ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENT

Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston (ARCHGH) take pride in preparing students for heaven, college, and career. We implement an annual standardized assessment program that aligns with the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Schools (NSBECS) and the requirements of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops Education Department (TCCB ED).

Standardized assessments are used to measure student learning and evaluate academic programs. This leads to a continuous review of curriculum and the improvement of instructional practices. Standardized scores are only one measure of a school’s quality and strength. Schools obtain a comprehensive view of their progress and growth by using multiple types of data collected throughout the school year. Archdiocesan scores are published rather than individual school scores as it is our desire to promote the individuality of schools and to avoid competition. Parents interested in enrolling their child or children in a Catholic school are encouraged to contact the school to learn about the school’s mission, vision, and educational philosophy.   

The Assessment of Children Religious Education

The National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) partners with Catholic Faith Technologies to provide an online platform for the ACRE™ – Assessment of Children/Youth Religious Education. Catholic schools nationwide administer the ACRE™ annually to 5th and 8th grade students. The assessment is designed to assist in the evaluation of religious education programs in Catholic schools. The ACRE™ is utilized by Catholic schools to assess the student’s knowledge related to religious beliefs, attitudes, practices, and perceptions. The ACRE™ presents questions associated with teachings of the Catholic Church related to Six Tasks/Domains of Catechesis which include knowledge of the faith, liturgical education, prayer, moral formation, community life, and teaching missions. The results support improvements not only to our religion curriculum and school culture, but also to our teaching strategies and how we deliver the religion curriculum.

Since 2016, parish elementary schools in the ARCHGH have administered the ACRE™ in grades 5 and 8. It is important to note that the ACRE™ was not administered in 2019-2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2022, over 1,900 5th and 8th grade students in our Archdiocese completed the ACRE™. Scores are reported in national percentiles allowing a comparison of our Catholic school students to students in the same grade level nationally who completed the same ACRE™ assessment. The numbers below represent the national percentile of pupil performance in each task/domain over the past five years.

 5th Grade Tasks/Domains of Catechesis Results 


8th Grade Tasks/Domains of Catechesis Results 


Students in the ARCHGH perform well on the ACRE™ assessment. Schools continue to move more students to the Proficient and Advanced classifications despite drops in percentage points in recent years attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both fifth and eighth grade students continued to meet or exceed national averages. This positive trend can be attributed to religion teachers working towards and completing Catechist Certification along with the collaborative and collective efforts of the CSO and individual schools utilizing the ACRE™ as the tool to examine current knowledge and provide baseline data to set goals for growth while monitoring and evaluating growth longitudinally over time. 

Measures of Academic Progress
Students in grades 1-8 are administered the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Growth™ assessments each fall, winter, and spring. MAP Growth™ is a computer adaptive assessment taken by over eleven million students nationwide, including students in many Catholic schools. It adjusts to each student’s learning level, providing a unique set of assessment questions based on their responses to previous questions. As a student responds to questions, the assessment responds to the student, adjusting up or down in difficulty. MAP Growth™ is used to measure a student’s performance level at different times of the school year and compute academic growth. Teachers observe progress of individual students and their class. They utilize results to plan, adjust, and deliver appropriate instruction and content for students. Data can support students to set goals and understand what they need to learn to achieve their goals. 

In the ARCHGH, our focus is on student growth. Student growth is a student's progress between two or more points of time to demonstrate their progression toward goals or benchmarks. Why are we focused on student growth? Reality tells us that all students cannot attain the same levels of academic achievement. Not every child is a straight A student, not every student can achieve above average performance on classroom or standardized assessments, and not every student can cross the same finish line in an academic year. A focus on end-of-year achievement does not consider where a student begins and has goals that are “one-size fits all.” Further, it does not account for individual strengths and weaknesses. As Catholic schools fulfilling our mission to educate all, a focus on student growth supports our belief that every student can grow in their learning and academic success regardless of their academic abilities and past experiences.  

The following charts represent the results from May 2022 MAP Growth™ assessments for the ARCHGH. The numbers represent the RIT (Rasch Unit) score for students in reading, language usage, and math. The RIT represents a point on a continuous scale of learning from 100 to 300. For better understanding, think of the RIT score like marking height on a growth chart. You can tell how tall a child is at various points in time and how much they have grown between one stage and another. The RIT scale is a stable, equal interval scale. Equal interval means that a change of 10 RIT points indicates the same thing regardless of whether a student is at the top, bottom, or middle of the scale, and the RIT point indicates the same thing regardless of grade level or age of the student. Scores can be compared over time to tell how much growth a student has made. Please note that typically, younger students show more growth in one year than older students. Additionally, students who score above grade level often show less growth from one season of testing to the next.  

READING



LANGUAGE USAGE

MATHEMATICS