As Greene County Schools curriculum director Karen Sandberg rolled out the results of 2018-19 standardized testing (formerly the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, now the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress – ISASP) for school board members, she first reminded them “this is only one data point for us.”
Data from the last school year was delayed partly because the tests were all new. Sandberg said the results of testing next spring will be available before the end of May.
Results from the first year of tests can be used to measure Greene County students’ performance compared to their peers across the state, but there is no measure of progress from the prior school year.
Sandberg summarized the results: “In most cases we were pretty similar” (to the state average).
The largest disparities on the low side were in third grade English language arts and math. In language arts, 51 percent of Greene County third graders were proficient at grade level and the state average was 65 percent. In math, 55 percent were proficient and the state average was 71 percent proficient.
Fifty-nine percent of Greene County ninth graders were proficient while the state average was 69 percent.
The biggest difference on the high side was in English language arts and math for last year’s 10th graders. In ELA, 83 percent of Greene County students were proficient compared to the state average of 74 percent. In math, 78 percent of local students were proficient compared to the state average of 67 percent. Seventy-seven percent of Greene County students were proficient, compared to 66 percent statewide.
Achievement levels for each grade (in 2018-19) are available here. Note that students were tested in science at only grades 5, 8 and 10.
• Third grade
• Fourth grade
• Fifth grade
• Sixth grade
• Seventh grade
• Eighth grade
• Ninth grade
• Tenth grade
• Eleventh grade
High school principal Brian Phillips talked about 2019 ACT results during his monthly report. Average scores for Greene County students were below the state average in English, math and science.
Greene County students’ average score was 20.3 in English; the state average was 20.8. Local students averaged 19.3 in math while the state average was 21.0, and they averaged 21.6 in science while the state average was 21.8.
Only 27 students took the ACT last year, down from 55 students in 2018, 41 students in 2017, 50 in 2016, and 53 in 2015. A smaller number of test takers gives more relative importance to each individual score, often skewing the score lower.
