Chicago, IL November 15, 2007 — The Archdiocese of Chicago Office of Catholic Schools announced today that results of standardized achievement tests administered in 2007 to third, fifth and seventh grade students in Catholic elementary schools in Cook and Lake counties indicate that the school children achieved scores above the national average for all subtests.

Students who took TerraNova II tests in 2007 obtained an overall combined test score of reading, language and mathematics performances at the 70 th percentile in the third grade, the 73 rd percentile in fifth grade and the 76 th percentile in the seventh grade. Notably, seventh grade students reached the 81 st percentile in language.

“The strong performance by our Catholic school students on these standardized tests demonstrates the high quality of academic instruction present throughout the Archdiocese,” said Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich, Superintendent, Office of Catholic Schools, Archdiocese of Chicago.

“As one of the many measures of student assessment, this data again indicates that the longer a child stays in an Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic school, the greater his or her achievement level.”

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 70 th percentiles, respectively; fifth graders scoring at the 68 th and 70 th percentiles, respectively; and seventh graders scoring at the 65 th and 73 rd percentiles, respectively.

Overall scores of Catholic school students in the city of Chicago were equally impressive with results at the 64 th percentile for third grade students, the 65 th percentile for fifth grade students and the 69 th percentile for seventh grade students.

Further, city of Chicago Catholic school students also scored above national norms in science and social studies with: third grade students at the 60 th and the 64 th percentiles, respectively; fifth grade students at the 59 th percentile for both subject areas; and seventh grade students at the 57 th and 65 th percentiles, respectively.

Third, fifth, and seventh grade students, whose schools receive financial support from the Big Shoulders Fund, scored above the national norm in language and mathematics. Fifth and seventh grade students performed above the national norm in reading as well. Third grade students’ test scores in reading and science, both at the 49 th percentile, were essentially at the national norm. Fifth and seventh grade students’ test scores in science approached the national norm, scoring at the 46 th and 47 th percentiles respectively. Notably, seventh grade students in schools receiving financial support from the Big Shoulders Fund performed significantly above the national norm in language, scoring at the 67 th percentile.

In the United States, TerraNova II tests, published by CTB-McGraw Hill, are widely used by both public and Catholic school systems. Terra Nova II tests are dually aligned with Archdiocesan curricula and Illinois State Standards.

The Archdiocese of Chicago 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 2008 tests are being administered between March 3 and 14 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 2007 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 74 on the Language subtest among fifth grade students at Archdiocese of Chicago schools indicates that they scored at or above 74 percent of students in a national sample. Test difficulty increases with grade level.

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

TerraNova II Test Results 2007
Longitudinal Report on Students Graduating in 2008
Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) Scores

	2001-2002	2003-2004	2006-2007	Mean NCE Change
Elementary School Grades	3rd	5th	7th	3rd to 5th	5th to 7th	3rd to 7th
Reading	59.6	64.0	68.7	4.4	4.7	9.1
Language	58.4	59.4	62.7	1.0	3.3	4.3
Math	57.1	62.1	60.7	5.0	-1.4	3.6
Total Score	59.0	62.7	64.8	3.7	2.1	5.8
Science	55.5	58.4	58.0	2.9	-0.4	2.5
Social Studies	60.0	60.8	62.7	0.8	1.9	2.7

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.

These test results suggest that the longer a student remains in Archdiocesan schools, the greater his or her achievement.