ISAT scores up all-around for District 25

As a parent, it’s always a good feeling to see your child’s test scores go up. For Joseph Ryner, it was definitely exciting.

“My kid was one of the children whose ISAT test scores went way up from this year to last year,” Ryner said.

Ryner’s child isn’t the only one. As a whole, grades third through 10th in Pocatello/Chubbuck District 25 improved in all areas of the ISAT. In English language and mathematics, the district did nearly 7 percent better on average than the state.

For the last couple years, District 25 has been having teams of teachers from outside the district come in to develop more rigorous units to handle the Idaho core standards.

“Each unit culminates with what we call a performance task,” said Chuck Orr, the district’s director of curriculum. “It’s an assessment that often involves students writing to a specific subject and pulling from a variety of sources. That’s the type of thing the students see on the ISAT.”

Ryner is a fan of seeing the district put more effort to increasing test scores.

“I really feel like they don’t have as many resources to work with as they would like to have. I think that they’re doing a really good job with the budget that they have,” he said.

Orr said those teachers who help with curriculum come in June. They also work with local teachers on creating better units for each school year.

District 25 didn’t do too bad on the ISAT last year when the test was first administered. Besides 10th grade, all other grades exceeded benchmark scores.