The Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) are a set of standardized tests given annually to school students in the United States. These tests are given to students beginning in Kindergarten and progressing until Grade 8 to assess educational development. In Grade 9, the students are examined using the ITED program.
The ITBS was designed by the University of Iowa’s College of Education, as part of a program to develop a series of nationally accepted standardized achievement tests.
The ITBS covers numerous areas of educational knowledge, including English language use, math concepts and problem solving, social studies, science, geography and map use, and source use.
The ITBS is used in the majority of schools in the State of Iowa, both in the public and private education sectors. The tests have been widely used in other regions of the United States.
The Core Score is the average of the Reading Total, and Math Total scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. These are the average of sub-tests within their areas. Because the Core Scores averages tests within the “three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic,” it is a good measure of a student’s abilities in the basics. The Iowas are long established, nationalized tests used in a number of states for many years. In this table Beacon students are divided by class (grade) into three groups: (1) regular gifted students (2) twice-exceptional students, (children with learning differences) and (3) the class as a whole.