Idaho 10th-graders to take ISAT this fall

The state Board of Education has agreed to spend about $20,000 so Idaho public schools can test 10th-graders this fall.

Students must pass the Idaho Standards Achievement Test in the spring of their 10th-grade year to graduate high school. The ISATs in reading, math and language measure whether schools are succeeding under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

But the board has scaled back on statewide testing since 2007 to help avoid a potential deficit of about $1.1 million. In June, the agency voted to dump the ISAT for all grades this fall and save $500,000 to help restore the ninth-grade ISAT by 2010.

Some educators now worry high school sophomores are unprepared to pass the ISAT when it is most crucial.

The ISAT has proved useful in identifying students who need extra help before the test becomes a graduation requirement in the 10th grade, said Silvana Stoll, a counselor at Borah High School in Boise.

"For me, as a counselor trying to get kids to graduate, it's nice to be able to have that data on kids who are struggling," Stoll said.

The gaps in testing since 2007, however, mean students are going into the 10th grade this fall who haven't taken the ISAT in two years, said board spokesman Mark Browning.

The board voted Wednesday to give school districts the option of testing 10th-graders this fall. Testing for all other grades is still canceled.

Idaho already pays $225,000 to offer the ISAT online to students in the 11th and 12th grades who don't pass the test during the 10th grade, according to the state Department of Education.

And some schools use their own evaluation systems to pinpoint at-risk students.

In the Meridian School District, the state's largest with 32,500 students, kids are evaluated beginning in grade school through teacher recommendations and tests designed to measure how well they've retained class material, said district spokesman Eric Exline.

After the state canceled ISAT testing this fall, the district made plans to give students in third through eighth grades an alternative test, Exline said.

"You don't want to wait until fall of the 10th grade to find out that 20 percent of your kids are off track," Exline said. "You need to know way earlier than that."