Beginning in 2015-16, a new ISTEP+ test will be administered to students in grade 10 for the
purpose of school accountability. The new Grade 10 ISTEP+ is a domain-based test, rather
than an end of course assessment. In other words, the test focuses on the knowledge, skills,
and abilities that every student must have at the end of grade 10 to be on-track for college- and
career-readiness without the need for remediation by the time the student leaves high school.
The Grade 10 ISTEP+ test will be administered during specified testing windows (Part 1, Part 2)
and includes the following domain-based topics:
- English/Language Arts-related topics include Reading: Literature, Reading: Nonfiction;
Reading: Vocabulary; Writing; and Media Literacy.
- Mathematics-related topics include Number Sense, Expressions, and Computation;
Geometry and Measurement; Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability; Linear
Equations, Inequalities, and Functions; Systems of Equations and Inequalities;
Quadratic & Exponential Equations and Functions; and Mathematical Processes.
- Science-related topics include The Nature of Science; Cellular Chemistry & Cellular
Structure; Matter Cycles and Energy Transfer & Inter-dependence; Molecular Basis of
Heredity & Cellular Reproduction; and Genetics and Evolution.
(As noted above, students participate in the ISTEP+ Grade 10 Science test when enrolled in
Biology I. Therefore, this assessment is administered at multiple grade levels.)
*Beginning in 2016-17 (class of 2019), the ISTEP+
Grade 10 assessment in English/Language Arts and Mathematics will become the new
graduation examination.
