• Academics Overview
• Elementary School Academics
• Middle School Academics
• High School Academics
• Post-Graduation Academics
• Academics Contacts

Academics

In this section of the Community Report, you will find data from two types of assessments our students take annually:

1. State assessments—The federal government's No Child Left Behind law requires every state that receives federal education funding to administer an annual standardized assessment in reading and math for all students in grades 3-8 and 10 to measure their progress and ensure they are learning at appropriate rates. Washington lawmakers also decided to test in writing (grades 4, 7, and 10) and science (grades 5, 8, and 10). Washington's standardized exam was called the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) until 2009, when lawmakers renamed and revised it into three exams: Measurements of Student Progress (MSP) for elementary and middle school students; the High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) for 10th-graders in reading, math, writing, and science; and End of Course (EOC) assessments that students take at the end of their algebra and geometry classes, no matter their grade level. The state assessments are administered statewide in spring. Their scores are given in percentages of students who have met or not met standard in the particular content area. A complete look at our state assessment data and trends—broken down at the District and school level—are available on the state's education website.
2. Stanford 10—The District chooses to administer the reading and math "Stanford 10 Achievement Test" to all kindergartners through freshmen to gather information about how our students learn on a national scale, which is important data that the state standardized assessments cannot provide. Stanford 10 scores are given in percentile rankings that show the relative standing of a student compared with others in a sample group. A score of 87, for example, means that the test taker scored better than 87 out of every 100 students in the sample group. Statistically, the majority of students taking the test across the nation must be in the 50th percentile range. (Please note: the District will discontinue the Stanford assessment except at grades 1, 2, and 5 beginning in 2011-2012.)

Overall, our students significantly outperform their state and national peers, and they are making gains.

Assessments play a significant role in student learning and school accountability. Educators every year use in-depth analyses of the data to implement plans to support individual students and move them to higher achievement. The following year, they use the assessments to check for evidence of progress, reevaluate, and adjust their learning plans and goals accordingly.

While our students continually demonstrate their academic capabilities on standardized tests, these numbers do not begin to tell the story of the deep, exploratory learning happening in our classrooms. Success is defined and measured in many ways, and student achievement is told through stories of extra-curricular activities, the arts, community service, leadership, and citizenship. Our students have accomplished a lot in recent years!

Please visit each school's annual "report card" (available in the right-hand menu box when you select a school) for school-level achievement information and academic goals.

The Issaquah School District did not meet Adequate Yearly (AYP) progress standards in the category of elementary reading, elementary Hispanic Reading, elementary special-education math and reading, and middle-school low-income reading. For complete information about AYP, highly qualified teachers, assessment data, and state NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) results, visit the state's online district report card.