age corrected assessments out of year - CAT / CEM / PTM etc

[Happychaos123]

How do schools assess children who are out of year, when relying on age standardised assessments? Our DD is a Summerborn child in year 4. She started reception when she turned 5 years old (ie a year later than most children with her month of birth).

We are now considering secondary schools and I’m now not sure how to interpret her CAT / PTE / PTM / NGRT etc. I’m also not clear how the secondary schools 11+ (grammar) or CEM (independent schools) assessments will treat her when the computer standardises her scores for age.

Her headteacher isn’t clear either!

Will DD be assessed against other children in the year above her (ie where the algorithm will assume she is), or perhaps the algorithm will incorrectly assess her as a Summerborn child in her year group, or is there an algorithm for the computer to deal with this scenario in a fairer way?

They standardize for the age they are, so for 11+ would be age weighted for her birth date, like September children and August children are, so you are looking at needing top end of Mark's, to allow for age adjustment.

That would make sense, But how can they do that when people her age will be in the year above so have an extra school years worth of education?
(I assume too few Summerborn children being educated out of year to standardise it against kids with her month of birth, who are also educated in a different year.)

I think this is one of the downsides of delaying entrance unfortunately.

I suspect it would compare with those in the year above.

In my area out of year children have to sit 11+ at the correct chronological time. So usually sit at start of year 6, your daughter would have to sit it at the start of year 5, in the academic year she turns 11.

I guess that's one of the trade offs you make when you decide to have her miss a year of education that has been offered.

When we considered it for our son 5 years ago we were told by the head that it would all be fine until they started age group sports and he wouldn't be allowed to play ie under 12 rugby if he was 13. So he'd not be able to be on any sports with his class and would instead be playing with the "year above" (ie his real age group) and we thought that sounded crap socially not to be able to do the teams with his friends. so we started him in reception at the correct time in the end and it all worked out great. He's year 6 now and near the top of the class and happy socially.

You would need to talk to the relevant admissions authorities about how they do it.. Bucks, for example, do mention it on their 11+ pages -

www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools-index/school-admissions/school-admissions-guides-policies-and-statistics/guide-to-grammar-schools-and-the-secondary-school-transfer-test-11-plus/under-age-and-over-age-testing/

so it's certainly possible. More and more children will have this issue going forward as more children who were admitted under the more relaxed summer borns approach reach year 5/6, so many admissions authorities have started the process of creating a policy.

I subsequently searched the Bucks Grammar school website who specify:
This standardisation is only within the normal cohort’s date of birth span (ie. 1 September-31 August for the correct chronological year group) and children older than that group will be standardised along with the oldest pupils in the chronological group.

www.buckscc.gov.uk/media/4515236/parent-guide-placement-of-pupils-out-of-their-year-group.pdf

Thanks OP for updating I messaged our local secondary schools before making the decision to defer and they were very encouraging. I have also wondered about the standardisation so glad to have some information about it. So far it’s worked very well for our DC

I still don’t know how they standardise all of the other scores CAT / PTM etc etc. So question remains open!

have u joined the secondary transfer group for summer borns one Facebook? Someone there may have an idea .

The other thing is that these kind of tests don't really cover classroom learning they are looking at underlying cognitive ability,
Yes it is possible to slightly improve a score by practicing the type of test which you can by books to do at home.

Having come out the other side of schooling and seen my DD do CAT and other tests in year 2,5,7 and 9 the scores were remarkably consistent each time.

CAT4 gives a standard age score, adjusting the raw score according to age, not year group.

The other GL tests standardise in the same way. So she will be scaled alongside children in the year above who are the same age.

The PTM does test maths content knowledge, as well as understanding of mathematical processes, and you would expect to see progress over time. PTM and PTE are standardised attainment tests, whereas the CAT4 is a baselining test.