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RCA Test Scores

Introduction

The purpose of the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) is to obtain information about how the performance of students at Ron Clark Academy compares with that of other students across the nation. Core subjects tested by the SAT include reading, math, language arts, science, and social studies. Also tested are listening and thinking skills.

The tests were administered to fifth and sixth grade students at the Ron Clark Academy in the fall of 2007 and again in the spring of 2008. Fall results were used to establish baseline information from which to measure change in student learning. The purpose of this document is to provide highlights of spring test scores and gains in student learning from fall to spring.

Spring Highlights

The SAT is a norm-referenced test that ranks student performance according to percentiles (PR). For example, a student in the 75th percentile scored equal to or better than 75 percent of all students across the nation who participated in the SAT at the same grade level. The national average percentile rank score is 50 for each content area. Overall, fifth and sixth grade students scored above the national average in every area tested in the spring. Both fifth and sixth grade students performed best in mathematics with PR scores at 86, 36 PR points higher than the national average.

In addition to high math scores, fifth grade students had a strong showing on the Language and Thinking tests with PR scores of 73 and 74 respectively. Sixth grade students outperformed their national peers by some 20-25 PR points in Social Studies and Thinking skills. These scores clearly show that students are outpacing their national peers in a number of academic areas. See Table I for a complete set of percentile rank scores for the spring.

Overall achievement of students was at the 60th percentile, 10 points higher than the national average of 50. At the fifth grade level, about 80% of students had an overall percentile rank score greater than 50 while slightly more than 2/3 of sixth grade students scored higher than the national average. See Table II for a subject by subject comparison of students reaching or exceeding the national average on these tests.

Also reported are grade equivalents, or GE scores. The numbers in the GE score that come before the decimal represent the grade level of the student’s performance while the digits following the decimal point represent the month within that grade. Therefore, a GE score of 5.2 means that performance is similar to that expected of a fifth grader taking the same test during the second month of school. Particularly noteworthy GE scores for Ron Clark Academy students were in 6th grade mathematics, where students scored at 10.6 for problem solving and procedures and earned an overall score for math of 10.7. At the fifth grade level, students scored 10.0 in math procedures and slightly lower in problem solving at 9.8. These scores mean that, in the spring, students performed on the SAT as well as or better than students taking the same test in the 9th or 10th grade.

Student Learning Gains

Because students took the SAT during the fall and again in the spring, it is possible to evaluate the impact of instruction on student learning in the form of change (sometimes referred to as gain scores). Students at the Academy made outstanding gains in every area on the test. In the fall, student performance hovered around the national average and in some cases dipped slightly below the 50th percentile rank. However, based on spring testing data, student performance rose well above the national average in nearly every content area. For example, the average student performance (Composite) in fifth grade increased from the 42nd PR in the fall to the 69th PR in the spring, an impressive gain of 27 percentile points. Sixth grade performance (Composite) increased by 19 points from the 50th percentile to the 69th percentile rank.

The greatest gains made by fifth graders was in mathematics, where overall math performance increased by 46 points from the 40th PR to the 86th PR. Within the math area, students had significant gains in the areas of problem solving and procedures. Both skill areas zoomed from slightly below the national average in the fall at 37PR and 45PR to 86PR and 82PR, respectively (gains of 49 and 37 percentile points). This kind of gain is fairly uncommon and should be celebrated greatly. Slightly lower, but no less important, gains were found in other areas for fifth graders. Student performance increased by nearly 30 PR points in Language from fall to spring (from 44 to 73) and by more than 45 points in Social Studies (from 34 to 80).

Gains for sixth grade students were also impressive. While fall scores were slightly closer to the national average than fifth grade scores, the average growth for sixth graders was 19 PR points (Composite). Overall, scores increased from 50 PR to 69. Sixth graders made the strongest gains in mathematics, where scores increased by an average of 46 PR points (math total went from 40 to 86). Growth within the skill areas of mathematics ranged from 49 points in problem solving to 37 points in procedures. Other content areas where students increased their achievement include Thinking (from 49 to 70), Mechanics (Language—from 44 to 73), and Social Studies (from 47 to 76).

Conclusion

Student performance, based on SAT scores from fall to spring, clearly demonstrate the power of effective teaching. Students at Ron Clark Academy made significant gains over the course of a single school year in nearly every content area.