the computer has no idea what is happening with our daughter. The computer assumes that she has pretty much reached her skill level, and it expects little change from this point forward. The computer is wrong; Cici has only gotten started.
I was talking with Cici about this last night and she agrees with me. It is as though someone flipped a switch during this school year, and her ability to read and understand English took a dramatic step forward. She pulled out the Honors chemistry test she had received back yesterday and handed it to me. Her score was a perfect 100. I started reading the questions, and they were quite difficult. Cici, you could not have understood these questions last year, I told her. I know, Papa, she said, but now it is easy for me.
I was one of the few parents who showed up at report card night last night. Usually there are a lot of parents there. I wonder why so few people came, I said to one of the teachers. I think that at this point in the school year they believe there is nothing they can do to change how their child is performing, he responded.
That is odd, I thought, because every day Cici and I are focused on improving her performance in her classes. We believe we can move her standardized test scores even higher, and not just by a point or two. We believe we can move her into the 21 to 25 range for her projected ACT score on the standardized test she will take this fall, which is the level for getting into colleges like the University of Texas.
And now, with her new level of confidence, Cici is raising her hand and answering questions -- in English class! Her English teacher told me this last evening. Yes, a determined child can learn a lot in a year. She has done me proud.
Big congratulations for Angela!
I'm not familiar with the score range for the ACT, could you go into that a bit more?
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Okay Smitty, here is the way they show the ACT:
Open Colleges - Typical Scores: 16 to 21
Traditional Colleges - Typical Scores: 18 to 24
Selective Colleges - Typical Scores: 21 to 26
Highly Selective Colleges: 25 to 30
So right now Cici's predicted range of 17 to 21 could reach the selective colleges if she scored at the upper end of her range, but we know she will go even higher in another year and should fit comfortably in that 21 to 26 range, which would be the sweet spot for selective colleges. Again, though, if she hit the upper end of that range she would be in the lower end of the highly selective colleges.
At one time I thought that being Chinese might give her an edge in the college admissions process, but I no longer think that is true. There is a very large percentage of Asian students in colleges, highly disproportionate to the general population, so she may be viewed as "just one more Asian" applicant.
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