Customer Reviews

Spectrum State Specific: California Test Practice, Grade 5

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I will preface this review by noting that I teach 5th grade math in California and am familiar with some of the problems and pitfalls students face with math in this grade. In brief, students in grades one through four are expected to develop proficiency with whole number operations. In grade 5, the emphasis switches to rational numbers, and students are quickly expected to learn and manipulate fractions, decimals, and percents. As a result, test scores in for 5th grade math students on the state wide CSTs decline dramatically as compared to the fourth grade results. In the 2009-10 school year, for example, the percentage of students state wide who earned an "advanced" proficiency level on the 5th grade test declined by 15% as compared to the same students' scores from the year before when they were in 4th grade. Also, a higher percentage of students in 5th grade score "far below basic" than in any other grade (from 2 to 11) where math is tested. The bottom line is that students are introduced to a lot of new material in California's fifth grade, and many struggle with it. Sprectrum's California Test Prep, Grade 5, can help prepare the students for what to expect on the 5th grade test. My partner and I have used it for years, and the results at our school consistently outperform the state's average.

Probably the best feature of the Sprectrum Test Prep's math chapter is that it covers each math strand and standard separately. California math standards are divided into 4 strands: Number Sense, Algebra and Functions, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics, Data and Probability. Each strand has many standards associated with it, and some are more important than others. In the book, students and parents will find representative test problems for each separate standard within each strand. The book also includes review quizzes for each standard heading and mini-tests to help prepare the students for what they will see on the CST. Using this book, students will not only find representative questions but also become familiar with the format of the test itself. Both features make this book an extremely valuable resource to help prepare students for the test.

On the down side, some standards are not presented as well as others. For example, Algebra and Functions standard 1.4 is a "key" standard: students are expected to plot and identify points on a coordinate plane. There are 4 questions dealing with this standard on the test, but the page devoted to this standard in the test book is essentially just drawing designs on a coordinate plane. This is not how the CST will test this standard. A couple of other standards are also presented somewhat differently than they will be tested on the CST. Number Sense 2.4 and 2.5, for example, are presented as essentially the same thing in the Spectrum book, but one involves multiplying and dividing with fractions, while the other involves the "process" of multiplication and division with fractions. Testing how one solves problems is not quite the same as testing whether or not a student gets the correct answer. That said, for the most part, the book does a decent job at presenting the standards in a format that will appear on the state test.

Of course, the Spectrum book offers more than just math. The bulk of the book deals with Language Arts standards. My colleagues in Language Arts have found many of these sections valuable as well, but I will not deal with them in this review because I am fortunate enough to teach at a school where 5th grade students are taught math and science separately from social studies and language arts. Children receive instruction from specialists in the field and rotate classrooms, rather than following the traditional elementary school model of receiving all their instruction from a single teacher in a self contained classroom. Still, using this book will help your students with both math and language arts. It will not help them on their state wide science test, however. For that, you may want to get Spectrum's Science Test Practice for grade 5. But the material this book does cover makes it well worth the price.

MY SON JUST FINISHED HIS CALIFORNIA TESTING AND DID GREAT! I TOOK COPIES SO HE COULD STUDY MANY TIMES, AND NOW, HE WILL TAKE TO BOOK TO HIS SUMMER VACATION WITH HIS GRANDPARENTS, AND REVIEW THE MATERIAL AS HE PREPARES FOR 6TH GRADE. EXCELLENT BOOK!

My kids are taking star test now. I bought the book a month ago. So far, my kids like the book and tell me the book is helpful.