Two of our core values at Clapham School are growth and excellence. One way we measure our progress in promoting these values is through standardized testing. Each spring, Clapham students take a standardized test produced by the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) called the CTP5. The CTP5 test is composed of two reasoning aptitude tests (verbal and quantitative) and several achievement tests (vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing concepts and skills, writing mechanics, mathematics, and algebra). As we see year after year, the ERB test results from this past spring offer tangible evidence that Clapham School’s curriculum and pedagogical practices support children in their journey of excellence and growth.
Here are some highlights:
- Verbal and quantitative reasoning scores on the CTP5 indicate overall intellectual aptitude in the areas of language and mathematics. Results from this past spring revealed that on the correlating achievement tests, Clapham School students overwhelmingly scored consistent or high, relative to their reasoning aptitude. Below is a sample of how one class of Clapham School students scored in Reading Comprehension relative to their Verbal Reasoning score. This performance speaks to the strength of our academic program, especially its ability to help students reach their full potential.
- The growth trajectory from Class One to Class Six continues to show that Clapham students experience exceptional growth over time. By laying a purposeful foundation in the early years, Clapham School equips students with the thought process and skills to surpass independent student norms during their Middle School years. In the graphs below, observe how Clapham School’s Class Six students (the green diamond) surpass not only Suburban School Class Six students (the blue triangle), but also Independent School Class Six students (the yellow square) in Writing Concepts and Mathematics over the course of five years. Note that students in the Independent School normed group are private school students, the majority of which are college-bound. These graphs highlight that Clapham Middle School students are exceptionally prepared for their college-bound journey.
- One final highlight: In Middle School, the class median scale scores surpass the Independent School norms in 21 of the 22 tests administered by ERB. Below are the median scale scores of one Clapham School Middle School class. Clapham Middle School median scale scores are indicated in blue, and the Independent School median scale scores are indicated in purple.
We are proud of our students and their efforts on these tests last spring even as we remember that standardized test results serve as one indicator in the overall flourishing of a child. As Charlotte Mason observed, the true mark of education is not how much a child knows, but how much he cares and “how full is the life he has before him.” We look forward to another year of growth in all things as a community as we pursue the good, true, and beautiful.
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