November 2011

Dear Parents,

Over the course of the second semester of the 2010-2011 school year, children in the 4^th  through the 8^th grades took the Terra Nova test.  It is a rather comprehensive test including reading, language arts, math, science and social studies.  It is used as the standard test in many states throughout the country.

We administer this test primarily for three reasons: 

1. Giving the students the opportunity to take the kind of test they will encounter in their future academic career.
2. At an aggregate level, to understand whether we are meeting the academic needs of the students.
3. To assess our curriculum and make any changes that we deem appropriate.

There are many factors that influence a given child’s performance on this test, including experience with this type of test, test anxiety, a child’s health on test day and many others.  What is shown below are the grade mean equivalents (GME).  It is intended to represent the grade level at which the child and children are performing.  The GME does not necessarily mean that the child would function successfully in that grade, but rather compares the students with others across the county.   It consists of all the children in a grade and simply averages them all.

This is one of many assessments we use to evaluate the students and our program. 

As is always the case, our students scored extremely well on this test.  You may note that the 8^thgrade class average in most categories is 12.9+.  This represents beyond high school achievement and is the maximum score that can be achieved on the test.

If you have questions, please feel free to call me.

Sincerely,

Duncan Sprattmoran
Middle School Language Arts

2010-2011 Results

Prior Years (Results)