The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is cutting down on the amount of points needed to pass the Illinois Standardized Achievement Test (ISAT).
The fifth-grade reading test requires ten percent less correct answers and the third- and fourth-grade reading test requires seven percent less points since 2006.
Standardized tests are used for less than five years then are replaced by a new one. The change in ways of determining scores was made when the difficulty level was discovered to not be the same on both forms, Matt Vanover, ISBE spokesman, said.
“Each question is different from year to year and from 2008 to 2007 there was a huge fluctuation in scores,” Vanover said. “This determined [the first test form] was not equal to the new one.”
Because the new test was more difficult, students needed less correct responses to be considered in the average range. This method of changing the interpretation of results to make them equal is called equating,
“To understand equating you can think of a parking garage. It takes $2.50 to get out. One option is to use fewer coins and pay with ten quarters or more and use 25 dimes. This is like getting fewer questions correct to get the same results,” Vanover said.
Even though ISBE has changed the way the scores are interpreted, Grant Seaholm, Spencer Loomis Principal, said when he looks at results, he looks at the direct scores from the test as opposed to the interpretation of standards ISBE makes.
“If the score needed to be considered average was 200 and now it is 190, we are still going to look at the score as a 190,” Seaholm said.
The ISAT is used in determining if a school passes the requirements for No Child Left Behind which will require 77.5 percent of students to pass standardized tests. By the 2013-14 school year all students in Illinois must pass according to an October Chicago Tribune article.
The ISBE is currently developing a new standardized test that will be used by the 2014-15 school year.