August 8, 2003

Idaho State Board of Education Posts ISAT results

The Spring 2003 Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) results are now posted. Included is information regarding the percentage of students in the categories of below basic, basic, proficient and advanced in the subject areas of reading, math and language arts. The reports show statewide statistics as well as district and school numbers. The information is also disaggregated according to gender, ethnicity and special programs.

All the reports are posted on the State Department of Education website here.

Note: The proficiency levels were determined on only grades 4, 8 and 10 for Spring 2003 because the U.S. Department of Education requires that an on-grade level test be given to determine proficiency. Presently Idaho has on-grade level tests for grades 4, 8 and 10 and is currently in the process of building on-grade level tests for other grades. The tests for grades 3 and 7 will be added in Spring 2004.

4th grade

Reading 75.6%

Language 79.8%

Math 77.6%

8th grade

Reading 74.1%

Language 71.4%

Math 53%

10th grade

Reading 75.4%

Language 74.5%

Math 71.7%

• At the state level, the highest percentage of proficient or advanced students was in 4th grade language at 79.8%. The eighth grade students had the lowest percentage of proficient or advanced students in math at 53%.
• Consistently across statewide results and results disaggregated by special populations and ethnicity, there were fewer students proficient or advanced in eighth grade than in either fourth or tenth grade.

Ethnicity

The highest percentage of proficient or advanced scores were found in the Asian/Pacific Islander group at fourth grade:

• 79.9% in reading
• 84.6% in language
• 85.6% in math

· In eighth grade Asian/Pacific Islanders again had the highest percentage of proficient or advanced students (77.9% in language and 60.2% in math) except for reading, where the Caucasians had 77.9% proficient or advanced in reading.

· The same trend appeared in the tenth grade. Asian/Pacific Islanders had 81.8% and 82.6% proficient or advanced in language and math, respectively. Caucasians had the highest state proficient or advanced percentage for tenth grade reading at 79%.

· The lowest achieving subgroups were consistently the Hispanic and Native American/Alaska Natives. Both groups, across fourth, eighth and tenth grade ranged in proficient or advanced from 25% of Hispanics proficient or advanced in eighth grade math to 59.1% of Native American/Alaska Natives proficient or advanced in fourth grade math.

• 50.3% fourth, 44.3% eighth and 40.8% tenth grade Hispanic students were proficient or advanced in reading.
• 55% fourth, 48.9% eighth and 53.5% tenth grade Native American/Alaska Natives were proficient or advanced in reading.

Special populations

• Students who are eligible for free and reduced lunches had the highest percentage of proficient students in fourth, eighth and tenth grades. Special Education students had the lowest percentage.
• 38.8% in reading, 51.2% in language and 49.2% in math Limited English Proficient (LEP) fourth grade students were proficient or advanced.
• 36.5% in reading, 45% in language and 44.1% in math special education fourth grade students were proficient or advanced.
• Among special populations, the highest percent proficient or advanced was 71.1% of fourth grade free and reduced lunch students on the language arts ISAT. The lowest percent proficient or advanced was 10.6% of eighth grade students on the math ISAT.