STUDY FINDING

Students in Adventist schools had higher-than-expected academic achievement based on an assessment of individual ability.

grade

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 9

Grade 11

total:

All Students

60

61

60

57

59

63

62

68

61

 Adventist Education

66

69

68

66

72

73

72

79

70

grade

Reading

Language Arts

Mathematics

Social Studies

Science

Sources of Info

composite:

All Students

63

62

55

59

63

59

61

 Adventist Education

71

70

62

67

70

78

70

Overachievers

Academic Achievement of Adventist School Students

In addition to using achievement tests to see how well students in Adventist schools were acquiring knowledge, the CognitiveGenesis study used ability tests (also called aptitude tests) to assess how well students could think and reason in such areas as verbal skills, comprehension and problem solving.

There’s a correlation between ability and achievement tests. With a fair degree of accuracy, the results of aptitude tests can be used to predict how well students will do on achievement tests. However, when the CognitiveGenesis researchers compared the predictions against actual achievement scores, they were in for a surprise. Students in Adventist schools were consistently doing better academically than had been predicted. They were overachievers in the best sense of the word.

abilities test percentile rank

1–25

26–50

51–75

76–99

average:

 Difference from Predicted Score

+8.08

+4.55

+4.27

+3.02

+4.98

Achievement by ability level

Ability test scores were used to divide students in Adventist schools into four groups (left column) based on their aptitude. Actual achievement scores were significantly higher than predicted (right column).