Assessment Coordinating Committee
Judy Dittman, Dorine Bennett, Carrie Ahern, Eric Johnson, Rich Avery, Peg O’Brien, Lynette Molstad-Gorder, Dan Talley, Tim Fiegen, Deb Gearhart, Rise Smith, Laurie Dennis, Wayne Pauli, John Nelson, Jon Waldman, Mark Hawkes, Tom Hawley, Tom Halverson

Proficiency Test Scores: DSU Students Compared to South Dakota and National User Norms
 

   During November 2003, 160 DSU students completed the statewide proficiency tests in reading, writing, math and science reasoning. All students in the regental system must meet the minimum required score on each of the four tests. Students who do not meet the minimum required score must remediate and retest in that area within one year. During November, 14% (23 students) of the DSU students did NOT meet the minimum required score on one or more of the CAAP tests. Approximately 9% of the students in the regental system fail to achieve an acceptable score on one or more of the exams. The DSU averages were slightly lower than the national norms for the first time in math. Since DSU has a relatively small number of students testing, one or two students with very low scores can change the mean by 2 or 3 tenths of a point (e.g. math average is 58.0, deleting two students-58.2).
   Information from the proficiency test is used as one method of evaluating the general education curriculum. For example, one of the goals of the system-wide general education plan is to ensure that students will understand and apply fundamental mathematical processes and reasoning. One standard of performance for this goal indicates that 60% of the DSU students will score at or above the 50th percentile on the CAAP math test. This fall, 58% of the DSU students scored at or above the 55th percentile on the math test.