ISTEP Scores
BEG, did you get a copy of her results in the mail? I got 16's yesterday. She has always been a good student but this year she's having some major problems in Math. She did not pass the Math portion of the ISTEP. When I looked at the areas she didn't pass, I found it was Algebra and Geometry. The exact thing she is having so much trouble in. There won't be any remedial instruction for sophomores until next fall. But she needs to be able to pass this class this year. We decided after seeing the scores, she will be getting a tutor. Now I need to find a good one.
Do you think the scores have been adversly affected by the state moving the ISTEPs to the Fall?
The other PINK meat!
Well I will say one thing. The tests start about 5 or 6 weeks into the year. If it's your first year of Algebra, how much are you going to know? And how far into the course does the ISTEP choose their questions? For instance if you are at the 4 week level of Algebra, and the test covers up to the 24th week of the course, how many questions do they REALLY expect you to get right?
Not having seen the test myself I'm not sure how much Algebra is covered.
I would not have been able to pass it my sophomore year if I had to take it in the fall. I had a dismal semester my freshman year and dropped back to general math for the next semester. I tried it again my sophomore year in a different school system, with a different type of class schedule and passed it with B's. Go figure.
Although I didn't enjoy taking the ISTEPs, taking them in the spring wasn't an issue when I was in school.
The other PINK meat!
I have not seen Lil BEG's scores, but she isn't too confident about passing the math portion either. She has struggle with algebra since 8th grade. She's finally getting it (Algebra II). She says it's because she FINALLY has a teacher who explains it - the head of the math dept at AHS - go figure.
I have always thought that ISTEP testing in the Fall was a mistake. It's like asking the students to guess at what they are going to learn the rest of the year. Not a smart way to benchmark the learning process, IMO.
I'm with ya BEG. I believe it was simply, "Hey, let's try this and see what happens."
The other PINK meat!
Why did they move it to fall, anyway? So the kids have all summer to forget a lot of what they've learned, or so they could be tested on stuff that they haven't learned yet, despite being in the class, because it's taught later on?
Yeah, my son had a crappy ISTEP score, too. I was very upset, but reading all of your responses, I do feel a smidge better.
"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. " ~~Frank Sinatra~~
***I DID IT!!!! Yep, that's right. I'm a non-smoker!***
Salmon Fan, are you confused? ISTEP has only been around for about 10-15 years, and has always been in the fall. Next year (08-09) the students will actually take the test twice, once in the fall and once in the spring, then in the spring from then on (unless they change it again).
The concept of ISTEP is to test what you learned last year, or in all the years up to this one, not to test you on what you are learning now, or will learn this year. I cannot speak to the specific questions on the test because no one will let me actually take it, (although I did see a few questions and I may not want to take it...)
As far as the results, we were told last night that at least 2 students got perfect scores on the math portion! Wow. Overall, ACS went a bit up in the math and a small bit down in English. I have not had the time to look the results over in depth to understand where exactly we are up and where we are down, but I do know that our ESL population is growing and growing which poses a problem in the English portion of the test (numbers are numbers, no matter what language you speak, but, if you can't speak English, or can't speak it well, you will have problems with writing eassys and such).
President Just a member of ACSC Board of Trustees
According to the letter I got along with the test results. There will be an ISTEP test again in the spring of this school year. Remedial classes are being offered only to the Juniors and Seniors who have to take that test again, because they didn't pass it in the fall.
CC, is this the High School portion? Offered again so that those who need to pass for graduation can take it again...
President Just a member of ACSC Board of Trustees
I don't beleive we will read anything in THB until tomorrow about the ISTEPs, but Lil BEG has heard rumors that there was a decrease at ACSC (or maybe just AHS) in both English and Math.
Her concern to me was that maybe she isn't as smart as she thought (or everyone is telling her that she is - yep, I'm GUILTY!). She told me again of her college / career goals the other day (she like to major in Pharm and minor in Journalism), but now she's wondering if she'll not make it in college. This is the first time I"ve ever not seen her positive about her future.
So, now I'm back in the 'you can do anything' cheerleading mode 
which I stopped when she started tooting her own horn.