Spring ISATs begin today
LEWISTON – Students this week will begin taking the spring round of standardized tests used to determine whether their schools are making adequate yearly progress.
The Idaho Standards Achievement Test begins today and runs through May 20. The exam covers reading, language arts and math. In addition to its eventual use as a graduation requirement, the test assesses whether the state’s 667 schools are meeting education standards.
Students are divided into 41 subgroups, such as special education, economically disadvantaged or limited English proficiency. If just one subgroup fails to meet its proficiency standards, the entire school misses the mark for adequate yearly progress.
Jenifer Junior High in Lewiston was one of 113 schools that did not achieve that goal last year. The benchmark is a key element of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Seventy-one of the schools that failed to make “AYP” did so for the second consecutive year and were placed on a “needs improvement” list.
Continual failing marks could lead to closure of a school or its being taken over by some other institution.
Some teachers at Jenifer school say it is unproductive to put so much pressure on schools through the tests.
“It’s very, very frustrating,” say Pam Johnson, who teaches social studies. “The purpose of (the No Child Left Behind Act) is not wrong, but it’s not practical.”
“This law is made by legislators … who don’t know what it’s like in the trenches,” said language arts teacher Joy Beckman.
“There are kids who have nothing and when they go home, homework is not their priority. It’s survival.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Marilyn Howard said changes are being proposed in the 2001 law to address the problems of testing the subgroups. And she said teachers and school officials should not get stuck on the problems with the federal law or regulations.
“Schools need to be able to lift their eyes beyond those basic tests, because our plan would be to educate students much more fully than what is indicated by a knowledge test,” she said.
“It’s simply a message to the schools to look deeper and see if there’s something that could be adjusted. But it certainly is not a black mark on an entire school.”
The state Board of Education’s goal is that by 2014, every child at every grade level will be proficient in reading and math, and the state’s high school graduation rate will reach 90 percent.
The graduation rate was 81 percent last year, up from 77 percent two years prior.