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Understanding Scores

Detailed Report

We're here to help you understand the customized score report created by your student’s school to communicate assessment results and any recommended feedback for your student. These reports provide easy-to-read test results and may also include commentary from your school about your student's progress.

Who is ERB?

If your student attends an independent school, chances are you only know us for the ISEE—the Independent School Entrance Exam. But ERB is actually so much more than just admissions testing. We're an industry-leading educational advisory company. That means we offer schools and families a variety of different tests, educational software, and other services to help them monitor and grow a student's knowledge year after year. Some of these services are only available to schools but others are also offered directly to families.

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What is this test?

Your Detailed Report provides you with an analysis of your student’s skills in each subject area. Scores are available for two different tests—CTP and Milestones. Your school uses only the tests that it finds most valuable, so you may receive scores for just the CTP, just Milestones, or both.

What is the CTP?

This test is designed to provide teachers with a complete picture of what a student has learned in school to date. The CTP (Comprehensive Testing Program) is taken just once a year and comprises separate subtests covering reading, listening, vocabulary, writing, mathematics, and science. Your student may have taken all available subtests or just the ones that your school finds most valuable. The available subtests also vary from grade to grade—a student in Grade 6 will take different subtests than a student in Grade 3. Each subtest usually takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes to complete.

What are Milestones?

Understanding Scores

Test Info

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This report lists your student's performance by subtest. Be sure to review your student's results for each subtest. Not every school uses all available subtests, and subtests will vary by test and grade. The first row of the table indicates what test your student took as well as the year and season in which it was taken. The left-hand column lists the subtest plus the different types of questions included in that subtest.

What's a subtest?

Both CTP and Milestones are comprised of separate subtests that cover a specific academic subject. Milestones only offers the Reading Comprehension and Mathematics subtests while CTP offers all the subtests below. However, your report may not include scores for all these subtests. You may only see scores for the subtests your school finds most valuable that are available for your student's grade.

Reading Comprehension

CTP Grades 1 - 11 • Milestones Grades 3 - 8

Reading Comprehension measures a student’s ability to comprehend, evaluate, and draw conclusions using a variety of strategies to analyze both fiction and nonfiction texts.

Mathematics

CTP Grades 1 - 11 • Milestones Grades 3 - 8

Mathematics questions ask a student to recognize and manipulate fundamental ideas in mathematics, recall factual information about mathematics, and demonstrate an understanding of basic algorithms. They also ask a student to apply and integrate concepts or to identify appropriate strategies.

Writing Mechanics

CTP Grades 2 - 11

The Writing Mechanics subtest requires students to identify misspellings, recognize and correct mistakes in capitalization and punctuation, and recognize correct and incorrect grammatical and syntactical usage.

Verbal Reasoning

CTP Grades 3 - 11

Verbal Reasoning assesses a student’s ability to conceptualize relationships among words and concepts and draw conclusions based on incomplete information, reasoning analytically, categorically, and logically.

Quantitative Reasoning

CTP Grades 3 - 11

Quantitative Reasoning measures a student’s ability to engage—in age-appropriate ways—in pattern recognition, classification, and reasoning in all content areas, including logic, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, probability, and statistics. A student must use mathematics to make comparisons, formulate extensions or generalizations of mathematical concepts, and analyze mathematical situations.

Writing Concepts and Skills

CTP Grades 3 - 11

The Writing Concepts and Skills subtest requires students to integrate their knowledge of the rules of grammar and usage with an understanding and recognition of the essential elements of effective writing. Choosing appropriate details for a particular audience or purpose, understanding how to accomplish a particular writing goal, and choosing the most effective language in a particular context are all part of what is measured in this subtest.

Science

CTP Grades 3 - 11

The Science subtest covers the nature of science, physical science, earth science, and life science.

Vocabulary

CTP Grades 4 - 11

Vocabulary measures a student’s expanding vocabulary and developing ability to distinguish more subtle differences among related words. Vocabulary words are tested exclusively in the context of a sentence or passage.

Auditory Comprehension

CTP Grades 1 - 4

Auditory Comprehension measures a student’s ability to understand and interpret information presented orally. Students must be able to recognize and understand important words and plot points and to interpret and analyze information presented in a story read aloud.

Word Analysis

CTP Grades 1 - 3

Word Analysis measures a student’s ability to recognize and decode words.

Algebra I

CTP Grades 8 - 10

The Algebra I test is an end-of-course test and should be administered at the completion of a first-year course in Algebra.

What are these question types?

Student Mastery

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This section displays your student's "percent mastery" on the subtest as a whole and on each content area within the subtest. This percentage is based on the number of questions your student answered correctly as well as the difficulty of those questions. It describes how much of a content area your student has "mastered" from 0% to 99%.

What are norms?

Your school may have chosen to include norm scores alongside your student's scores. A norm is simply a data point of interpretative information. It gives us a better understanding of a student’s performance by showing how well they performed compared to other students who tested.

The interpretation of your student’s performance can change depending on the norm group to which they are compared. Their performance might seem high if they are compared to a low-performing group and low if they are compared to a high-performing group. Your school will select the norm group that provides the most informative comparison for your student's scores. For example, if you are six feet tall, you might be at the 99th percentile in comparison to a group of 12-year-olds but the 65th percentile for a group of 18-year-olds.

When reading this section, examine the interpretative symbols indicating your student’s performance is at, above, or below the norm group. When your student’s results are “at” the norm group, their test performance is equivalent to the scores of students in the norm group. When your student’s results are “below” the norm group, their performance is meaningfully lower than the scores of students in the norm group. When your student’s results are “above” the norm group, their performance is meaningfully higher than the scores of students in the norm group. Pay attention to the subtests where your student’s results show the highest or lowest performance compared to the norm group. This will tell you the subjects in which your student is skilled and the subjects in which they could use more help.

The strength of your student's performance can change depending on the norm group to which they are compared. When compared to a norm group with overall lower scores, your student's scores may be above average. When compared to a norm group with overall higher scores, your student's scores may be closer to average. Your school will select the norm groups that provide the most informative comparison for your student's scores.

What are the different types of norms?

Independent Norm (IN)

This norm compares your student's scores to those of other independent school students. It includes the average scores from the last three years of students at independent schools across the U.S. and Canada.

Association Norm

This norm compares your student's scores to those of students attending independent schools similar to yours. Your school must be a member of an association to include that association's norm in your report.

Time On Test (Optional)

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Your report may or may not include this section, as your school will decide whether or not this information is valuable for families. The time your student spent on each subtest is displayed first, followed by the maximum amount of time allowed to complete the subtest. These times are displayed in minutes.

If the allotted time says “Untimed,” then there was no set period of time for the student to complete the test. If your student's testing time says "Not Available," they took a paper test for which time was not tracked. If the time spent on the test exceeds the allotted time, your student may have received testing accommodations that allowed them to take more time.

Results by Question (Optional)

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Your student's report may also include a list of how they responded to each question. Not all schools find this information valuable for families so your report may or may not include this. This section will list each content area within the subtest as well as each "standard" that applies to that content area. It will also indicate how many questions address each standard and the total number of questions in the subtest.

In order of question difficulty, your report will list how many questions your student answered correctly (+), incorrectly (-), skipped (S), and did not reach (N). Seeing how your student responded to different standards offers an even more detailed understanding of your student's skills as each standard will describe exactly what kinds of skills it's designed to assess.

What's Next?

ERB uses the Standards for Psychological & Educational Testing to guide the development and validation of its assessments. These Standards include certain guidelines on how to use and not use test scores. ERB advises schools and families on these guidelines to promote appropriate score use.

Share and discuss scores with your student.

Explain to your student why they took this assessment. For example, explain that CTP and Milestones Assessments are intended to help gauge learning in relation to typical independent school students. You should also answer your student's questions and review their results with them. If your student has questions about the terms and scores on their report, use the information on this website to help them understand these concepts.

Ask your student about their experience taking the CTP or Milestones Assessments. The question format, test content, and timing might have had an important impact on their performance. Similarly, their motivation or stress on test day might have also impacted their performance. Take this context into account when viewing their results.

Look for the academic areas where your student’s results show the highest or lowest performance in comparison to norms. These results reflect their relative strengths and weaknesses. For example, your student’s highest percentile rank might be for Reading Comprehension, and their lowest might be for Mathematics. These differences can give you a sense of their learning profile.

Keep scores in a safe place.

Don't rely on test scores alone.

ERB assessments are backed by research to substantiate their reliability and validity but are only one snapshot of performance. Avoid making important decisions based solely on these scores; instead, consider them in the context of other measures of academic performance and wellness, such as grades, homework, projects, and teacher feedback, to fully understand your student’s learning.

Remember that assessments require an investment of time and effort by educators and students and a scientific approach to development and validation. Use care when interpreting results. Please visit the American Educational Researchers Association or the International Testing Commission for additional information on this subject.

Talk to your school if you still have questions.

Your student's school makes all administration decisions for these tests—they choose the test format, dates, subtests, and the reports that families receive. Contact your school with any additional questions about the test(s) your student took or about understanding your scores.

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Enter your email to receive updates about new learning tools and resources, special offers, and other ERB news.

Understanding Scores

Detailed Report

Who is ERB?

What is this test?

Your Detailed Report provides you with an analysis of your student’s skills in each subject area. Scores are available for two different tests—CTP and Milestones. Your school uses only the tests that it finds most valuable, so you may receive scores for just the CTP, just Milestones, or both.

Understanding Scores

CTP Grades 1 - 11 • Milestones Grades 3 - 8

Reading Comprehension measures a student’s ability to comprehend, evaluate, and draw conclusions using a variety of strategies to analyze both fiction and nonfiction texts.

CTP Grades 1 - 11 • Milestones Grades 3 - 8

Mathematics questions ask a student to recognize and manipulate fundamental ideas in mathematics, recall factual information about mathematics, and demonstrate an understanding of basic algorithms. They also ask a student to apply and integrate concepts or to identify appropriate strategies.

CTP Grades 2 - 11

The Writing Mechanics subtest requires students to identify misspellings, recognize and correct mistakes in capitalization and punctuation, and recognize correct and incorrect grammatical and syntactical usage.

CTP Grades 3 - 11

Verbal Reasoning assesses a student’s ability to conceptualize relationships among words and concepts and draw conclusions based on incomplete information, reasoning analytically, categorically, and logically.

CTP Grades 3 - 11

CTP Grades 3 - 11

CTP Grades 3 - 11

The Science subtest covers the nature of science, physical science, earth science, and life science.

CTP Grades 4 - 11

Vocabulary measures a student’s expanding vocabulary and developing ability to distinguish more subtle differences among related words. Vocabulary words are tested exclusively in the context of a sentence or passage.

CTP Grades 1 - 4

Auditory Comprehension measures a student’s ability to understand and interpret information presented orally. Students must be able to recognize and understand important words and plot points and to interpret and analyze information presented in a story read aloud.

CTP Grades 1 - 3

Word Analysis measures a student’s ability to recognize and decode words.

CTP Grades 8 - 10

The Algebra I test is an end-of-course test and should be administered at the completion of a first-year course in Algebra.

Each subtest includes different types of questions that assess different skills related to that subtest. Each type of question assesses a different "content area." Exploring a student's scores in each content area provides greater insight into where a student's skills lie.

Your school may have chosen to include norm scores alongside your student's scores. A norm is simply a data point of interpretative information. It gives us a better understanding of a student’s performance by showing how well they performed compared to other students who tested.

Independent Norm (IN)

This norm compares your student's scores to those of other independent school students. It includes the average scores from the last three years of students at independent schools across the U.S. and Canada.

Association Norm

This norm compares your student's scores to those of students attending independent schools similar to yours. Your school must be a member of an association to include that association's norm in your report.

What's Next?

Protect the privacy of your student’s information and test scores. Keep these scores in a safe place.

Talk to your school if you still have questions.

Your student's school makes all administration decisions for these tests—they choose the test format, dates, subtests, and the reports that families receive. Contact your school with any additional questions about the test(s) your student took or about understanding your scores.

Join the ERB Family Community!

Join the ERB Family Community!

ERB and EMA are excited to announce their intent to merge.