Why is it important for my child to participate in state standardized testing?

There are many reasons it is important for your child to participate in state standardized testing. 

Benefits for Students

As an individual student, the test results show both academic achievement, as linked to PA educational standards, as well as individual progress and growth. We feel strongly that the individual progress and growth metrics are the key ones for a parent/guardian to review as they demonstrate how your child has increased proficiency since prior testing. The results of these tests also help us better educate our students, by providing data that allows us to identify areas for growth in our curriculum and instruction.

Benefits for Insight PA

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires that schools achieve a 95% participation rate for state assessments. This requirement applies to reading and math assessments that are used for accountability purposes. The ESSA also requires that schools include the greater of all test takers or 95% of eligible test takers when calculating average school test scores. If more than 5% of students don’t take the test, the lowest possible score is given to those students, which lowers the school’s average score. 

For Insight PA, the test participation rates and the scores of both the proficiency and growth measures of our students play a large part in the PA Department of Education’s evaluation of Insight PA’s performance. The more students who participate in these mandated tests and the more our students demonstrate growth towards proficiency, the better the evaluation results will be. Failure to achieve adequate participation rates could lead to the loss of some federal education funding for our school.