ERB Testing at Shorecrest
Source/Author: Rachel Barrett, Director of Marketing and Communications
October 15, 2021
Each spring, Shorecrest students in grades 3 through 8 take the ERBs over the course of 4 days. The ERBs are a standardized assessment for high achieving students called the Comprehensive Testing Program (CTP5) written by the Educational Records Bureau (ERB). The Shorecrest Lower and Middle Schools hold annual ERB workshops for parents/guardians to help explain and decode ERB test results.
As an independent school, Shorecrest uses ERB data as one of many types of formal assessment of its students and curriculum. ERB scores are norm-referenced, compared to the pool of all students who take the test, nation-wide, independent school students, and FCIS (Florida Council of Independent Schools) students.
Shorecrest uses ERB results as a tool to evaluate the Shorecrest curriculum, noting changes in test scores over time. They are a starting point for curriculum planning and program evaluation.
ERBs at Shorecrest are not high stakes tests. They do not determine whether or not a child is promoted to the next grade, teacher pay, school funding, etc. Shorecrest teachers do not teach to the test, but rather, use the assessments as opportunities to help students learn test-taking strategies and skills, and gain experience in taking standardized tests to help support them for taking future college-entrance exams.
Overall, Shorecrest students’ ERB performance has remained consistent over time. From 2017-2021, with no testing in 2020 due to the COVID closure, almost 70% of our students performed at or above average on the ERBs when compared to all independent schools. The independent school population comprises around 700,000 of the more than 56 million school-age children in the United States.
