Frustration with ISASP changes expressed at East Union

AFTON - With changes to how the state performs their standardized tests to monitor growth and proficiency, East Union administrators expressed their frustrations with the new system during a board meeting Monday.

Secondary Principal Jason Riley and Elementary Principal Joan Gordon discussed recent changes in how the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress reports results. Due to changes approved in 2024, these new results will not be comparable to previous years.

ISASP scores contribute to a school’s Iowa Performance Profile. In the last two years, East Union Elementary was ranked high-performing in 2025 and exceptional in 2024. However, with recent changes, proficiency is in limbo, with the district not having an understanding of how they performed.

“It’s kind of frustrating, I’m just going to say that,” Gordon said. “We’re not really sure where proficiency cutoff is right now.”

East Union students took their assessments between April 7 and April 17. ISASPs have four subjects; English language arts, reading, math and science. Riley, who serves as the district’s assessment coordinator, noted the tests are longer and many are now adaptive.

This means the test adjusts the difficulty of questions in real-time based on a test-taker’s performance. In an adaptive test, if a test-taker answers incorrectly, the next questions will get easier. If a test-taker answers questions right, the the rest of the test will be harder.

Following last year’s changes to reading and science, math is the next subject to be adaptive. Only English language arts remains in fixed-form.

How tests are scored will change, with new guidelines expected sometime in the summer. The changes would have four new levels of performance: below grade-level, approaching grade-level, meeting grade-level and exceeding grade-level.

But, where those scores land hasn’t been decided by the Department of Education’s work groups. Those will be decided in the summer. As of April, East Union has no way to analyze the results.

“[The Department of Education] had told us that the new blueprints and that the new documentation for the new test would come out in April,” Riley said. “We still don’t have it, so we don’t have what the performance levels or the performance indicators are.”

Riley expressed his frustration with these changes.

“They’re going to use the performance to guide the different settings to determine where different levels will be placed,” Riley said. “So it’s a ridiculous, idiotic thing, in my opinion. They want to wait until they see how we do to set where the different levels are going to be.”

Gordon noted this means she won’t know the scores of her final year of students until after she leaves the district in retirement later this summer.

“You have to send those to me,” she said.

State resources have said they will still be able to measure growth despite the changes in performance scores, which Riley said was a contradiction.

“They say [they] can determine growth based on previous years, even though it’s a completely different test, a completely different number of answers based on completely different performance indicators, but they’ll be able to dictate growth,” Riley said.

Riley reported other proposals to ISASPs, such as adding a social studies test for grades eight through 11. One proposal had the science test move from grade 10 to 11.

“Our sophomores might get lucky and get to take it two years in a row next year,” Riley joked.

Next year, one of the state-mandated changes to Iowa graduation requirements will have students pass the U.S. citizenship exam, testing their knowledge on U.S. government and civics. If students score higher than 60% on 128 questions, they can graduate. Riley, a former social studies teacher, was enthused.

“It’s going to be super exciting and fun,” Riley said.

In other East Union school board news...

Gordon said this year’s Family Literacy and Learning Night on April 2 was the most attended event so far. The annual event helps connect elementary parents and students to wider concepts, often involving STEM.

This year, the school hosted Fantasy Drone Shows, where students learned about drones and how a show is designed. The night ended with a drone show above the football stadium, which Gordon said made her tear up.

“I just stood there and watched it and I kind of teared up a little bit,” Gordon said. “It was just such a neat thing for our school. And I’ve had so many people talk with me after the fact. It was just incredible.”

The following contracts and resignations were approved:

Contracts: Haley Engler, elementary teacher; Kirk Stevens, secondary special education teacher; Jason Aldridge, student council high school (remainder of 2025-26 year).

Resignations: Lindsey Eklund, ECC administrative assistant; Sara Thompson, secondary guidance counselor; John Walsh, bus driver; Debbie Aldrich, prom sponsor; Melanie Sergeant, elementary teacher.