The Iowa Assessments are standardized tests issued nationwide from the College of Education at University of Iowa. Pleasant Valley has been administering the Iowa Assessments every fall for many years, but recent changes in the Iowa education policy have altered the schedule, making school districts statewide administer the tests at a later date.
The Iowa Assessments are required by the federal government under the Every Student Succeeds Act which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act in 2015. This act requires schools to give their students standardized assessments in order to receive federal school funding.
In Iowa, every school is required to give out two assessments to measure academic progress. At PV, students take both Iowa Assessments and MAP tests to complete the two test requirement.
In the last five years, The Iowa Assessments have been under review for not matching the Common Core curriculum taught at schools in Iowa. The education board recommended replacing the current Iowa Assessments with the Smarter Balanced tests, but the idea was shut down.
Principal, Mike Zimmer, commented on the reason why the test was not changed. “Because the Iowa Assessments are an Iowa company, the question of why they were not being considered being administered to Iowa students was brought up by the company to the Iowa legislature,” he said.
The Iowa legislature took this point into consideration and approved the usage of the Iowa Assessments again. Currently, the Iowa Assessments board are in the process of restructuring the assessments to match the common core curriculum.
Along with this change, the board is also changing the paper pencil test into a computer based test. The format of the test is also changing according to the grade it is being administered to. Different grades may have to take different amounts of tests and time limits on the tests may be removed.
Because the tests are currently under a rewriting process, they cannot be given to students until later in the school year. The postponing of the tests has created both positives and negatives for the high school.
Zimmer said, “The benefit is that the test will now match the curriculum we teach here. The problem is that these tests have been used in our district to help place students in classes according to their results. Now, the tests can only be given once students have already signed up for their fall classes in the spring.”
The uncertainty about the timing and the date the test will be released has created an obstacle for the school to schedule days for testing. Zimmer commented, “At the moment, we have no idea what the scheduling is going to be, but I say this with a caveat. I know that there are differences in the testing times between the three grades taking the test. I have been trying to mock up a schedule in which the seniors are gone and the other grades are taking the tests.”
Another problem arises as the tests are being changed into a computer based test. “We have to have enough computers and Chromebooks to test about 720 students. The single access point for internet between two classrooms also causes a problem because the maximum of students we could have per classroom would only be 40 students,” Zimmer added.
Zimmer said the schedule might end up being an early out schedule spanning through multiple days where the seniors will go home after classes. Some of the grades will stay at school and take portions of the test on one day and the other grade will take other parts on another day.
With the changes in the system and an uncertainty in scheduling, students are voicing their opinions on the modifications being made on the tests. Junior, Aabha Joshi, said, “I think that making the test computer based will be much more efficient than having it on paper. I’m hoping that the school can figure out a schedule where we are able to take the tests efficiently and not miss a lot of class.”
Jessica Brown • Nov 15, 2018 at 2:42 pm
I always thought the Iowa Assessments were better than MAP testing because they were on paper. Starting at a computer screen for hours kinda hurts your eyes, so i wished they would have kept it on paper. Plus like the article said, we don’t have enough computers so it’s going to make scheduling weird. The early out idea would be a good way to split it up between the classes, but that sucks for seniors who were expecting a day off.