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NATIONALLY NORMED TESTS ADMINISTERED
AT VANCE CHARTER SCHOOL
EXPLANATION:
"The ITBS measure the skills and achievement of students from Kindergarten through grade 8. Developed at The University of Iowa and backed by a tradition of more than 70 years of educational research and test development experience, the ITBS provide an in-depth assessment of students' achievement of important educational objectives. Tests in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and information sources yield reliable and comprehensive information both about the development of students' skills and about their ability to think critically."
RATIONALE:
“Two important uses of test scores are to check year-to-year progress and to determine areas of relative strength and weakness. To accomplish these purposes most effectively, test results must be available early enough in the school year so that teachers and administrators have a chance to incorporate this diagnostic information into their instructional decisions. Used properly, fall testing results offer a predictive glimpse of which students are most at risk of not meeting academic performance goals required for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
The Iowa Tests are norm-referenced tests that provide a research-based, external validator for our school. In addition to providing detailed information on whether our students are mastering content skills, norm-referenced tests also gauge how well our school is doing compared to national averages. Fall testing with The Iowa Tests offers an assessment approach that balances high-stakes accountability testing in the spring.”
ABILITIES TESTS
CogAT Cognitive Abilities Test
EXPLANATION:
“The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) measures students’ abilities to reason with words (Verbal Battery), quantitative concepts (Quantitative Battery), and spatial/figural drawings (Nonverbal Battery). A separate score is reported for each of the three test batteries. A Composite, or total, abstract reasoning score is also reported for each student. Reasoning abilities have substantial correlations with learning and problem solving, both in and out of school.”
RATIONALE:
“The primary purpose of CogAT is to assess students’ reasoning and problem-solving abilities so educators can help more students achieve instructional objectives. A second purpose of CogAT scores is to provide an alternative frame of reference for interpreting academic achievement. A third purpose for CogAT scores is to provide an estimate of cognitive development that supplements both teacher observations and measures of academic achievement. On the one hand, CogAt shows that most students who do poorly in school can reason at higher levels than their school performance suggests. Strategies can then be developed for those functioning under ability level. On the other hand, CogAT scores also augment measures of achievement and other indices of academic accomplishments to help identify academically gifted students.”
Note: Personal remarks from Dona C. Mann, Curriculum Specialist, are accompanied by quoted and paraphrased sections from 2005 Education Assessment Catalogue, Riverside Publishing.