Standardized Testing

We regularly assess students in a variety of ways, including standardized testing to measure progress and provide a benchmark for our curriculum. In grades 2-7, the school administers the Educational Record Bureau’s Comprehensive Testing Program. The CTP, a rigorous test, assesses the student’s overall verbal, reading, writing and mathematical skills.

Our goals in administering the Comprehensive Testing Program IV are to provide information about each child’s verbal and quantitative skill development, to inform instruction, and to give our students ample opportunity throughout their elementary school years to practice taking standardized tests.

The skills tested on the CTP IV are verbal and math skills that we want all of our students to hone and master.  Therefore, this is not a test that involves “teaching to the test.”  The results of the CTP test inform instruction but the test itself does not drive our curriculum. Finally, the CTP IV is an achievement test, not an ability test.  This means that the information we receive about a student only tells us how a particular student’s verbal and quantitative skills are developing, not how innately bright that student is, which is what an IQ or ability test would determine.

In grades 7 and 8, students can take the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT), which competitive secondary schools use as a part of their admission process. The performance of Buckley students on these tests has been outstanding.