Most students still haven’t caught up to pre-pandemic levels of achievement, whether in reading, English, or math. 

And the state’s most at-risk learners, including many students of color, those with disabilities, and those from low-income families, continued to score well below their peers.

That’s according to results from two of the most significant measures of learning — the Idaho Standards Achievement Test and Idaho Reading Indicator — that were released last week. The ISAT is given annually to students in grade 3-8 and once in high school. The spring IRI scores are from k-3 students. 

Mining that data by demographics and grade levels has illuminated other trends, too:

• English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency tends to increase as students move up to high school, but math proficiency decreases. 
• Students seem to struggle with math more than with ELA or reading — most students, from nearly all subgroups measured, are not at the level they should be. 
• Students from military families have demonstrated notable resilience — they are the only subgroup to have improved their proficiency levels in ELA and math since 2019. 

For further breakdowns of IRI and ISAT data from 2019 to 2023, check out the tables below. 

ISAT ELA

For all the charts below:

• Scores in red indicate they were lower than the previous testing year’s.
• The ISAT was not administered in 2020 due to the pandemic.
• A longer ISAT was administered in 2023, and State Department officials said 2023 declines could be due to that. 

Grade level data

In grades 3-8, scores are still below pre-pandemic levels. High schoolers, on the other hand, show slow but steady improvement since 2019. 

Less than half of Idaho’s third and fourth graders are where they should be on the ELA portion of the ISAT. And all grade levels are below the state’s target of 68.7% of students scoring proficient or advanced. 

Students do seem to build proficiency as they go on in school, generally improving from half or less than half scoring at proficient or higher in grade 3, to most scoring proficient or higher at the high school level. 

Demographic data

Education leaders have different expectations for different subgroups of students when it comes to achievement on the ISAT. They set the lowest bar for students learning English, with a target of 37.9% scoring proficient or higher. The bar is highest for Asian students, with a target of 76.7% scoring proficient or higher.

Idaho leaders have different academic expectations for different groups of students. Read more about those varying goals at idahoschools.org (click on ‘view details’). Goals for 2022 are available at Idaho EdNews’ Report Card. 

Of all the student subgroups below whose performance was measured, the following had less than half achieving proficiency: Native American or Alaskan Native students; Black/African American students; Hispanic or Latino students; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students; male students; students from low income families; students learning English; students with disabilities; students in foster care; students who are homeless; students from migrant families.

And only students in foster care and from military families had proficiency levels higher than they were pre-pandemic. Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students and students from low-income families have seen continuous declines since 2019. 

ISAT MATH

For all the charts below:

• Scores in red indicate they were lower than the previous testing year’s.
• The ISAT was not administered in 2020 due to the pandemic.
• A longer ISAT was administered in 2023, and State Department officials said 2023 declines could be due to that. 

Grade Level Data

As with the ISAT ELA, students in grades 3-8 are still not achieving proficiency at the same rates they were pre-pandmic. High school students, however, have improved since 2019. 

But math grade trends show the inverse of ELA trends: students seem to lose math proficiency as they go on. About half of students score proficient or better in math in grade 3, which regresses to about a third of students showing proficiency by high school. 

Demographic data

Education leaders have different expectations for different subgroups of students when it comes to achievement on the ISAT. On the math section, they set the lowest bar for students learning English, with a target of 38.1% scoring proficient or higher. The bar is highest for Asian students, with a target of 71.2% scoring proficient or higher. 

Of all the student subgroups below whose performance was measured, all but Asian students had fewer than half of students achieving proficiency. 

And only students who were Asian, in foster care, and from military families had proficiency levels higher than they were pre-pandemic. 

IRI

For all the charts below:

• Scores in red indicate they were lower than the previous testing year’s.
• The IRI was not administered in spring 2020 due to the pandemic. 
• New data norms were applied to proficiency scales in 2023, and State Department officials said last spring’s declines could be due to that. 

Grade Level Data

Proficiency levels in grades K-3 are still lower than they were pre-pandemic. 

In all grades tested, about a third of students are not reading at the level they should be. 

Demographic Data

Of the subgroups measured below, the following had less than half of students reading at grade level: Native American or Alaska Native students; Black/African American students; students learning English; students with disabilities; students in foster care; students who are homeless; and students from migrant families. 

The following had proficiency levels higher than they were pre-pandemic: Native American or Alaska students; Asian students, and students with disabilities.

Students from military families and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Island students have shown continuous declines since 2019. 

For the full dataset of ISAT results by demographic and grade level from 2019-2023, go here. For the full dataset of IRI results by demographic and grade level from 2019-2023, go here. 

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report.