CSAP focuses on reading, writing and mathematics (the 3 Rs), whereas ITBS includes those three and other subject areas (Social Studies, Science, and Sources of Information).  Also, CSAP requires higher performance to be considered proficient, whereas ITBS is referenced to national norms.

A two-page February 7, 2003 letter to the LPS Board of Education and an enclosed 27-page January 25 report included examination between LPS ITBS/CogAT and CSAP results.  These documents [PDF 4488KB] are available; a shorter version [PDF 63KB] without the last 22 pages of scatterplots also is available.

Both versions of "Littleton Public Schools Academic Achievement per School" have a summary of selected scatterplots and tabulations of some ITBS/CogAT and CSAP results.  The 22 scatterplots show academic achievement in relation to a few ITBS/CogAT predictors.

The third summary section (page 2) outlines correlation between March, 2002 CSAP proficiency and November, 2001 ITBS/CogAT predictors for grades 3, 5, and 7 at each school.  Nearly all of the students who contributed to the March, 2002 CSAP results also provided the ITBS/CogAT data four months earlier at each school.  An additional consideration is that most of the replacements during that period probably had comparable cognitive abilities and academic achievement. 

Although CSAP and ITBS/CogAT assessments are different tools to measure similar core areas (reading, writing, and mathematics), most of the remaining scatterplots (pages 15-27) show moderate correlation between these measurements for grades 3, 5, and 7 at each school.  Of course, the confidence limits for the grade 7 scatterplots, which have only four data points, are much wider than those for the grades 3 and 5 scatterplots, which have 15 data points.

The scatterplots show that the higher-performing LPS schools on CSAP tended to also do well on ITBS, and the lower-performing LPS schools on CSAP also tended to not do as well on ITBS.  The November ITBS/CogAT results are good predictors for the March CSAP results at each school.

Last modified: 04/04/2004

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send mail to webmaster@ICAN4.info with your questions or comments about this website.
Copyright © 2003-2005 Independent Citizens Action Network (ICAN).   All Rights Reserved.