Do Catholic schools give the same tests as public schools?
No. The standardized tests in the secular subjects in Catholic elementary schools are the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). (The public elementary schools give different tests.) The ITBS is constructed according to California and national content standards in the subject areas. Results are reported in the form of percentile scores. Percentiles are not a matter of “percent of correct answers,” rather they reveal achievement in comparison to other students across the country. . . The choice of the ITBS for Catholic elementary school students of this Diocese was the result of a collaborative review of national tests/companies by the 12 Catholic dioceses within California. The ITBS was deemed “top notch” as a result of this review process. The contract that the 12 dioceses have with ITBS extends through 2012. . . At the high school level a testing comparison with the public schools is possible, on the basis of results from such in-common tests as those that are used in the college admissio
