Schools score above average on Iowa tests

Montana’s K-12 students again placed above average on the Iowa achievement tests taken by fourth-, eighth- and 11th-graders nationwide.

By ALLISON FARRELL
Gazette State Bureau

Some 33,000 public and private school students in Montana took the test during the 2002-2003 school year and for the third year in a row, performed the same or better in various subjects than 60 to 70 percent of the nation’s students who also took the test.

"Montana test scores, while remaining among the top in the nation, have stabilized while other states continue to improve," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch said. "If we don’t seriously address the very real problems such as a looming educator shortage and adequate state support for schools, we will very likely see a decline in the quality of the education of children receive."

Critics of the public school system say McCulloch’s argument doesn’t make sense.

"We can’t say when the scores go down, we need more money," said Rob Natelson, University of Montana law professor and a leader in the school choice movement. "We can’t say when the scores go up we need more money. We can’t say when the scores stay the same we need more money."

One result of note, McCulloch said, is that the traditional "gender gap" – in which girls perform better in language arts and reading while boys do better in math and science – is absent from these most recent test scores.

Montana girls tend to score at or above the same level as boys in all subjects and grades, the results indicate. By 11th grade, Montana girls earn higher marks in reading and language arts while, at the same time, performing at the same level as the boys do in math and science.

However, school administrators caution against using these specific achievement tests to rate students’ overall performance.

These tests only measure basic skills, and not the students’ grasp of the state-mandated curriculum, educators said.

"People don’t put a lot of stock in the test because it doesn’t measure what we teach," said Cheryl Wilson, assistant superintendent of the Missoula County Public Schools. "It’s a very small, snapshot measure."

The Iowa tests, given every spring to the three grades, are all multiple choice and cannot measure reading and critical thinking skills or specific knowledge, she added.

"It’s dangerous to use the Iowa test to look at individual students," Wilson said. "They can tell you some things about your progress as a district or a school."

Butte Public Schools are using the test in part to gauge the effectiveness of new reading programs in first through third grades, said Judy Jonart, curriculum director.

And the tests seem to indicate that the district’s new reading programs are working, she said.

Fourth-graders in Butte schools who took the Iowa test in 2003 participated in the new reading program as second- and third-graders and consequently, pushed their proficiency level on the test up to 85 percent. In 2002, 76 percent of fourth-graders in Butte schools were proficient in reading and in 2001, 75 percent were proficient.

Administrators in the Helena Public School District are using the information to help figure out why students in eighth and eleventh grades don’t perform as well as fourth-graders on the reading section of the test.

In the Helena Public Schools, 84 percent of the fourth-graders are proficient in reading while in eighth grade, the percentage of proficient readers drops to 76 percent and 80 percent of 11th-graders are proficient.

"We’re looking at the data and trying to define what strategies will be most effective," said Bruce Messinger, superintendent of Helena schools.

While school representatives across the state said they are pleased that Montana students do better on the Iowa tests than the majority of their peers nationwide, state education officials are warning that without more funding, these scores are likely to slip.

Natelson said the Iowa test results indicate Montana is losing ground, since other states made larger score gains while Montana’s remained largely the same.

"I think the reason other states are pulling away from us is because they’ve made changes that we haven’t," he said. "We have done nothing to make our schools better. Instead, there’s a cry for more money."

Billings public school officials did not return calls seeking comment.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/09/06/build/local/33-iowas.inc