Arizona public school students did better than last year in most categories of the spring administration of the 2006 AIMS test, the state Department of Education has announced.
Students showed nearly across-the-board gains in reading and math, but lesser improvements in writing proficiency.
With testing for the three subjects in seven grades, students increased their proficiency rates in 17 of the 21 categories, increasing their overall proficiency rates from about 55 percent to about 70 percent, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said July 12.
Mr. Horne said the results of the AIMS test conformed with recent above-average results of national tests taken by Arizona students.
Approximately 500,000 students attending district and charter schools in grades 3-8 and 10 took the test, formally known as the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards.
Papers released by Mr. Horne’s department indicated that students made year-over-year gains in reading in all seven grades measured by AIMS, in six out of seven grades in math and in four out of seven years in writing.
The director of assessment for the state’s largest school district, Mesa Unified, said her district’s results generally reflected the state results, including “up and down” results for writing.
Because the writing portion of the test consists of one essay given on an assigned topic and using an assigned mode of writing, results from year to year and between grades can vary, said Kathy Black, Mesa’s director.
Still, “it’s really hard to look at writing and feel we’re making the progress we hope we are,” she said. “Even statewide there was quite a lot of variation from last year to this year.”
This year was the first that Arizona high school students were required to pass the AIMS test to receive a high school diploma, and Horne announced in May that 98 percent of seniors with the required credits would graduate.
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