FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2024
(BOISE) – New data from the 2024 Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) shows Idaho students making near-uniform gains, with overall proficiency rates that exceed the previous year’s results in all three assessed areas.
The assessment is designed to measure student achievement on Idaho content standards in math, English Language Arts (ELA) and science. It is taken each spring by all Idaho students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 for math and ELA, as well as grades 5, 8 and 11 for science.
“This year’s results show solid, steady and encouraging improvement,” said Chief Deputy Superintendent Ryan Cantrell. “We’re hopeful that these positive results are an indication that some of the interventions and supports that we put into place, like regional math centers and renewed dyslexia training for educators, are paying off.”
This year’s test reverted to a format that is significantly shorter when compared to the much longer assessment used in 2023. The shortened format is more likely to reflect what students know rather than serving as a measure of their test-taking stamina.
Overall, 54 percent of continuously enrolled students in Idaho scored as proficient or better in ELA. 30 percent were assessed as proficient, and 24 percent scored in the highest category, advanced. These numbers represent near across-the-board improvement over 2023’s results, with a two percentage point increase for students scoring as advanced and a single percentage point reduction in students scoring as basic and below basic.
The math results for continuously enrolled students show similar gains across most grades. Overall, the percentage of Idaho students scoring as proficient or better went up two points, including a two percentage point increase in the number of students scoring in the advanced category. As with ELA, ISAT math results also show a reduction in the number of students scoring as basic and below basic by one percentage point in each category.
The science portion of the ISAT was added to the assessment in 2021 and is administered to students in grades 5, 8 and 11. This year’s results show modest gains with 42 percent of students scoring in the proficient and advanced ranges when compared to 41 percent in 2023. Additionally, all grades with the exception of fifth grade show a higher percentage of students performing at an advanced level than in all previous years.
Statewide district and school-level results are available on the Accountability webpage.
“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,” said Cantrell. “We’re happy to see uniform good news coming out of Idaho classrooms.”
