It is the mission of the Scottsdale School District's Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Division through the Student Information Management & Accountability Reporting (SIMAR), Curriculum, Gifted, English Immersion Studies (EIS) and Career Ladder Departments to support and implement the vision, mission and goals of the district. To achieve this mission, the division promotes the use of data from varying sources in making decisions about curriculum adjustment and changes, as well as plans for meeting individual student needs. These efforts will support the District's vision of 30 Excelling schools.

Galileo Benchmark Assessment

What is AIMS?

AIMS Results for SUSD 2009

What is Terra Nova?

TerraNova Results for SUSD 2009

SAT and ACT 5 Year History Results | ACT School 08/09 Results

Parent Letter
Parent Login Galileo Directions

Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) is a Criterion Referenced Test (CRT) designed to measure each student's progress in learning the Arizona Academic Standards. The Arizona Academic Standards define what students should know and be able to demonstrate at various stages of K-12 education.

AIMS Results for Scottsdale Unified School District 2009

Purpose

The purpose of AIMS is to measure the academic achievement of all students throughout the state. AIMS is a state mandated assessment. All Arizona students take AIMS at grades 3, 5  and 8, and in high school. A student guide for each of these grades, containing a description of the content and expectations, as well as sample questions, is sent to each school for dissemination prior to the spring administration of AIMS and is available at http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/

Beginning with the class of 2006, high school students must "Meet" the content standards in Reading, Mathematics and Writing in order to receive a diploma. Students in the Scottsdale Unified Schools must also meet graduation requirements as specified in the High School Planning guide.

High School students who do not meet or exceed the standard must retake the tests until the standards in that subject area are met. Each student will have five opportunities to take the AIMS. The Arizona Department of Education has created sample tests and has released some items from previous administrations of AIMS. These are available at http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/

Arizona Academic Standards
The Arizona Academic Standards are clear and concise statements of what all students are expected to know and be able to do in Reading, Writing and Mathematics at the various levels: Readiness (Kindergarten), Foundations (1-3), Essentials (4-8), Proficiency (9-12) and Distinction (9-12). These standards are listed by content area on the Arizona Department of Education Web site at http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/contentstandards.asp

Performance Levels
AIMS scores are reported in terms of one of four performance levels, according to the student's test performance. The State Board of Education has set these performance levels as: Falls Far Below the Standard, Approaches the Standard, Meets the Standard, and Exceeds the Standard. A complete description of these Performance Level indicators, is available at http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/AIMS/PerformanceStandards/Default.asp

Performance Level Indicators
The performance level indicators describe how well students demonstrate the knowledge and skills of the standards based upon their performance on the AIMS test. These performance level descriptions describe the knowledge the student demonstrated based upon the performance level achieved by the students. The performance level descriptors are available at http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/AIMS/PerformanceStandards/Default.asp

Using AIMS Data
AIMS serves many audiences, each of which will use the information from the assessment for different purposes. Parents and students need to know how well the student performed to plan the student's academic needs and schedule. Teachers use AIMS information for instructional planning. School and district administrators use AIMS data to judge how well their curriculum is aligned to the Arizona Academic Standards and where to focus instructional improvement. The Parent Report for students who took AIMS provides scale score information as well as performance level indicators. This information, along with the Performance Level Descriptors, can be used to determine not only what knowledge and skills the student currently demonstrates, but also, by looking at the next higher performance level, what the student needs to know in order to progress to that level.

AIMS Results for the State of Arizona

TerraNova Results for SUSD 2009

The TerraNova is a norm referenced test covering Reading, Language, and Math.

Effective during the School Year 2004-2005, the TerraNova has replaced the SAT9 in Grades two and nine. Students in grades three through eight took the AIMS DPA (AIMS Dual Purpose Assessment), a standards based assessment with embedded TerraNova norm referenced items in the Reading and Mathematics portions of the tests.