Idaho Students’ Test Scores Show Progress School Officials Encouraged By Improved Scores On Iowa Test Of Basic Skills

Idaho students are getting better at reading, writing and ‘rithmetic - and science and social studies - according to test scores announced Wednesday.

Statewide scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills were up significantly over last year, said Department of Education testing coordinator Sally Tiel.

Local school officials were cheered by the results.

Hazel Bauman, director of elementary education in Coeur d’Alene, said her district showed steady improvement in spelling and math. Its students performed better than 60 percent to 70 percent of students across the nation.

She was especially pleased with the reading scores for intermediate grades.

“Our sixth-graders are scoring in the 80th percentile. That shows we are doing a good job of preparing our students as readers.”

Scores for individual students will be sent home with report cards in January. The scores give parents a way to look at where their child is in relation to others around the nation, Bauman said.

She noted that the scores are just one way to measure student success.

Richard Harris, superintendent of the Post Falls school district, said he’s pleased to see improvement, as he did this year, but doesn’t want to overplay the importance of the tests.

“I’m always cautious not to celebrate too much,” he said. “Because the next year the scores may be down and you say, ‘Yeah, you can’t really depend on test scores.”’

Statewide, the scores for Idaho students increased by a total of 22 percentile points in grades three through 11.

Students in grades three, five, nine and 10 increased their composite scores by two percentile points. (That’s an average of scores from the individual subject areas).

Seventh grade stayed the same. Fourth grade increased six points, sixth grade by four points, eighth grade by three, and 11th grade by one percentile point.

Because they can track students’ performance from year to year, the tests are especially helpful, said Tiel.

“This is the kind of information educators and parents want to know so they can diagnose students’ progress early on rather than when it’s too late.”

The Iowa Test of Basic Skills is administered each fall. Last year, Idaho expanded the amount of testing that’s done to get a better handle on teaching success.

A test covering six subject areas is given in grades three, five, seven and nine. Fourth, sixth and eighth graders are tested on three subjects.

In high school, ninth graders take a long test; 10th and 11th graders, a shorter version.

Testing coordinators for North Idaho school districts spent Wednesday morning huddled in a Coeur d’Alene meeting, working with a state official to make sense of the annual barrage of numbers.

Post Falls curriculum director Becky Ford was “really, really pleased” by the small, steady increases she’s seen over the past few years.

For example, Post Falls fourth graders ranked in 48th percentile in 1994, 52nd in 1995, and 56th in 1996.

Ford was also happy that, for the first time, the state is paying for a complete explanation of the scores for each child. Parents will receive that information with report cards, she said.

Local school administrators will be presenting the information to school boards. They may use the scores as justification to change teaching methods or even to change the time of year that material is taught.

, DataTimes