Learning and Life Skills

What skills are assessed by the Otis-Lennon School Abilities Test (OLSAT)?

Part 2 in our series - How parents can put to use their child's scores from the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT). 

In Part 1, I discussed that parents can, indeed, help their children build and strength cognitive skills assessed on the OLSAT and encouraged you to request a detailed score report from your school.  Don't be satisfied with just the overall composite score and an indication of whether your child qualified or didn't qualify for the gifted-talented program.  Get the detailed scores by subsection - or cluster/item. 

What are the Cluster/Item Types on the OLSAT?

Depending on the age/grade of your child, the item cluster and item types will differ.  Refer to this table to see the make-up of the assessment by grade: (click on the image to see if full-size)

 

 

Notice how the skillsets being assessed change once a child reaches 3rd grade - moving from a heavy dependence on figure-based reasoning to more verbal-based reasoning tasks. Notice also that students are not assessed for quantitative reasoning until 3rd grade, as well.  This is the point at which children are thought capable of doing deeper types of reasoning, have developed a more extensive vocabulary and a greater facility with numbers.  Inferential reasoning is not assessed until the 4th grade and beyond.  All of the picture-based reasoning tasks are dropped by 3rd grade, with figural classification eliminated from 4th grade and up.

Ratings of New York City Teachers to Be Released

The New York City Department of Education will release today the Teacher Data Reports, which attempt to measure and report how much progress their students have made using standardized tests scores.  The results, part of a pilot program, are important in the City's efforts to improve instruction.  The scores have been factored into yearly teacher evaluations and tenure decisions, and now they will be public for all to peruse.   

Chancellor Dennis Walcott was quoted:

“The reports gave teachers and principals one useful perspective on how well teachers were doing in their most important job: helping students learn,” he said. “However, these reports were never intended to be public or to be used in isolation.” (emphasis added).

“Although we can’t control how reporters use this information,” he added, “we will work hard to make sure parents and the public understand how to interpret the Teacher Data Reports.”

Now, that is going to be interesting!  Teacher unions, not unexpectedly, are up in arms over the release of the scores, having sued to stop their publication. 

Great advice from Geekwire - 7 steps to raise a geek child

Is "geek" the new sexy?  Not sure about that assertion, but it is fun to think about the need and method for passing on the 'geek' culture to our children. Frank Catalano (Geekwire blogger) shares his 7 tips for raising 'geeklets' - children of geek parents. 

His top 7 tips:

1. Let your child fail.
2. Expose him/her to fine art.
3. Expose your child to Star Wars.
4. Let him/her see you reading for pleasure.
5. Encourage them to tinker/hack or excessively explore.
6. Volunteer in elementary school.
7. Promote face time.

While the premise is fun, the points are dead on.  Reader comments are worth examining, as well. 

Read the post here.

For our geeklet, our family time was playing multi-user Age of Empires games.  Unfortunately, he laughs at Star Wars preferring instead Matrix, and the most recently Inception.  Mindcraft has given way to League of Legions, and facetime is via Skype with individuals around the world.  Soon to head off to engineering school - wants to build 'stuff'.

 It is a new way of growing up and growing community.  It will be exciting to watch what these world-wide collaborators achieve in the next 25-50 years.  

Are you a parent of a geeklet?  What elements of geek culture/lifestyle are you passing on?  

How parents can put to use scores from the Otis Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT) (1)

Whether a child gains access to gifted and talented programs or not, results from the OLSAT (Otis-Lennon School Ability Test) assessment provide parents with a wealth of information they can use for the benefit of their children...if they are willing to engage.

The OLSAT helps us understand student learning abilities

Pearson Education, in their pamphlet - OLSAT - Assessing the Abilities That Relate To Success In School -  states: “... these tests have enabled educators to understand better the attributes that students bring to the task of learning.” 

 

Engaged parents can make a difference

So, what about us parents?  Couldn’t parents also gain some understanding about the unique potential of children by understanding the test results?  Is it possible that parents could engage thier children in activities that enhance a child’s cognitive abilities said to: “..relate to a student’s ability to learn in school.”  And, wouldn’t that be a good thing?  I say ‘yes’, emphatically!

The first step is  to request a detailed report of the test results from your child’s teacher or school test administrator.  Request results reporting scores by cluster and item type.  Then, ask lots of questions and be sure to read the rest of this series.  

Reasoning skills can be taught... even by parents!

Again, quoting from the OLSAT pamphlet: “Tasks such as detecting likenesses and differences, recalling words and numbers, defining words, following directions, classifying, establishing sequence, solving arithmetic problems, and completing analogies are included in OLSAT since they have been shown to be valid measures of an individual's ability to reason logically.”

Can parents make a difference in improving a child’s ability in these areas?  Yes.  Look at the Building Thinking Skills resources matched to your child's grade.

Does it make a difference in school success?  Yes.  

Would you like to understand more about your child and then take action based on this information?   

Next post - breaking it down - what are the cognitive skills on the OLSAT?

Then... how can parents work with their children to improve specific skills?

 

---

In the meantime, be sure to check out these related posts about the OLSAT - Otis-Lennon School Ability Test:

---

Resources to help your child with the OLSAT:

Find resources on our website: ThinkingToLearn.com

Or, use the information we have made available about the OLSAT assessment and resources for use by parents, tutors and teachers. 

Questions, suggestions?  Be sure to share your comments...