The purpose of the Coeur d'Alene Public Schools assessment and system program is to measure student achievement and inform future instruction. The information gathered helps us refine instructional practices and focus curriculum. It gives parents, students, and educators feedback about how a student is progressing and allows all who work with students valuable data for designing future lessons. Click this link to review our district's Comprehensive Assessment Framework.

Assessments are tools we use to see what a student knows so that we can plan the next level of learning, as well as report what progress has been made over the course of each school year. Assessments come in a variety of forms, from formative to summative, beginning to end-of-year performance, to standardized state assessments. Educators want to maximize instructional time in their classrooms; therefore, this assessment framework will guide our decisions and practices across our K-12 program. An overview of how assessment informs curriculum and instruction and vice-versa is included in the Assessment Program Overview.

Since the fall of 2002, the district has given the Idaho Standards Achievement Tests (ISAT) to students in grades 3-8 and high school. The ISAT is a series of achievement tests that systematically increase in difficulty from one grade to the next. Beginning in 2013-14, all Idaho students began taking the Smarter-Balanced Assessment in English language arts and mathematics (the same exam students in 27 states take). The ISAT is also provided in science to students in grades 5, 7, and as an end-of-course assessment for students in high school biology and/or chemistry.

Grade level testing makes is possible to give each student a test appropriate to his or her achievement level, and to measure growth from year-to-year. It also helps to gauge the effectiveness of instructional programs and adherence to state curriculum standards. For younger grades, students in Kindergarten through grade 3 are tested twice a year on the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI), an early literacy screener.

The district also participates in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in random samples in grades 4, 6 and 8 and the IRI in grades K-3.   Additionally, all high school students in grades 9-11 take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) and students in grade 11 will take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and/or American College Testing (ACT) as part of our district's efforts to promote a culture of college and career preparedness.

As another component of a comprehensive assessment plan, district end-of-course assessments are in place in the five core areas of Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Health, based on the district's adopted curricula. Ongoing development and revision of these tests continue to provide important benchmarking information that enables students, parents, and teachers to accurately monitor student growth toward the state exiting standards.

We use benchmark and progress monitoring assessments three times a year to identify growth toward meeting state standards by grade level. Reports from these assessments are provided regularly to parents/guardians.

Additionally, teachers employ a variety of informal classroom assessment techniques to provide an ongoing picture of student growth in knowledge, skills, and reasoning. Quizzes and end-of-unit tests ensure progress is monitored and instruction can be adjusted as needed. Other assessment methods may include student portfolios, projects, and presentations.

For specific information on an assessment or for our list of assessment vocabulary, please use the navigation on the left side of this page.