Academic Excellence

We strive to develop the whole child with a curriculum that focuses on reading, writing, spelling, literature, mathematics, science and social studies. Teaching specialists provide support in music and physical education.

St. Michael’s School has been an accredited school since its Self-Study in the 1988-89 school year. The Minnesota Nonpublic School Accrediting Association has continued to renew the accreditation annually since that time.

Subject area testing is done regularly throughout the school year by the classroom teacher to determine mastery of objectives. Results of these tests and evaluations are communicated to the student and parents. If problems occur, the parents are notified and become part of the solution. Parents, also, are responsible for contacting teachers regarding their questions and concerns.

Our school uses the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, including the Cognitive Ability Tests in grades 3 and 5, to help determine levels of achievement, aptitudes and areas for academic growth. Testing is done in the spring of each year in grades 3 through 5. Parents with children in these grades receive the test results and teachers are willing to discuss these results at any time. The faculty utilizes test results to help structure the curriculum and instruction to better meet student needs.

April 2009-10 ITBS Class Averages

 

	Reading Total	Language Total	Math Total	CORE TOTAL
Grade 3
Grade Equivalent	5.4	5.6	5.2	5.4
Percentile rank-national student norms	83	84	82	85
Grade 4
Grade Equivalent	7.5	7.7	6.7	7.3
Percentile rank-national student norms	91	87	84	89
Grade 5
Grade Equivalent	7.9	8.2	7.9	7.9
Percentile rank-national student norms	81	76	79	80

 

 

The reading total includes vocabulary and comprehension.  The language total includes spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and usage & expression.  The math total includes concepts and estimation, problem solving, and computation.  Know that 50 is the average percentile rank number and the score for the 8^th month for the current school year for grade equivalent.  For example, a third grader who scores 50 in a particular area will score 3.8 as the grade equivalent, which is exactly where they are expected to perform at this time of year; 4.8 or 50 is average scoring for 4^th graders and 5.8 or 50 is average scoring for 5^th graders.  As you can see, in all three grades our students scored exceptionally well in all areas!  They are way ahead of the national average!