Students test their proficiency in a wide range of subject areas throughout the school year to determine placement and appropriate content for personalized instruction. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) for Grades 3 - 8 and the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) for Grades 9 - 12 are two of the most important of these because they are compared with how other students test in the district and the nation.

The ITBS and ITED are actually a series of tests measuring various skills and reflected on the score sheet that you receive:

The Reading Total is based on the average of the scores from Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension tests. The Vocabulary test measures how well you know the meanings of written words, and the Reading Comprehension test measures how well you understand what you read.

The Language Total is the average of four separate scores that measure skills used in standard written English: spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and usage and expression.

The Math Total is based on scores from the Math Concepts and Estimation test and the Math Problem Solving and Data Interpretation test.

The Core Total that you see on your test results reflects the average of the Reading, Language and Math Totals and helps describe overall achievement in these areas.

Additionally, a Social Studies test measures how well you understand and can use ideas from such areas as history, geography and government. A Science test measures how well you understand methods and procedures of scientific research and ideas that come from life science, earth and space science, and physical science.

The Sources of Information Total score is based on the average of scores from the Maps and Diagrams test and the Reference Materials test, measuring skill in using maps and diagrams and library resource materials.

A Composite score provides an average of all of these scores to describe overall achievement in all six areas.

For some students, additional Word Analysis and Listening tests are used to measure skills needed for reading and how well the student understands what he or she hears.

The score sheet that you receive with test results will show the percentile rank scores earned on the ITBS/ITED. Percentile ranks range from 1 to 99. To determine these percentile ranks, the student's scores are compared with the scores of students in a certain group who represent the same grade level tested at the same time. A national percentile rank (NPR) indicates your relative standing in comparison with other students in the nation. For example, if you earned a national percentile rank of 72 on the Science test, it means that you scored higher than 72% of the students taking the test nation wide... it also means that 28% got a higher score! A local percentage rank (LPR) compares your total with all students in your grade level in the district.

Percentile ranks are meant to help students identify areas of greatest strength and areas for improvement. Additional support and information can be provided by classroom teachers in each subject area.