Our first priority at Pinewood Christian Academy is to foster in our students a relationship with Jesus Christ and a Biblical world view. Our second—almost equal—priority is to facilitate their academic development through a rigorous yet supportive instructional program. How do we know if we are succeeding here? One tool we use to annually evaluate our students’ progress and the school’s effectiveness is a nationally normed standardized test.

For this, Pinewood Christian Academy has relied for many years on the SAT10. Now however our K–2nd-grade students will pilot the NWEA MAP Growth test, which is gaining popularity among private, Christian, and charter schools across Florida and is approved by the state as a valid and reliable measure of student achievement.

We like this test because it is:

• Computer-based: In contrast to the traditional No. 2 pencil bubble test, scores can be viewed within 24 hours of testing. Audio support provides students with help and directions whenever they request it.
• Adaptive: Tests begin with questions appropriate for students’ grade levels, then adapt to each student based on their responses. This dynamic approach challenges top performers without overwhelming others.
• Untimed: Because the test adapts to students’ responses, the number of questions can be reduced; most test sections require only 30–45 minutes.
• Ongoing: Students can be evaluated up to three times each year so we can track their growth from September through May.

Rest assured that PCA is not adopting a “testing culture”; we are, in fact, aiming for the opposite! Because the test requires less time to complete, teachers and students are not “losing” an entire week in April to testing; instead, each class can complete the test in half a day. And by using MAP two or three times each year we are eliminating the stress of the “high stakes” test at the end of the year.

• Pinewood Christian Academy