Standardized Test Scores

St. Ambrose students have consistently scored well above average when compared to national student groups. In order to receive the Blue Ribbon of Excellence distinction from the US Department of Education, St. Ambrose students had to score in the top 10% of students nation-wide.

The Catholic Schools Office in the Diocese of Arlington has adopted Performance Series by Scantron as a diagnostic and placement tool.  Performance Series is a web-based test that St. Ambrose School teachers use to:

• identify your child’s ability levels
• demonstrate academic growth over time
• place your child in the correct instructional programs

Teachers use the test results to plan for instruction and identify areas in the curriculum that need reinforcement, as well as the particular students having partial or non-mastery within each strand of the test.  Teachers use this data to develop instructional goals that are specific, measurable and tied to the data.  Teachers are better able to tailor instruction to the needs of each group of students. For more information, see the Parent’s Guide to Performance Series leaflet.

The High School Placement Test is given to all eighth graders in December.  Our students have been accepted into the challenging college-prep programs of the Arlington diocesan Catholic high schools, the private high schools of Gonzaga, Visitation, Trinity, and Oakcrest, and the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.