Why-a, Why-a, Why-a, Do We Even Take the Iowa

Next week is Iowa week--or as my children like to call it, No Homework Week. This is when our students in 2nd through 8th grade take the Iowa Assessment--a norm referenced standardized test which provides a percentile ranking for our students in reading, math, science, and social studies. For more information about the test, please look at the "Featured Post" on the left. You can also check-out the newsletter for some good preparation tips for your students.

The most common question I hear from parents is "Why do we take the Iowas?" Here are my top three reasons:

1) Tracking Student Progress

Although the test measures what a student knows compared to what other students know rather than measuring what a students knows against content taught, taking the same type of standardized each year allows us to track individual student progress. Each administration of the test provides a data point--that taken over time--can show a trend. Teachers then use this information for grouping within the classroom.

2) Evaluating Our School Programs

It is important to remember that we teach to a set of standards and NOT to a standardized test. Effective teaching of the standards, however, should prepare students for any standardized tests. The score reports provided to teachers indicate how students scored within subcategories for each major subject. In small groups, at the end of the school year, teachers analyze this data. They look at data for their current students to find possible areas where they need to improve teaching for next year. They also look at data for their incoming students to see if there are any areas in which they need to spend more time based on their needs. 

3) Course Placement

In middle school, the Iowa scores, along with teacher recommendation and placement score results are used to help determine whether or not students should take an accelerated math track, allowing them to take high school algebra as a 7th grader. Our local public high schools use Iowa scores to place students into ability grouped classes and for determining acceptance to magnet and IB programs. While our private high schools use scores on their entrance exams for placement in ability grouped classes, our students Iowa scores are used when the student is on the cusp. 

Comparisons

I purposefully left this off the list. The tendency when looking at scores is to compare our scores to those of other schools.  We must be cautious, however, in making these comparisons. Just as students are not a sum total of their test scores, schools are not a sum total of their assessment results. For example, is it helpful to compare the results of a school with less than 5% of its students qualifying for financial aid to a school where 75% of its students do qualify? Also, is it fair to compare the total grade level average for a school with 50 students in the grade to a school that only has 10? 

At Christ the King, we are blessed to have students that should perform well on standardized tests: basic needs met, parents are college educated, access to books is provided, and opportunities for cultural enrichment occur. Instead of comparing ourselves to other schools we compare our results from year to year. I like the golf analogy, we are not competing against other players, we are competing against the test. Given the support they have at home and the education they received from their teachers, out students are a group I am happy to compete with any day!