Stanford Writing Assessment program for grades 5 and 9

Stanford is a test that provides a comparison of Vermillion's students' performance to that of thousands of other students who took the test under the same conditions and assigns him or her a performance level.

The results help teachers to lan lessons that build upon what your child already knows and encourage progress in areas your child has not yet mastered. It is important to understand that no one "passes" or "fails" this test.

The writing test offers a good picture of a student's ability to communicate effectively. It is a direct assessment of writing. When taking the writing test, the student writes a paper in response to a "prompt," which cues what the paper should be about. Prompts at all levels are dictated by the teacher to ensure that the student's reading ability does not interfere with his or her responses.

This type of test can give only certain kinds of information about how your child is doing in school. To get a more complete picture, you also need to know how your child does with daily class work, other tests the teacher gives, homework and other activities.