ISAT starts, and pressure’s on
Amber Myers needed to score 224 to pass the state’s standardized reading test.
She got 223 her freshman year. Then 221 and 220 the following years. This year is her last chance.
Myers is one local high school senior feeling the pressure of the state’s new rule that says proficiency on the Idaho Standards Achievement Test is a requirement for graduation. The test is used to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act and is being touted as a means to raise standards in schools.
Monday was the first day of a six-week period during which Idaho students in grades 2 to 10 are taking the tests. If sophomores don’t pass, they have two more chances: as juniors and seniors.
But to Myers, the tests seem like a waste of time. She would rather be in class learning than punching in answers on a computer.
“I’m just getting tired of the test,” said Myers, who attends Project CDA, an alternative school in the Coeur d’Alene district. It’s too long, requires a lot of reading and isn’t a fair assessment of her readiness to graduate, she said.
Still, Myers said she’s trying her hardest to pass it this time and acknowledged that the test motivated her to read more – and enjoy it. She passed the math and language arts ISATs. She’s in two ISAT reading classes this semester to help her prepare.
Stressful assessment
For some students, preparation is only part of the battle.
Kierra Ellis, a junior at Post Falls High School, has test anxiety. When she sits down in front of a test, she says, her mind goes blank, no matter how hard she studies.
“Not all of us are good at tests or the ISAT,” Ellis said during her reading ISAT preparation class, where she was reading assigned articles from Upfront, the New York Times’ news magazine for teenagers.
“I try on it, really hard,” she added. She’s preparing partly by creating mnemonics to help her remember vocabulary words.
Even though she’s still a junior, Ellis wants to pass the test this time around so she doesn’t have to take another year’s worth of preparation classes instead of electives like cooking or guitar.
The time away from instruction is one aspect of the ISAT that Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane doesn’t like. The other part is when it becomes a high-stakes test, like it is this year for seniors.
“I have no problem having standards, but I hate having a single mechanism to measure a student’s abilities,” Keane said.
Coeur d’Alene Superintendent Harry Amend added that although state tests provide districts with data that help them improve instruction, “such assessments represent only a small part of the teachers’ interaction with students and student achievement in general.”
The state has allowed school districts to create a last-option alternate route for graduation that does not include passing every test in the ISAT.
North Idaho school districts worked together to develop a proposal, which they have individually submitted to the state for review. The State Board of Education may suggest changes, but those won’t affect students graduating this year, said Marilyn Davis, chief academic officer for the board.
The districts have slight differences in their proposals, but in general they outline several areas in which students can demonstrate their readiness to graduate: grade point average, completion of required credits, state tests and a senior project. Students accumulate points based on their performance in those areas, and if they reached the required number, they may graduate.
Also, this year, as a way to transition into the graduation requirement, the state has temporarily lowered the bar slightly on the scores students must achieve to be deemed proficient. In reading, the bar is at 218 this year, and will be 221 next year. In 2008, it will go back to being 224.
Having another route is somewhat comforting to Myers, who said she probably would be depressed otherwise. But she still wants to do well, even if only to help accumulate points for the alternate way to graduate.