Iowa Assessments

some of those.

In the old days, it was the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the Stan-

That still exists, by the way.

Yeah

...

the Comprehensive Test, the, the Stanfords.

Yeah, the Iowas are still being used, and so on.

So w- walk us through what it means to use those kind of tests, um, and what it, w- which are norm-referenced.

Um, Mr, uh, Joel Mahaffey, the new elementary principal, is, is kind of getting, getting himself settled in and, and getting an idea of what that looks like at the elementary.

Uh, they are working on a lot of data analysis right now from our, our past IOWA scores and IREAD scores.

Um, and I think that's gonna really push some of the, uh, instruction at the elementary on focusing in on how can we help that student get over the hump.

And we've got some students that, you know, if you look at maybe a, a certain grade level, and you're like, "Man, that, that, that, they didn't pass as well as what we thought they should." Well, we've got some students who are, are so close to that, and how can we dig into that data and really focus in on the, the areas that are gonna push them over the edge to get that passing score.

And it's going to give them some direction.

We just took the Iowa and we're waiting on those results.

And it's going to inform everything we do from here on out.

And we're actually going to look at that data for the first time during a grade band meeting to go over all of that data.

Make sure that you communicate the results not just with teachers, but also with the parents of the students in a strength-based way.

And then revisit that data in six to eight weeks to check the progress and adjust, if that makes sense for your context.

We assess with the Iowa three times a year.

So we do it in the fall when we come back, then we do it in January, and then we do it again at the end of the year.