Assessments

The Coeur d'Alene School District assessment program is an ongoing process, the purpose of which is to measure student achievement. The information gathered helps our district and schools to refine instructional practices and focus curriculum. It gives parents, students and educators information about how a student is progressing.

Since the fall of 2002, the District has given the Idaho Standards Achievement Tests in grades 3-10. The ISAT is a series of achievement tests that systematically increase in difficulty from one grade to the next. Grade level testing makes is possible to give each student a test appropriate to his or her achievement level, and to measure growth from year to year. It also helps to gauge the effectiveness of instructional programs and adherence to state curriculum standards.

The District also participates in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in random samples in grades 4, 6 and 8. The District administers the Direct Math Assessment (DMA) in grades 4, 6 and 8; the Direct Writing Assessment (DWA) in grades 5, 7 and 9, and Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) in grades K-3. 
Additionally, some high school students in grades 11 and 12 take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) on a voluntary basis.

As another component of a comprehensive assessment plan, District end-of-course assessments are in place in the five core areas of Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science and Health, based on the District's adopted curricula. Ongoing development and revision of these tests continues to provide important "benchmarking" information that will enable students, parents, and teachers to accurately monitor student growth toward the state exiting standards. 

Additionally, teachers employ a variety of informal classroom assessment techniques to provide an ongoing picture of student growth in knowledge, skills and reasoning. Quizzes and end-of-unit tests ensure progress is being monitored and instruction can be adjusted as needed. Other assessment methods may include student portfolios, projects and presentations.  

Idaho Reading Indicator

The IRI (Idaho Reading Indicator) is intended to be used both to help establish local curricular standards and materials as well as to provide direction for further assessment of individual children. It is not intended to be a complete diagnostic reading test; rather, the IRI should be used to determine which children in a classroom might have additional needs in the area of reading. It is administered three times each school year and takes approximately ten minutes. The IRI assesses the skills that each child should have mastered at the time of testing and measures whether the child's skills are on grade level. (The kindergarten assessment shall include reading readiness and phonological awareness.) Grades one, two, and three shall test for fluency of the student's reading. 

Idaho Standards Achievement Tests

The Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) is for all students in grades three through eight and grade 10 and are administered to each grade mentioned in the spring and in the fall (graduation requirement retesting for grades 11 and 12) of each school year. These assessments replace the norm referenced assessments with an assessment system that will provide teachers, students, and parents with an accurate assessment of student progress in mastering basic skills in reading, language usage, and mathematics based on Idaho Content Standards. The Coeur d'Alene School District participates in the computer-based test which adapts the level of question difficulty according to the ability level identified for each student. In an optimal test, the student answers approximately half of the items correctly and half incorrectly. The final score is an estimate of the student's achievement level and is reported in a scale score. A scale score is an equal-interval score with a range from 150 to 300 and may be used from year to year to follow a student's educational growth.

Direct Mathematics Assessment

The Direct Mathematics Assessment (DMA) is given in grades 4, 6 and 8. This assessment consists of five mathematical problems for each grade level. All students answer the first problem and then choose three of the four remaining problems to answer. Each problem has several sections requiring answers and demonstration of student work. Students have a total of sixty minutes of working time to complete the assessment. Assessments will be scored with a holistic scoring standard in increments of half points from 5.0 to 0.

Direct Writing Assessment

Students in grades 5, 7 and 9 are given the Direct Writing Assessment (DWA). This assessment consists of one prompt that students write to for sixty minutes. This is an assessment of standard written English. Student papers will be scored holistically, using the five point scoring standard.

ACT/SAT - College Entrance Exams

The American College Testing (ACT) and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are nationally recognized tests used for college and rank-order testing for entities outside of public K-12 education.  The tests are given through grades 10-12 as per the desire of the student/parent.  These tests are administered at the High Schools on a Saturday when available.