Chicago, IL (March 6, 2007)—–The Archdiocese of Chicago Office of Catholic Schools announced today that results of standardized achievement tests administered in 2006 to third, fifth and seventh graders in Catholic elementary schools in Cook and Lake counties indicate that the students achieved scores above the national average for all subtests.

Students who took TerraNova II tests in 2006 obtained an overall combined test performance at the 70th percentile in the third grade, at the 74th percentile in fifth grade and at the 76th percentile in the seventh grade for reading, language and mathematics.

"Once again our students' performance is an indication that our curricula and instruction have set the bar high, as assessment plays an important role in setting standards and in innovation. For the long term, this data indicates that Catholic school students improve their performance from grade to grade and the longer a child stays in an Archdiocesan school, the greater his or her achievement level," said Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich, Superintendent, Office of Catholic Schools, Archdiocese of Chicago.

In tracking science and social studies achievement at schools across the Archdiocese, Catholic school students also exceeded national norms with: third graders scoring at the 67 th and 69 th percentiles, respectively; fifth graders scoring at the 66 th and 71 st percentiles, respectively; and seventh graders scoring at the 67 th and 73 rd percentiles, respectively.

Overall scores of Catholic school students in Chicago for reading, language and mathematics were equally impressive with results at the 62 nd percentile for third grade students, the 65 th percentile for fifth grade students and the 69 th percentile for seventh grade students.

Students in Catholic schools in Chicago also scored above national norms in science and social studies with: third grade students at the 59 th and the 62 nd percentiles, respectively; fifth grade students at the 56 th and 61 st percentiles, respectively; and seventh grade students at the 59 th and 66 th percentiles, respectively.

Third grade inner-city elementary school students, whose schools receive financial support from the Big Shoulders Fund, also scored near or above the national norm for all subject areas. Fifth and seventh grade students scored above national norms in the core subject areas of reading and language with fifth graders at the 55 th percentile and seventh graders at the 60 th percentile.

Additionally, fifth and seventh grade students supported by the Fund, scored above national norms in reading, language and math, while third graders came very close to the national norm with reading, language and math scores at the 47 th , 52 nd and 71 st percentiles respectively.

In the United States, TerraNova II tests are widely used by both public and Catholic school systems, with the Archdiocese utilizing standardized achievement tests from CTB-McGraw Hill that are dually aligned with Archdiocesan curricula and Illinois State Standards.

The Archdiocese requires the administration of TerraNova II tests to students in grades three, five and seven with scores based on the combined performance of reading, language and mathematics, and 2007 tests are being administered between March 5 and 16 to students at Catholic elementary schools in Cook and Lake Counties.

NOTE: National Percentiles are National Percentile of the mean normal curve equivalent score. The above data reflects Archdiocese of Chicago Elementary Schools.

The above table contains National Percentile (NP) scores from different students in 2006 at grades three, five and seven. NP scores should not be confused with percent correct scores and cannot be subtracted, added, averaged, etc. NP scores indicate a ranking in comparison to a national sample or norm, which for any grade level are 50. For example, the NP of 85 on the Language subtest among Northwest suburban fifth-grade students indicates that they scored at or above 85 percent of students in a national sample. Test difficulty increases with grade level.

TerraNova II Test Results 2006
Longitudinal Report on Students Graduating in 2007
Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) Scores

	1999-2000	2001-2002	2003-2004	Mean NCE Change
Elementary School Grades	3rd	5th	7th	3rd to 5th	5th to 7th	3rd to 7th
Reading	55.8	57.3	61.8	1.5	4.5	6.0
Language	58.9	64.1	68.2	5.2	4.1	9.3
Math	57.2	58.7	61.8	1.5	3.1	4.6
Total Score	57.9	63.3	64.6	5.4	1.3	6.7
Science	55.3	56.4	59.3	1.1	2.9	4.0
Social Studies	58.7	61.6	63.1	2.9	1.4	4.4

The above table contains Mean Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) scores from the same group of students as they advanced from 3 rd to 7 th grade, and is useful in evaluating achievement gains of the same students as they advance from one grade level to another.

NCE scores are different from National Percentile (NP) scores; NCE and NP scores both measure achievement in much the same way that Fahrenheit and Celsius both measure temperature; i.e., different scales to measure the same thing. NCE scores can be subtracted, added, averaged, etc. to evaluate achievement gains, and NCE score differences of plus or minus seven are considered to be significant.

NCE score differences of zero on the same students over different school years/grades indicate typical or normal growth. NCE score differences greater than zero indicate academic growth that is above and beyond growth of elementary students across the nation.