2005 AIMS and TerraNova Scores In April 2005 all Arizona public school students in grades 3­8 and high school took the AIMS test. These scores indicate how well students are mastering the Arizona Academic Standards. In addition, the TerraNova, a norm­referenced test similar to the Stanford 9, was administered to all students in grades 2­9. The TerraNova scores tell you how a student, or the average student at a school, compares to students nationally. Please keep the following in mind when interpreting these scores: ü The AIMS test measures how well Arizona students are mastering the standards. The percentages on the following charts indicate what percentage of students at a school have met or exceeded the standards. ü The TerraNova comparison group consists of about 20,000 students per grade level who are representative of students across the United Sates who took the test in 2000. ü The scores for the TerraNova are percentile ranks. They tell that the average student did better than ________percent of students in the national comparison group. A percentile rank of 50 indicates the national average. ü The scores are only one of the many factors that should be considered when looking at schools. For example, is your child interested in music? Debate? Having an opportunity to excel in many areas in order to win a college scholarship? Mesa students capture more state music awards, win more championships, and take home more scholarships [over____million in 2005], but you wouldn’t know that if you just looked at test scores. How to Use the Tables: ü Second­ and ninth­graders take the TerraNova test only and not AIMS. High school students (grade 10­12) do not have norm­referenced scores. ü An asterisk means information is missing, or four or fewer students took the test, so the information was withheld to protect the privacy of students. ü The AIMS passing rate indicates the percentage of students at the grade level who met or exceeded the state standards in each of the three subject areas (math, reading, writing). ü The National percentile rank represents the average scores of students at that school. A child’s performance on the test is compared with the test scores of a national sample of students who took the same test. The higher the number, the better the score. ü Students in grade 11 (juniors) are generally retesting because they did not pass the test on their two attempts in 2004.
More detail, more confusion
Parents struggle
to decipher new
AIMS reports
By JACKIE LEATHERMAN TRIBUNE
CONTACT WRITER: (480) 898-5632 or [email protected]
Alejandria Gutierrez can figure out that her son passed all three portions of AIMS.
She received a detailed AIMS student report in the mail, and that portion was easy to read.
But what she can’t decipher is the educational lingo that attempts to explain to her exactly where the
Tempe High School junior needs improvement.
"I can look at the paper, and it doesn’t make any sense to me," Gutierrez said. "What does it mean by
‘coordinate geometry’? What does that mean that he gets a 100 percent in that? What is ‘analysis of
change,’ and why did he fail that?"
For the first time this year, the Arizona Department of Education provided expanded AIMS reports that
tell parents much more than whether their child passed or failed.
Parents now can see which areas of reading, writing and math caused trouble for their child — if they
can understand the jargon.
Apache Junction Unified School District Superintendent Greg Wyman said parents shouldn’t hesitate to
call their schools if they don’t understand the report.
"They are not hard concepts to understand," he said, "but . . . sometimes the reports can be confusing
because of the educational jargon in there."
State education officials said the report was mostly a guide for teachers.
"People were talking about how the AIMS test results were helping us make judgments," state
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said. "But they weren’t helping the students to improve,
and this is a way to help the student to improve by concept where their strengths and weaknesses are."
Not only does the report provide more detailed information this year, but it has been disseminated earlier
— giving teachers and parents more opportunities to discuss teaching methods to target students’
weaknesses.
Schools did not receive AIMS scores last year until the middle of August.
Even though Gutierrez said she can’t understand everything on the expanded report, she said the paper
still serves in her house as a trophy for her son.
"He was really worried that he wasn’t going to pass it," she said. "When he got the results, he posted it
on the wall. He normally doesn’t do that."
MORE ONLINE
Further explanation of the student report is available at
eastvalleytribune.com