A Look At Standardized Assessments
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A few weeks ago, our students participated in our annual standardized assessment. Frederick Christian Academy uses the Iowa Assessments as our norm-referenced standardized test. The “Iowas” were developed considering the Common Core State Standards as well as the latest scholarly research and professional standards. While FCA does not align our academic standards with the Common Core, we have found that the balanced and researched approach of the Iowas are a relatively close match to our academic standards. Unlike the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program administered by the Maryland State Department of Education, FCA students are not required to reach a certain benchmark score in order to fulfill graduation requirements. FCA does not participate in such high-stakes testing. Instead, we administer the Iowas for three reasons:
1. To identify the strengths and weakness of our students – The Iowas provide a variety of useful scores across the vast array of academic standards. However, these assessments are not about having each student reach a specific score, but instead provide information to guide us as we strive to help each student to reach their potential. The detailed information provided on how each student is performing across different elements of their core subjects is useful, but it is also important to remember that this is one of a variety of data sets that we use to guide us as we develop each student for God’s glory.
2. To identify the strengths and weaknesses of our academic program – Frederick Christian Academy is committed to helping parents educate their children by providing high-quality academic programs. The Iowa Assessments help us to evaluate our curricula and to identify areas of needed growth. Each group of students that the Lord allows to partner with our program has unique needs and offers unique challenges. The Iowas provide us with information that allows us to grow our program to better serve our families in the future.
3. To provide national and regional comparisons – The scores provided not only allow us to analyze our program internally, but also allow us to compare our program externally. FCA uses the Iowas to compare our program to public and non-public schools across the nation as well as to the other schools that are accredited by the American Association of Christian Schools.
FCA 2021-2022 NATIONAL STANDARDIZED TESTING COMPARISON
Here is a graphic showing the grade-level summary scores from our spring 2022 Iowa administration. Our grade-level average percentiles ranged from the 58th to the 86th percentile with an average score of the 70th percentile. Percentile scores are different from percentage scores. A percentage score demonstrates the percent of questions that were answered correctly out of the total number; whereas a percentile compares one’s score to the average score achieved across the entire population of students that took the test. A percentile score of 50 means that the student achieved the same score as the average student across the nation. Our average percentile score of 70 shows that the average student in our K5-10th grades performs better on the Iowa Assessments than 70% of their grade-level peers. That’s pretty good! However, while it is nice to know that our students often out-perform their peers in other schools, the value of the Iowas is in the information it provides that allows us to better our program and to meet the individual needs of our students.
It will be weeks before FCA receives the results of our latest round of standardized tests. Parents can expect to receive their students’ scores with their final report cards at the end of the year. The general public can see a summary of the scores, once available, on the About FCA tab of our website.