Academic Excellence
A place where your child can excel.
Education with Results
Constant growth and development is a key part to educational success. At Escondido Christian School we see your child’s educational career and success as one of our top priorities. Below are explanations of the various standardized testing we utilize here at ECS to support students in their learning process.
What is the Iowa Assessment?
Standardized testing is used to assess students on a large-scale and to determine where an individual student, as well as a school as a whole, stands compared to others state/nation-wide. At ECS we use the Iowa Assessments annually to determine our students' academic success. The Iowa Assessments were designed and developed to measure student achievement and growth in valid and reliable ways. The most important and valid uses of the Iowa Assessments are:
-Identify strengths and weaknesses of students
-Inform Instruction
-Monitor Student Growth
-Make comparisons to nation, state, and district
-Evaluate Programs
-Predict Future Performance
What is STAR Testing?
Every quarter we administer STAR Reading and STAR Math assessment tests to see where our students are excelling and where they need help academically. Star Reading is one comprehensive assessment that provides insights needed to guide literacy growth for all reading skills so that educators can help accelerate their students' growth. STAR Math helps students get on track for math success by highlighting which students are struggling, the specific skills they're struggling with, and resources and practice activities to remedy those skill gaps.
Grade Equivalent of Average Standard Score per Grade in 2019:
Kindergarten- 1.5 in English; 1.7 Math
1st Grade- 2.3 in English; 2.0 in Math
2nd Grade- 3.3 in English; 3.6 in Math
3rd Grade- 4.0 in English; 3.9 in Math
4th Grade- 6.7 in English; 5.8 in Math
5th Grade- 7.5 in English; 6.8 in Math
6th Grade- 8.0 in English; 7.1 in Math
7th Grade- 9.5 in English; 8.8 in Math
8th Grade- 11.8 in English; 10.5 in Math
What This Means:
The Grade Level Equivalent score is expressed as a decimal number with the number on the left representing the year of the grade level and the number to the right of the decimal representing the month. When a student receives a GLE of 3.2 (for example) it indicates that the student did as well on the exact test questions in this test event as the average US student (50th percentile) in the second month of third grade would have done if given these same test questions. On average, our students at ECS have a Grade Level Equivalent Score of at least one grade level above the grade they are currently in.
What we do differently.
At Escondido Christian School we see your child's educational career and success as one of our top priorities. We utilize the Iowa Assessment and STAR Testing to inform our instruction, in order to help our students excel academically.
A learning style for everyone.
For students who need more support and guidance in their learning, we offer our Power Learning Program (or PLP). PLP is a resource program designed for those who need one-on-one instruction in either Math or Reading/Language Arts. Click here for more information about our Power Learning Program.
Side-By-Side Comparison
Below are our 2019 3rd-8th grade students’ Iowa Assessment results for Math and English Language Arts compared to the California statewide averages. Results are broken down into four percentile ranks. The goal is to have as many students within blue and green categories, which means they have met or exceeded the standards for their grade level.
The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.