How is Your Local School Performing?
Do you want to know how well your local school district is performing compared to other districts of similar size and resources? If so, you should go to www.idahoreportcard.org.
On this website you can review district and school data related to the ISAT (Idaho Standards Achievement Test) and IRI (Idaho Reading Indicator) as well as success indicators like the chronic absentee rates.
You can also compare districts and schools to each other. For example, you can select the Council school district and compare it to the Cambridge school district or, select another district of your choosing.
It’s important to compare apples to apples with this tool so you can get a good idea of how similarly sized schools are doing with a similar level of resources. Comparing Council to West Ada probably won’t provide useful insights.
There isn’t too many years’ worth of data on the website yet. However, one useful tool is on the ‘Performance’ tab after you select a school or district to look at it. In this ‘Performance’ tab, click on the ‘Growth’ button near the top. This page shows Student Growth toward Proficiency using the ISAT as the assessment tool. Standardized tests aren’t the only thing to look at of course when assessing a school, but it does show growth (or decline) in the student body towards proficiency in English Language Arts and Math.
If you don’t have kids in school, pass this on to someone who does. They might not know about this tool yet.
