Evidence of High Quality Education
How Do Tualatin Valley Academy's Test Scores Rank When Compared Nationally?
Standardized testing may not be the perfect way to measure individual student success, but it allows us to do something very important. It allows us to benchmark ourselves against other schools across the nation to ensure that we are giving a high-quality education overall to our students. Tualatin Valley Academy has consistently scored above average in nationally standardized tests in past years, and this year was no exception!
This year our test scores were 13 points above the national average.
This result confirms that TVA continues to provide a high quality education for our students.
In September, our students in grades 3-9 took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). This is the one nationally standardized test we administer each year. This test assesses Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. Scores will of course vary from class to class and by individual students, but our school averages are outstanding.
If you're wondering how your student did specifically, individual student reports are available and your student’s teacher will provide them to you. Teachers are able to discuss the details of your student’s report and how they are doing in each subject area tested. Language Arts and Mathematics both have subtopic areas that show a little more detail. Teachers can use these details to focus on areas where each student can improve.
Does Adventist Education Matter?
Test scores are all good and well, but some may ask, does Adventist Education really matter? Does it provide an education to my student that is truly higher in quality than what they would receive in public school or another private school? From 2006-2009 a research project called CognitiveGenesis studied how more than 50,000 students in more than 800 Adventist schools performed academically compared to students across the United States. The study had some compelling results.
Adventist school students in the United States scored half a grade level higher than their predicted ability in all subjects.
Students who transferred into an Adventist school saw a significant improvement in their test scores.
Also, the more years a student attended an Adventist school the more their average achievement increased compared to the national norm.
Our ITBS results confirm this research and show that we have a high quality program here at TVA.
