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Determine the Gaps Indicated by
a Student's Achievement Test Answers

When a parent receives the student’s test scores, the "number correct" will be provided for each section.  That number is configured into a “percentile” for nation-wide ranking, but tells a parent nothing regarding the particular gaps of learning which the student might have.

Some testing services offer a computer-generated “profile” which lists types of gaps, but there is no way to know if the profile is based on actual gaps, or if the student simply did not have time to answer the item.  So this profile is unreliable as a tool to determine the student's instructional needs.

A computer-generated profile is also limited in the specific type of information it provides.  For instance, the profile might indicate that the student lacks proficiency in the use of quotation marks.  However, it does not provide the specific type of gap, such as the location of the quotation mark (mid-sentence versus beginning or end of a sentence), or the student failed to identify the need for quotation marks versus placing them improperly in the sentence. 

Susan offers a meticulous procedure for a Personal Profile of Learning which goes further ---  i.e., to investigate which kind of quotation mark is a possible gap, or which specific mathematical concepts are not yet mastered.  For instance, rather than indicating a gap in "regrouping" or borrowing, the profile will specify that the gap is when the problem requires regrouping and borrowing to the hundred’s place when the tens place is a zero.  This gives the parent valuable input for further instruction rather than just a list of broad gap areas.

Parents can use this profile to determine areas  where the student needs further instruction.  It can also be used to determine if a particular curriculum used by the student  has a weakness of not addressing skills the student should know, or perhaps does not teach in a manner which enables the student to learn.   

Such a profile is only possible if the student is given opportunity to answer all the test questions, since items left blank do not represent true gaps.  This profile can be performed at any time, even if it was not requested at the time of the test.