I Received My Child's NJASK Scores... Now What?

Hello Friends!

Here in New Jersey, parents should have received their child's NJASK scores withing these past two weeks.  For some of you, the letter meant a pleasant end to months of anguishing over the scores that your child earned when they took this test back in May. For others, your realize that your child is not performing at the states expectations.  And still others of you are left perplexed by how to read the score report that you received.  Sylvan is here to help you with all of those things.

Let's first begin with reading the score report and what all of the numbers mean for your child.   In New Jersey, any score at a 200 and above is considered "Proficient" and "Above Proficient" for the upper echelons of the scoring.  Any score less than or equal to 199 is considered "Partially Proficient" and students that fall within this range are often placed in a school's Basic Skills Intervention (BSI) or Academic Support Program (ASP) for that school year.  When this is the case, teachers will be assigned to help your child and any others who also scored low to boost their basic skills in either reading or math.  These classes are taught as a group and the teacher attempts to cover concepts that the group collectively had difficulty with both on the test and in class this year.  Basic Skills teachers are also called upon to teach these classes in one of two ways: In one scenario they "push in," which means they come into the classroom and teach alongside the main classroom teacher and in the second scenario, they "pull-out" which means that students are pulled from their main classroom for 20-40 minutes (depending on the school) and are provided with additional instruction while the rest of the peers carry on with the lesson in the main classroom.

Now the question is- What else can I do for my child to make sure that they 

Attain or Maintain Proficiency next school year?

• Read. Read every day yourself so your child sees you reading and continuing to learn and have them read for at least 30 minutes every day. Your local Sylvan Learning Center provides a Skills Assessment at the outset of every child's program that helps us to target specific skill weaknesses in reading, vocabulary and phonics.  Often, once skill gaps are filled in, students perform better on not only the reading portion of test, but other parts as well since now they are able to thoroughly understand all of the directions.  
• Write every day.  Encourage your child to maintain a journal at home in addition to what they may be writing at school.  Sylvan also offers an Academic Writing Program for 5th graders and up that shows students how to plan, write, revise, edit and publish a variety of essays.  This not only aids them in writing for everyday assignments, but also for the writing portion of the NJASK.
• Practice basic facts.  There are many resources available for this, including a Sylvan Math Essentials program available at your local Sylvan Learning Center.
• Watch for warning signs from the first day of school.  A month before the NJASK is too late to start cramming.  If the scores from last year's test were low, what will this year's scores look like without extra help?  The best way that you can help your child is to get them help as soon as possible in the content areas rather than in straight up testing strategies.  

Looking for more outside help?
Call Sylvan to schedule a Skills Assessment and 

take the next BEST step towards your child's academic future!

Clinton, NJ: (908) 638-6788

Flemington, NJ: (908) 806-4010