St._Thomas_ITBS

At St. Thomas the Apostle School one way we measure student academic achievement is through the ITBS (IOWA Test of Basic Skills). Below are our composite results for all subjects combined for grades three through eight.

04/02/2008

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Grade Equivalent (GE) is read as year and month. For example, as indicated on the reverse side, our 7^th graders scored a GE of 9.1 in Reading, which means that when compared to other students nationwide, who took the test at the same time of year, they scored comparable to ninth graders in their first month of the year. That is over two years above grade level.

Percentile (%) is a comparison to other students nation wide who are in the same grade. For example, the language percentile in 8^th grade was 94%. That means that when compared to other 8^th grade students nationwide, our students did better than 94% of them. Another way to look at that is to say that only 6% of 8^th graders in the United States scored better than our students.

Looking at the Composite Scores for grades 3-8 above, we can interpret our results in several ways. For example, this year our 3rd graders scored better than 91% of the other schools in the nation who were tested at the same time of year as we were and that the average 3^rd grader at St. Thomas is one year above grade level (4.0). Our 8^th graders scored better than 93% and have an average GE of 11.6 (3 ½ years above grade level).

To follow the progress of a particular group of students you need to move a year when you move a grade. For example, for the current 8^th graders, you would need to look at the 7^th grade for 2006, 6^th grade for 2005, and 5^th grade for 2004, etc.

Since these tests were taken at the very beginning of the school year, they are actually assessing what the students learned the year before. For example, the 6^th grade results are indicative of the content covered when the students were in 5^th grade.

Our ITBS results at St. Thomas School are excellent and make us very proud. It is not just our intelligent students and challenging curriculum that have contributed to these achievements, but the time, dedication, experience, and commitment of our wonderful staff. We are very proud and grateful to each of them! We will continue to evaluate these results and use them as a tool to continually improve our curriculum and ultimately, student learning.