ISAT Exam Resources

Idaho ISAT Assessment Portal - Go here to give digital versions of the interim exams and to access reporting

ISAT blueprints - Shows the breakdown of which targets have how many questions as computer adaptive (CAT or CT) and performance task (PT) items on the ISAT ICA. May be updated year over year, so make sure to use the query linked above to obtain the most recent blueprints.

How to access SBAC/ISAT Interim Example Printouts Quickly |For 3-11th Teachers/Admin| - Outlines how to grab full ISAT interim test printouts for practice and alignment more efficiently than selecting one item at a time. (Or grab the versions I downloaded linked here.) These seem to change slightly over the years (in theory), so a 2020 archive might be less up-to-date than future versions. 

ISAT MATH Targets Summaries with Links |For 3-11th Teachers/Admin| - Outlines the major and supporting claim 1 targets per grade level with a Standards summary per target. Links to the Smarter Balanced website with interim assessments, supporting materials, DOK, target-level descriptors, and more. This document is updated for the 2022 adopted Idaho Content Standards for Mathematics for high school standards.

Discover What Your Students Need Through ISAT Interims |For 3-11th Teachers/Admin| - A slightly outdated presentation that summarizes the ISAT interim assessment types and gives some context for standard alignment.  

All ISAT Practice Interims Matched to XQ Math Badges |For 9-12th Teachers| - Gives the ISAT Target for every practice interim question 9-12 and relates it to a specific math badge from XQ's framework. Could be used to align ISAT interim items for practice and for assessment. Example M100 and M101 lists are available in this folder.

We facilitate PD for credit to discuss exactly how ISAT interim assessments align to your current scope and sequence. Get in touch so we can support your efforts to align!

The math section of the Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) is administered to students in grades 3–8 and 11 each spring. Idaho colleges are using students' ISAT Math scale scores to inform placement decisions. Our legislature relies on this metric more than any other to gauge how well students are “learning the math standards.” Schools are evaluated by the state and other organizations based on ISAT scores.

As high-stakes testing became the norm in the United States, some educators responded by “teaching to the test”—drilling students exclusively on test questions. This approach was ineffective for most learners and is now widely discouraged. Research suggests that occasional exposure to practice tests can support familiarity and reduce anxiety, but dedicating significant time to test-taking learning yields little return.

Rather than teaching to the test questions, we advocate for teaching to the standards (targets) and practices the test is designed to measure. Idaho standards include content standards and practice standards, and the ISAT exam attempts to measure both. Specifically, the ISAT Math exam is designed to assess procedural skills (Claim 1), conceptual understanding (Claims 1-4), communicating reasoning (Claim 3), and mathematical modeling and data analysis (Claim 4). This short slide deck has diagrams that show the ISAT percentage breakdown and connections to the standards for mathematical practice.

No exam gives a perfect snapshot of student learning, but ISAT is highly valid for measuring what it claims to measure. The summative exam provides lots of data you can use to inform instruction next year.