About

BACKGROUND

Today’s culture typically equates technology integration in an educational setting with academic excellence. As this perception grows and technology becomes an increasing part of the educational process, the demand grows for schools to test students more efficiently.

TestPoint™ initially grew out of a need to assist schools in the academic placement of students applying for enrollment. This need was strongly supported by research from educator surveys. When asked what tools they used for academic placement, administrators and teachers listed the following: Achievement tests, School-made tests, and No tests.

All three responses created difficulties such as: securing and maintaining old achievement tests and keys, creating school-made tests, scheduling additional staff to administer tests, and a “disconnect” as a result of using secular achievement testing which does not always line up with the typical Christian school curricula.

Teachers that were surveyed indicated the difficulty of providing a quality education when students were placed in their classes without proper academic evaluation. The research established that when teachers were initially provided with accurate academic information about students, then they could provide the best education possible.

Because of the tremendous need, planning began to determine the scope of the TestPoint™ project. In the beginning, the project did not have a name, but the mission was clear. The need was to develop a reliable tool for pre-admission testing that would help schools increase the academic capabilities of their students. High academic standards are some of the greatest tools to protect the freedoms of Christian schools to exist and flourish.

PLANNING/DEVELOPMENT

Searching for grant monies and finding a technology partner were some of the early activities. As the project progressed, guidelines were developed to secure teachers and administrators to be Master Test Authors to develop test content in language, reading, and mathematics. The scope of the content was established to be the academic knowledge students should know at the end of each grade. One of the tremendous strengths of TestPoint™ is that the content and academic standards were drawn from various sources:

  • the many years of experience of the test authors
  • a variety of curriculums
  • achievement tests
  • other assessment tools used in schools

With TestPoint™, schools are able to evaluate how new students compare academically to the academic levels in that school.

Developing content was only one element of the TestPoint™ project. Moving to on-line and computer-based assessment is a natural outcome of the increasing use of information and communication technologies to test students. A decision was made to partner with High Ground Solutions (HGS) in Birmingham, Alabama, for the many technology needs of TestPoint™:

  • programming and coding the content, producing scoring reports, marketing, and promotion
  • developing scoring modules and norming charts that would create scaled scores, percentages, and grade equivalency
  • creating quality control and field testing guidelines that required on-line error reporting

TestPoint™ has been a collaborative effort involving individuals and companies with expertise in education, computer programming, marketing, design, and promotion.

SERVICES OFFERED

As TestPoint™ has grown, new testing services have been added, rounding out the portfolio with the following:

  • Assessment Testing
  • Placement Testing
  • Achievement Testing
  • Academic Testing Competition Program

In today’s digital world, the educators, the education, and the assessment must be efficient and relevant to the technology trends in education. The individualization, relevance, and flexibility that technology brings can enable many of today’s schools to assess students at a higher level.

TestPoint™ is a tool to help schools do a better job academically to provide the best assessment possible for

  • the school
  • the parents
  • the students

TestPoint™ is Secure. Accurate. On-Demand. Revolutionary.