Assessment

Students at Annunciation Catholic School participate in a testing program each year to describe each  student’s developmental level, to identify areas of relative strength and weakness, and to monitor  growth from year to year.  This testing program consists of the following assessments:  

ITBS – Iowa Test of Basic Skills (grades 3 - 8)

CogAT – Cognitive Abilities Test (grade 5)

North Carolina State Catholic Schools Writing Assessment: Narrative Writing - Grade 4, Persuasive Writing - Grade 7

Iowa Tests of Basic Skills 

Annunciation Catholic School administers the ITBS in grades 3-8. The scores are represented as achievement in grade equivalents. For  example, if a 6th grader (6.2) scored   as an 11th grader in the 8th month of the school year, it would be represented as 11.8.    

 Vocabulary 

The Vocabulary test assesses students' breadth of vocabulary and is a useful indicator of overall  verbal ability.    

Reading Comprehension    

The ITBS assesses students' capabilities at all stages of their development as readers.    

Math (Concepts & Estimation, Prob. Solving & Data Interp.)    

The Math tests at all levels do much more than assess skill in solving numerical problems in  single and multiple steps. The tests emphasize the ability  to do quantitative reasoning and to  think mathematically in a wide variety of contexts. Students use them to obtain information,  compare quantities,  and determine trends or relationships.    

Science  

Annunciation began the STEM initiative in 2011. Note that the Science scores support our  initiative.  The Science tests at all levels assess not only  students' knowledge of scientific principles and  information but also the methods and processes of scientific inquiry, in accordance with the   recommendations of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and  the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). At  Levels 7 and 8, all questions are  presented orally and response choices are pictures. Included in Levels 9 through 14 are scenarios  presenting real-  life science investigations with questions emphasizing the thought processes used  in designing and conducting research and in analyzing data.  The  four major content areas covered in the Science tests are:    

• Scientific inquiry — Methods of science; analysis and interpretation of data    
• Life science — Structures and life cycles of living things; environmental interactions    
• Earth and space science — Earth's composition and structure and its changes; the universe    
• Physical science — Forces and motion; energy; properties of and changes in matter Sources of Information    

These tests measure students' abilities to use information resources and to judge their usefulness