The Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) will begin on April 13 for students in grades third through eleventh. These required tests are a way to assess growth and serve as a benchmark for both individual students and schools as a whole.
At Liberty, all freshmen, sophomores and juniors will take a reading, math and language arts test. Additionally, sophomores will take a science test, with two different testing groups based on last name. During this time, a regular bell schedule will commence, and those not taking the science test will attend their classes as normal.
This school year, staff voted to switch from two tests per day to one. Though this means that overall ISASP testing will span an additional day, Emily O’Donnell (she/her), assistant principal, believes this will lessen the load on students.
“We thought that it would be more manageable for students to just take one test a day,” O’Donnell said.
In previous years with two tests per day, class periods would be split up. Now, students will test from the beginning of the school day until roughly 10:30 a.m., with a shortened seven-class schedule to follow.
“We can stay in a consistent routine all week and people can have all their classes. Teachers get to see all of their students every day,” O’Donnell said. “When we do [two tests per day], then we have to split up the day, like periods one through four and five through [seven].”
Additionally, ISASPs will introduce an adaptive math test in correspondence to its already adaptive reading and science tests. The language arts portion will remain fixed-form.
“This year, the reading, science and math are all adaptive tests, which means you’ll answer a [section] of questions, and they’ll give you different questions based on how you perform,” O’Donnell said.
From April 13 to April 16, students must bring their fully charged school-issued Chromebook each day, and loaner Chromebooks will not be available.
