Standardized Testing

Holy Family School participates in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). These standardized tests are provided by the College of Education of the University of Iowa and are administered to our students in 2nd through 8th Grades.

In a cooperative relationship, participating schools receive ITBS test materials, scoring and reporting services, and consultation in the use of ITBS for instructional purposes.

ITBS is written in levels that correspond with grade levels. Each test level consists of a series of tests administered in content sections with each section designed to measure specific skills. Districts employ the series of tests in primary grades to gain information about classes and students for instructional planning, to supplement teacher observations regarding student abilities, and to establish a basis for subsequent annual evaluation of student progress. Sections for levels 5-8 include: Vocabulary, Word Analysis, Reading Comprehension, Listening, Language, Mathematics, Social Studies (Levels 7 and 8 only), Science (Levels 7 and 8 only), Sources of Information (Levels 7 and 8).

Iowa Testing program's informational material includes content discussing the application of testing and testing results and lists some appropriate and inappropriate purposes for testing in lower primary and upper primary and middle school grade levels. Testing services report scores for ITBS in a variety of forms and ITP provides explanations of each form and how to match individual forms with their corresponding contexts for interpretation. Types of scores include: Raw Scores (RS), Percent Correct (PC), Grade Equivalent (GE), Developmental Standard Score (SS), and Percentile Rank (PR). Districts in Iowa receive scoring information using both national and state-specific data. When the Iowa Tests are taken along with the Cognitive Abilities Test, the test report additionally compares the student's results to his or her predicted scores.

In addition to the ITBS, students in grades 3, 5 and 7 are administered the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) in March. CogATs measure a students' learned reasoning abilities in Verbal, Quatitative and Nonverbal. These are the areas linked the most to academic success in school.