Testing at MMS
Every spring the students in our elementary and secondary programs take the Iowa Standardized Test. The Iowa is a nationally normed test, which means that student scores are compared on a national and not local level. The results indicate how a student is performing compared to students throughout the United States. The Iowa scores are not based on minimal performance objectives (unlike the MEAP) but rather on a fairly wide range of knowledge.
Although we are proud of the test results, we hasten to add that this test reflects only one small facet of a successful student. There are areas of success that cannot be measured in standardized tests that are just as important, if not more important. Test scores are only one small part of the picture.
The following scores represent the average for MMS students in a specific grade level in a particular subject area. We are reporting both grade equivalents as well as school percentile. This percentile is compared to other averages in schools throughout the United States, so the numbers reflect how the students at MMS compare--as a group--to other groups in the nation. For example, the average 8th grade composite score in 2010 was 98th percentile. This means that the 8th graders of MMS—as a group—did better than 98% of the 8th grade groups in the nation; in other words, they are in the top 2% of the nation. In 2011, this same group of students, testing at the 9th grade level, had a composite score of 99%, placing MMS’s 9th graders in the top 1% of the nation.