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Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Tiny gains for minorities on Iowa tests
OLYMPIA -- The scores of Washington state students on the standardized Iowa tests stayed flat this year compared with 2003, while remaining above the national average.
Some tiny gains were recorded in closing the "achievement gap" between higher-performing white students and lower-performing black and Hispanic students. The scores of white students were static while the scores of minority students inched up. Asian students, who generally rank at the high end of the ethnic scale, also improved their performance. The year-to-year results for Native American students were mixed.
Third- and sixth-graders were tested in reading and math, and the sixth-graders also took a language arts exam.
The pupils taking the test were also asked to fill out a questionnaire about influences on learning. The survey of about 75,000 pupils showed that those who have a home computer scored an average of 26 percentile points higher than those who don't. Among third- and sixth-grade pupils, 82 percent reported having a home computer.
Washington third-graders overall scored in the 58th percentile for reading and the 67th percentile for math. Sixth-graders scored in the 55th percentile for reading, 55th percentile for language arts and 58th percentile for math. The only difference from the overall 2003 scores was a point drop in sixth-grade language arts.
"Even with this consistency and gains in many areas, we still have a significant achievement gap for some of our students," said state schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson. "We need to continue working together to help all students achieve our state's learning standards and erase this gap."
The Iowa tests are "norm-referenced," meaning pupils are graded based on how they compare to everyone else who took the test. A 50th percentile rank is the national average.
Results for ninth-grade students who took the Iowa tests are to be released in July.
TO LEARN MORE
Scores for specific schools and districts, and detailed statewide information, are on the Web site of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction: reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us.
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