Standardized Testing
ITBS SCORES - Grade Equivalency (GE)
Annunciation and Diocesan Comparison
The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) are national achievement tests that assess students’ skills in Reading, Language, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. The ITBS assesses both foundational skills and higher-order thinking skills and provide national and local comparisons. The ITBS is very different from the Arizona state test (AzMERIT) required in the public schools. The AzMerit is a criterion-referenced test that assesses students on the specific state standards for their grade level in reading, math, science, and social studies. The results are compared to students in the state of Arizona only. The ITBS test is a norm-referenced test and includes material both below and well above the grade level being tested. The ITBS compares our students to students across the United States; the 50th percentile is considered average.
The charts below represent the grade level average for the core content areas, Math, Reading, and Language Skills. Our class average scores are compared to the class average scores for all the K-8 schools in the diocese. Students took the test in the first month of the year (2.1, 3.1, etc). A grade equivalent score of 2.5 means the month of 2nd grade.
You can see that the average grade equivalency increases as students progress through each grade level. This is a trend across Catholic schools. In comparison, the public school trend is a flattening of achievement in middle school grades.
2024 ITBS Grade Equivalency Scores
For more information on understanding the ITBS results please read How to Interpret Standardized Test Scores