ISAT scores increase slightly, exceed new — lower

Idaho students’ math and English achievement levels improved slightly last spring, according to one of Idaho’s most significant measures of academic performance.

Math and English scores also met and exceeded state goals for the first time, according to just-released results from the 2024 Idaho Standards Achievement Test.

But there is a caveat: New, lower goals went into place this year — partly to address “longstanding challenges of closing achievement gaps” and to find the balance between goals “being ambitious and achievable,” according to the state’s consolidated plan. The spring 2024 scores would’ve fallen far short of the historical goals.

The ISAT is taken each spring by all Idaho students in grades 3-8 and 11 for math and ELA, as well as grades 5, 8 and 11 for science. For an explainer on standardized tests, go here. Go here for rankings of districts and charters in math and ELA sorted high to low.

While math and English scores improved slightly, science scores stagnated.

Ryan Cantrell, the state’s chief deputy superintendent, touted the academic growth and attributed it to student support initiatives, like regional math centers and renewed dyslexia training for educators.

“This year’s results show solid, steady and encouraging improvement,” Cantrell said in a press release. “As many of the initiatives that went into producing these positive results continue to mature, we believe that we’ll see more of this positive trend.”

The 2024 test reverted to a shorter format than was used in 2023, when state leaders cited the longer exam as a possible reason for falling scores. But the shorter exam coincided with only modest gains.

The results come after a recent announcement that this year’s graduating class can now use ISAT scores to gain automatic admission to Idaho colleges and universities.

A data nuance: boring but important

The Idaho Department of Education released two ISAT data sets — one for all students, and one for those who are continuously enrolled. The latter category only includes students who were enrolled in the same public school from the end of the first eight weeks of the school year until the time the exam was taken.

The IDE focused on the data for continuously enrolled students, while EdNews is focusing on the data for all students. That’s why there’s a discrepancy between figures reported in the IDE press release and this article — the continuously enrolled data shows higher achievement levels than the all students data.

The continuously enrolled data “holds schools and districts accountable for students they have been responsible for teaching that school year,” according to a results note on the IDE data.

EdNews is using data for all students so that no student’s achievement levels are overlooked. All historical figures used in this article are based on data for all students.

The IDE has made both data sets available to the public here.

ELA results: Just over half of students achieve proficiency or higher

Last spring, just over half of test-takers — about 53% — earned proficiency or higher on the English language arts portion of the test. It’s an improvement of just over a percentage point from the previous year. All together, 165,000 students took the ELA ISAT statewide. While most Idaho students scored proficient or better, nearly 41,000 students scored below basic.

The 2024 scores bested the new state goal of 52.6% of student achieving proficiency, but were well behind the historical goal of 68.7%.

Math results: Most students are not achieving proficiency

Statewide, just 42% of students are achieving proficiency or higher on the math ISAT. Still, it’s a modest improvement — of less than a percentage point — from 2023. All together, 166,000 students took the math ISAT statewide, and nearly 53,000 students scored below basic.

Students exceeded the state goal for math performance in 2024, besting the target of 41.6% of students achieving proficiency. But student achievement fell far short of the historical goal of 61.1%.

Science results stagnated

The science portion of the ISAT was added in 2021. This year, there was minimal change from 2023. All together, about 70,000 students took the science ISAT, and about 16,600 scored below basic.