Math test scores lower

BOISE – The latest state test results show that North Idaho schoolchildren share in a troubling trend across the state – lower math scores among 10th-graders, who must pass a state test to graduate from high school.

Statewide, the Idaho Standards Achievement Test students took this spring showed youngsters performing strongly in the early grades, but dropping off in junior high, and still not fully recovering by high school.

Among third-graders across the state, 86.2 percent met the test’s standard of scoring either “proficient” or “advanced” in math. But among 10th-graders, that figure fell to 70.6 percent.

The drop-off was even larger in many North Idaho school districts. In Post Falls, scores were 92.4 percent for third-graders and 67.9 percent for high school sophomores. In Wallace, the figures showed 73.5 percent of third-graders were proficient in math, but just 32.4 percent of 10th-graders. In Coeur d’Alene, third-graders were at 92.9 percent proficient or advanced in math, while 10th-graders were at 75.2 percent.

“Am I happy about these results? No. Personally, I will not be happy until every child in Idaho is closer to that proficient level,” said state Board of Education Vice President Laird Stone, who announced the statewide results at a news conference Thursday.

But he and fellow state board member Milford Terrell said the ISAT test, which has only been given for two years, provides valuable information about where Idaho students, teachers, and schools need to improve to make sure students are educated when they graduate.

“Something that I’ve learned in business is that you can’t really make a plan for the future unless you have an accurate picture of where you are right now,” Terrell said.

Overall, statewide, Idaho students fared better on the test this year than last. In language arts, 10th-graders went up from 74.6 percent proficient to 80.9 percent, and in reading, the figure rose from 75.1 percent to 77.7 percent.

But in math, the figure actually fell from last year’s 71.7 percent to this year’s 70.6 percent.

“I’m honestly kind of glad to hear that that’s a statewide trend, because I was worried that it was just us,” said Nick Hoffman, testing coordinator for the Wallace School District. “We did have a struggle.”

But Wallace has only 37 10th-graders, so its scores are easily skewed. Hoffman said the district recognized math problems among those students last year, and offered a special math class for kids who didn’t fare well on the test, in addition to their regular math class. The students improved, and on this year’s test, about seven fell just one or 2 points shy of the “proficient” mark, he said.

“That’s the kind of thing you need to see inside the numbers,” Hoffman said.

But there was a tradeoff – because the Wallace district offered the extra math class for those who needed remediation, it couldn’t offer Algebra 2 for advanced students.

“It’d be nice if the state would’ve funded some remediation, so we didn’t need to take teachers away from other classes,” Hoffman said.

In the Lakeland School District, scores exceeded the statewide marks across the board. But math proficiency still fell from 93 percent of students in third grade to 78.7 percent in 10th grade.

Ron Schmidt, assistant superintendent, said that may have to do with individual students’ progress through the district”s math curriculum. Those who have completed Algebra 1 and geometry have no trouble passing the test, he said, but many haven’t yet finished those courses by 10th grade.

“Some kiddos are tracked a little differently than others,” Schmidt said.

The district has put “a tremendous amount of time” into aligning its curriculum with the new state grade-level academic standards on which the ISAT is based, Schmidt said. “We’re encouraged by the data we’re seeing right now.”

Among 10th-graders at Lakeland, 83.8 percent tested proficient in reading on the latest test, and 86.3 percent were proficient in language. Schmidt said the district’s goal is to get to 90 percent in all areas.

In Post Falls, testing and curriculum director Barney Brewton said even though 10th-graders scored just 67.9 percent proficient in math, while third-graders were at 92.4 percent, “I still like our scores.”

“Our eighth-graders showed tremendous improvement,” he said, rising from 43 percent proficient in math last year to 65.8 percent this year.

“We’re gearing up,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of remediation going on, a lot of help for kids with the ISAT. I think we’re going to see those scores start going up.”

Across the state, scores were much lower for children with limited knowledge of the English language. In the 10th grade, only 43 percent of those students statewide scored at the proficient or advanced level in language, 36.7 percent in math and 33 percent in reading.

Though this past year’s 10th-graders are the first who will have to pass the ISAT to graduate, most limited-English students will be excused from that requirement for the next two years. After that, however, the test will apply.

That three-year phase-in also will give the initial group of 10th-graders an extra 6 points leeway to pass the test to graduate, and next year’s 10th-graders an extra 3 points. After that, no extra points will be awarded.

Brewton said the 6 points can make a huge difference. Statewide, although just 70.6 percent of 10th-graders scored proficient in math, the figure rose to 85.5 percent when the extra points were counted.

Stone, of the state Board of Education, said he’s confident in the test’s value as a graduation requirement, even though state officials have no explanation yet for the widespread drop-off in scores in junior high and the lower math scores.

“We as taxpayers have a right to expect that our students have some minimum level of education when they graduate,” Stone said. “These are not unachievable standards. If you keep making excuses … no one will step up and make sure that our students are properly educated in this state, and it’s time we did that.”

Though the 10th grade test results show that close to 15 percent of this year’s class might not graduate, state board officials said students will have lots of time to study and retake the test until they can pass. For those who can’t pass after repeated attempts, there is a process to appeal to the local school board for an alternate measurement of their proficiency.

Hoffman, from the Wallace district, said, “I don’t see bad things here, I see things we need to work on.”