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Bert Stoneberg, Ph.D.
K-12 Research Idaho
Idaho Education Statistics

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Idaho IRI School Achievement Status and Growth, Fall 2018 to Fall 2019:
Fall Grade 3 Assessment Defines Grade 2 Performance

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Purpose of Study. This study was a “trial run” to test the feasibility of conducting analyses of Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) scale scores that enable school comparisons statewide using achievement status, achievement growth, and school demographics from the spring to spring assessment results for grades K-3. It defined and ranked the achievement status (average scale score) and the achievement growth (effect size) of the 2018-2019 second graders in Idaho elementary schools. The intent was to enable school personnel to compare their school’s IRI results to other schools with similar size and demographics, contributing to an understanding of students’ reading knowledge and skills in their school.

Note: Fall IRI third-grade data describe achievement and growth at the end of the second grade and the following summer vacation. This was a “practice run” for similar analyses in the future that will use only spring-to-spring data, where third-grade IRI data actually describes third-grade achievement status and growth. The same for spring-to-spring K, first-grade, and second-grade data.

Data. The State Department of Education provided school-level data for Idaho public elementary schools, whether neighborhood or charter school. First, IRI third-grade test results including the school’s number of valid test scores, the average test score, and the standard deviation from Fall 2018 and Fall 2019.  In total, 378 schools had average scale scores for both Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 (which included 336 neighborhood schools, and 42 charter schools).  Second, second-grade demographic for Fall 2018 for each school’s White students, economically disadvantaged students, and special education students.

Achievement. The school’s achievement status was defined as the average scale score from the IRI Fall 2019 third-grade assessment. The State Department of Education provided these average scale scores. Schools were ranked according to status from highest average score (1st) to the lowest average score. Separate lists were prepared for all public schools, neighborhood schools, and charter schools.

Achievement Growth. The school’s achievement growth was defined as the difference between the school’s IRI third-grade Fall 2019 and Fall 2018 average scores, divided by the pooled standard deviations from IRI third-grade Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 assessments. Schools were ranked according to growth from the largest effect size (1st) to the smallest effect size. An effect size may be either positive (gain) or negative (loss).

Comparing School with Similar Indicators:

<> Indicator - School size (i.e., estimated by the number of students with valid scale scores) was the only school descriptor available for comparing all Idaho schools, neighborhood schools, and charter schools.

<> Indicators - Demographics. State current student privacy policy redactions of a school’s ethnicity, poverty and special education percentages severely reduced their usefulness for comparing schools, whether all schools, neighborhood schools, and charter schools. Study did not look at school location: city, suburb, town or rural.

Protecting Student Privacy. State Board of Education's Data Management Council's implementing Policies and Procedures. “In order to protect student privacy, we must redact data in any cells where the underlying data is less than 5 students or where the difference between the total of one or more cells of categorical data is less than 5 of the total student population.” The state board’s student privacy policy may be appropriate for redacting student achievement and demographic data when releasing “percent above a cut-score” results based on state set performance level categories and cut scores.

This study, however, was based on the scale score metric that included all students in each statistic: the school’s average scale score or “achievement status,” and the school’s effect size or “achievement growth.” There were no “cells of categorical data” used for this study. Individual student performance was not identified by the study, nor could it be identified from the state-provided school-level assessment results and demographic percentages. Nonetheless, under the board’s current policy, the percentage of “White students” was redacted for 26 percent of the elementary schools. The percentage of “economically disadvantaged students” was redacted for 29 percent, while the percentage of “special education students” was redacted for 36 percent of the elementary schools.

IRI Fall 2018 to Fall 2019 (Excel spreadsheets of ordered lists )

** All Idaho Public Schools - Grade 3 Assessment (Grade 2 Performance)

  1. * School (City) Name [378 schools]
  2. * School Enrollment (Valid Test Scores) [378]
  3. Ethnicity (Percent White) [278]
  4. Economic Status (Percent Disadvantaged) [270]
  5. Special Education (Percent) [241]

** Idaho Public Neighborhood Schools - Grade 3 Assessment (Grade 2 Performance)

  1. * School (City) Name [336 schools]
  2. * School Enrollment (Valid Test Scores) [336]
  3. Ethnicity (Percent White) [255]
  4. Economic Status (Percent Disadvantaged) [241]
  5. Special Education (Percent) [215]

** Idaho Public Charter Schools - Grade 3 Assessment (Grade 2 Performance)

  1. * School (City) Name [42 schools]
  2. * School Enrollment (Valid Test Scores) [42]
  3. Ethnicity (Percent White) [23]
  4. Economic Status (Percent Disadvantaged) [29]
  5. Special Education (Percent) [26]

K-12 Research Idaho is a personal, public service project funded entirely from retirement benefits.

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