Each year, students in the Seward Public Schools are administered an achievement test in at least two of the following subjects of math, reading, science, and language usage. Students take these computerized tests in the fall and spring. These tests help guide instruction, but also help to show academic growth, as the test is tailored to how well the student performs on the test. Many adults may remember, as students, taking some sort of test where they filled in little test bubbles on an answer sheet. That was likely a standardized achievement test.

Standardized tests are designed to make certain every student is "on the same playing field" when assessing their achievement-meaning that all students take the tests during the same time period, with the same directions, questions, and procedures. Test conditions are the same for all.

Standardized tests are developed so that schools can compare themselves and get a view of how their students are achieving compared with other students in the nation. Since it would not be possible to test and compare all the students in the nation at this time, a smaller sample of students is selected to base comparisons on. This group is called a "norm group".

Scores on norm-referenced tests are often reported as percentiles. This is not the percentage of correct responses on the test. Instead, all the scores are ranked from first to last. The percentile score tells how the student scores rank as compared to that smaller norm group, based upon a standardized test. It tells only how children compare, not what they know or what they can do.

Criterion Referenced Tests-assess students on a specific set of standards and are reported out as proficient levels as: below, barely, proficient, and advanced. These tests include the State Reading, Writing, Math, and Science Tests. The test and the number of tests taken depend upon the grade level. The state tests are what you will see reported in the newspaper each fall.