Obtaining ITBS Test Materials
Iowa Testing Programs supplies testing materials and services to the schools of
Iowa. For determining which schools are eligible to participate, Iowa Testing Programs
uses the Educational Directory created by the Iowa Department of Education. Schools
listed in the directory may participate; others must obtain services in conjunction
with a participating school or Area Education Agency (AEA).
Home-Schooled Students
Test materials for use with home-schooled students can be obtained through the public
school district where the student resides or through the AEA that encompasses the
student's residence. Arrangements might be made for such students to test at the
local school when students of that district take their tests. If the district has
a home-school assistance center, arrangements for testing might be made with that
center. In some AEAs, the ITBS is administered on certain dates expressly for home-schooled
students who are not able to be tested through their school district of residence.
In no case are ITBS tests available to parents or licensed teachers as individuals.
Braille and Large-Print Tests
To obtain tests and directions for use with visually impaired students, the school
district should work with the itinerant teacher from their AEA who provides services
to the student and the school for this purpose. Braille materials come from the
Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. If the materials are not available
through the AEA, contact Iowa Testing Programs. Advance planning will be needed
to ensure that materials are available locally by the scheduled testing date. Answer
documents based on use of large-print versions can be scored with all other documents
from the district. However, answer documents from using the Braille version must
be scored by hand so that Braille norms can be applied to the scores. Such documents
should be sent to ITP with a written request for handscoring.
Writing
There is a separate testing program for writing, and an order form for materials
for the Iowa Writing Assessment (IWA) can be obtained by calling ITP. The IWA can
be given at any time of the year; it need not be given when the ITBS battery is
given; and, because scoring is done locally, the scores from this assessment cannot
be included on any reports of scores for the ITBS battery.
Constructed-Response Supplement to the ITBS/ITED
The purpose of these assessments is to measure important learning outcomes drawn
from the content specifications for the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) and the
Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED), with an emphasis on knowledge and
skills best measured with an open-ended format. The Constructed-Response Supplement
(CRS) is available for levels 9-18 (that is, grades 3-12). Although the assessments
are untimed, most students will be able to finish each assessment in 30 minutes.
The CRS can be used in conjunction with the ITBS or ITED multiple-choice test batteries,
locally developed tests, and classroom assessments. Therefore, the CRS can serve
effectively as a multiple measure of the attainment of content standards and benchmarks.
In particular, the CRS provides a somewhat different assessment format than multiple-choice
tests because students construct answers rather than select them, a variety of approaches
can be used to correctly solve problems or respond to situations, many of the questions
have more than one acceptable answer, multiple modes of written communication can
be used to answer questions (for example, words, diagrams, symbols, and calculations),
and partial credit scoring is used.