Standardized Test Scores

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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 scores below are representative of the achievement of our students.

Results of Terra Nova Standardized Test administered to all students in grades 2-7 in spring 2012 follow.

*8th grade results are from the High School Placement Test, given in December 2011

St. Ambrose School administers the TerraNova CTBS Complete Battery in April to all students in grades two through seven. These tests are designed to obtain accurate information about each student’s current achievement in reading comprehension, vocabulary, math reasoning, computation, spelling, language mechanics, and language composition.  Additionally, social studies and science tests are given to students in grades four and six. This timing provides the opportunity for the current year teacher as well as the follow-on teacher to observe both strengths and weaknesses of the class in general and of individual students. The Cognitive Abilities Test is administered to students in grades 3- 7.  Verbal and math aptitude scores are calculated in national percentiles.

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.

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.