Scrambling and Mania

In the next week or so, you will see a great deal of scrambling and mania at both the elementary and middle schools. Why you might ask? Because it is ISAT time!

Even though you will hear over and over again, "we don't practice for the ISAT" or " we don't care about the ISAT" or "we don't do test prep," the truth of the matter is that they do.

Keep an eye on what your kids are bringing home for homework. You will undoubtedly see words in the margins of the worksheet that indicate the worksheet is to help prepare kids for the ISAT. Not only that, but the homework load will increase. Worksheets will become packets. A pep rally will be held at the elementary school. Scrambling and mania will take place. Even the teachers get worried...

"Crazy world at Pdale!!! Suddenly ISAT tests are super important and wehave to get our kids ready for them!!! (The Administrators) talked about them a lot atour staff meeting and now after years of them saying ISATs don't matter..they do!!" 

Mark Fredisdorf wants to bring in another statistician to inform the board that even though our scores will be going down, our students are still doing great! What's that you ask? Scores going down? Well, no, not yet, unless you are talking about the 8th grade Math Explore score. That one did tank. We are now ranked 4th among feeder schools in math. Ouch!

The reason the ISAT scores will go down is because the "cut scores" are going up. The cutoff score for students to meet and exceed the state standards will be higher. Kids that usually exceed the state standards might only meet them. Kids that meet the standards may fall into the "does not meet" category and so on.

Next year is the last year students in Illinois are expected to take the ISAT test. After that, they are supposed to begin taking the PARCC test. PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career. A consortium of 22 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands are working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math anchored in what it takes to be ready for college and careers.

In this year's ISAT 20% of the questions will be based on the Common Core Standards. These questions are a different format than our kids are used to. Below you will see some sample questions and their corresponding grade level.

Scrambling and mania might be an understatement...