Portland St. Patrick Catholic School

On Monday, November 2, St. Patrick School students in grade 1 through 8 will begin taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS).  The Office of Catholic Schools (OCS) has the schools in the Diocese take this test in lieu of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) Test.

The ITBS provides more student and administrator feedback and allows us to identify any areas of improvement in our curriculum.  Also, this is a nationally norm referenced test which means our students are compared to students who take this test across the United States.  The majority of our students finish in the 75th percentile or higher.  That means the majority of our students are among the top 25% academically of students across the nation.  That’s a pretty amazing statistic!  We are proud of the high academic achievements of our students and staff!

 St. Patrick School also administers the Michigan Merit Exam (MME) and the American College Test (ACT) to our 11th grade students.  Michigan is one of five states which requires all high school juniors take the ACT test.  The ACT covers very specific material—the same material that the students will encounter when they take their first credit-bearing classes in college.  Research shows students who do well on these tests have a far higher chance of earning a B or better in the corresponding college course.  A study released in May by the University of Chicago says, “ In the end, raising ACT scores requires the same strategies as improving graduation rates and better preparing students for college—a focus on the quality of students’ work in their classes, clearly tied to their preparation for the future.  There is no quick fix when students lack college-ready skills.”

There has been a public outcry against standardized testing or “high stakes testing” by some individuals in the State of Michigan and across the nation in recent years.  However, I believe that standardized testing is one way educators are held accountable to their community to make sure they are providing a quality education.  The test scores from the ITBS, ACT, the MME and other tests are our report card. If we’re providing our students with a good solid curriculum and are properly teaching from that curriculum, our report card will reflect it and our students will do well on these tests.

I have been extremely pleased with our report cards.  At St. Patrick, our students are provided with all of the elements the University of Chicago deemed important: a high quality curriculum that focuses on teaching college-level skills, teachers who are capable of teaching it, small class sizes in the developmental years, and an expectation that our students will take their classroom work seriously.  These strategies are paying dividends as our test scores are regularly the highest scores in the area and well above average nationally.  We will continue to monitor our data year after year as we strive for continuous improvement and we will continue to set high expectations for our students.