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Assessment

The Healdsburg School

Comprehensive Testing Program from the Educational Records Bureau

THS students in grades 4 – 8 are assessed using the Comprehensive Testing Programs (CTP) from the Educational Records Bureau (ERB). This testing provides percentile and stanine comparisons to national, suburban public, independent school, and association norms. CTP is a reasoning/achievement test battery that is available to more than 1,600 ERB-member public and independent schools. It is designed as a challenging test to measure learning and distinguish achievement even among the higher-level students. THS conducts this testing in the spring.

Renaissance Learning Programs

The Healdsburg School uses several programs from Renaissance Learning: STAR Reading and Math Enterprise, Accelerated Reader, and Early Literacy. The Accelerated Reading program, or “AR”, is used in more than 75,000 schools in North America.  This research-driven program has expanded now to international schools throughout the world. This program involves assessing children precisely as to appropriate independent reading levels and then motivating them to read.  It is an on-line, software program that allows for individualized reading practice for each student and includes frequent progress monitoring and computerized assessment through comprehension and vocabulary quizzes.  The program does not take the place of reading instruction; it is a motivational supplemental program that greatly helps to increase a student’s reading level.

THS students in grades 2 – 8 are assessed using STAR Reading Enterprise and STAR Math Enterprise. These tests are statistically linked with the California State Test (CST), which our students do not take. However, their scores in STAR Enterprise testing are predictive of their California state test outcomes and provide information about the students’s mastery of those standards. Students are tested, first, in the Fall and then, again, in the Spring, allowing for a preliminary assessment followed by an individualized plan for growth, where necessary.