5 reasons we're moving away from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills
by Dr. Tyler S. Thigpen
We are not big fans of standardized tests at The Forest School. Why? Standardized tests often fail to measure what we care the most about: purpose, perseverance, warmheartedness, tough-mindedness, and the attributes of self-management and self-governance that make our Studios hum with energy and learning. Worse, some learning environments “teach to the test” in ways that encourage memorization and regurgitation and that kill curiosity and a love of learning.
Despite not being massive fans of standardized tests, there can be some benefits. Since the inception of our school, we have offered the standardized assessment called the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) to assess basic skills. The Iowa Assessments is a group-administered achievement test for grades 3-12 that measures a student’s knowledge in subject areas that students have learned in school—reading, language arts, and mathematics, and in some cases science and social studies. Since we take a growth mindset, we have used the Iowa results to measure heroes’ growth over time and to inform our instructional next steps. We use the test data to look for gaps in learning and “bugs” in heroes’ thinking. Every year we’ve made a plan to address the gaps and bugs.
Unfortunately, for years now our team and I have experienced ITBS as limited in its helpfulness. It’s now reached a point where we’re committed to finding a better solution.
Here are ways ITBS has been a struggle and five reasons why we’re moving away from it.
Limited scope: The Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) was developed in the 1930s and was designed to measure basic skills in reading, language, and math. Since the 1903s, our understanding of what constitutes “basic skills” has evolved, and the scope of what K12 learners need to learn has expanded. Unfortunately, the ITBS has been slower than we thought to embrace the new canon of basic reading, writing, and math skills. It also hasn’t been expanded to address a broad range of skills that our families value and that our heroes are expected to master today, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.
Lack of alignment with modern teaching methods: The ITBS is a standardized test that is administered in a one-size-fits-all format. It does not account for the individual learning styles of learners or the different teaching methods used by teachers and especially our Guides. In today's classrooms, teachers use a variety of instructional strategies to meet the diverse needs of their students, and standardized tests like the ITBS are not aligned with these modern teaching methods. We knew this when we started taking Iowa, but we’ve now come to a place where we’re keen to find a standardized test that better aligns with our teaching methods.
Overemphasis on rote memorization: The ITBS focuses on rote memorization of facts, rather than on deep understanding and application of knowledge. While memorization is an important aspect of learning, it should not be the sole focus of education. Students need to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills to be successful in today's world. Therefore, the ITBS is not an accurate measure of a student's ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world situations.
Lack of cultural appropriateness: Over the years we’ve observed that some ITBS questions are obscure or tricky, and there may be more than one correct answer to some questions. For example, this question, “Choose the word that best completes this sentence – ‘A sage individual is: __touchy, __testy, __old, or __wise.’” ITBS says the right answer is “wise.” However, this kind of question could trip up many students, including those from cultures strongly identifying wisdom with age. Other standardized tests are more culturally sensitive, and given our diverse environment, we will opt for one of those.
Overall lack of usefulness: ITBS scores only reflect how a learner compares to other learners and do not measure what they know or are capable of doing. The tests are norm-referenced and designed to sort and rank learners on a bell curve, with half of the students scoring below average. While every year at Forest our team and I have worked hard to translate test reports into next steps for instruction, the process has been wonky. We have come across multiple other standardized tests that yield much more useful, practical data, and we look forward to using one as a tool for assessment.
Don’t get me wrong, our learners have crushed ITBS over the years.
On average learners at The Forest School performed at the following grade level equivalents in the core subjects of math and english language arts...
2nd grade—3 months behind grade level
3rd grade—2 months ahead of grade level
4th grade—6 months ahead of grade level
5th grade—7 months ahead of grade level
6th grade—2 months ahead of grade level
7th grade—1 year ahead of grade level
8th grade—1.5 years ahead grade level
High school—2 to 3+ years ahead of grade level
These are impressive numbers because in the United States most learners are 4 to 5 months behind at any given grade level (as per studies done by McKinsey, Brookings Institute, and others). At Forest, we've now seen this as a common trend over the years—As learners grow accustomed to our self directed learning model (which can take months or years), then they eventually perform above grade level on the Iowa test.
Despite our relative success with ITBS, we are looking for something better.
We will continue to offer a standardized test so that learners get practice at test taking, so that our Guides and I can have more actionable testing data to inform instructional next steps, and most importantly so that we have confidence our learners are mastering basic reading, writing, and math. SAT and ACT standardized tests are still an expectation for some colleges and universities in the United States; and we know our learners gain practice for those exams by taking standardized tests earlier in their schooling.
For Middle and High School heroes, we will continue using the CCRA+, which measures critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, writing effectiveness, and complex problem-solving skills that transcend content and best position learners for life as independent learners. The opposite of a multiple choice test, the CCRA+ (previously known as CWRA+) is an open-ended, 90-minute “performance assessment” where learners demonstrate their reasoning, problem solving, and writing skills while attempting to solve a real world problem. It's an awesome test. About the test Tony Wagner, Harvard professor and author of The Global Achievement Gap, writes, “Teachers say it is the best test, by far, of the skills that matter most for college.” The CCRA+ was written by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE), and has emerged as a leader among assessments aimed at measuring skills necessary in work and college environments in the 21st century.
What’s next?
This summer, our team and I will vet world class assessments for learners grades 3, 4, and 5 and choose one to administer during the 2023-2024 school year. Right now the front runner for next year’s standardized test is the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), which yields more useful results. We do not offer standardized tests for learners younger than grade 3 because research shows that they are not developmentally appropriate. Researchers contend that young children learn through play, exploration, and interaction with others, and that standardized tests do not accurately capture these important aspects of learning. Assessments in the early years should be designed to reflect young heroes’ strengths, interests, and needs, and should be used to inform instruction rather than as high-stakes measures of achievement.
In addition to CCRA+ for learners grades 6-12 and a new test for learners grades 3-5, we offer SAT and ACT prep courses in high school. Also, we are making plans to add more performance based assessments (similar to Practicals in high school) for 5th and 8th graders, as they transition to middle and high school respectively.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, requests, or ideas please let us know.
Tyler and team