AIMS measures a student’s degree of competency in the Arizona Academic
Standards for writing, reading, mathematics, and science. Students in Grades
3 through 8 and high school are assessed in reading and mathematics. Students in Grades 5, 6, 7 and high school are assessed in writing, and students in Grades 4, 8, and high school are assessed in science.
The Stanford 10 compares a student’s performance to students in the same grade across the nation. Students in Grades 2 through 9 take the Stanford 10 in the content areas of reading, mathematics, and language. For students in Grades 3 through 8, the Stanford 10 test is embedded within the AIMS test.
AIMS and Stanford 10 results can be used to guide the planning of curriculum and instruction within a classroom, school, and district. The test results can help inform changes that directly impact student understanding of the academic standard.
Components of AIMS
Writing
AIMS Writing measures skills in written communication through an extended writing response. Students demonstrate their ability to apply critical thinking as they work through the writing process and produce an extended response to a prompt. AIMS Writing is based on the traits of Ideas & Content, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions. It is scored by readers who are trained with materials designed by Arizona teachers.
Reading
Comprehension of written communication in all forms, both fi ction and nonfiction, are assessed in AIMS Reading. Students will read various passages and answer questions. Demonstrating the ability to understand complex text requires students to read and apply comprehension skills. Each passage will have several multiple choice questions ranging from recall to analysis of author’s intent to following multi-step directions. AIMS Reading is based on Reading Process, Comprehending Literary Text, and Comprehending Informational Text. AIMS Reading contains multiple choice items with four possible answer choices for each item. The answers are machine scored.
Mathematics
Students demonstrate their ability to understand the concepts of mathematics and their application in problem solving and computation. Communication, problem solving, reasoning and proof, connections, and representation are applied in problems of estimation, interpreting graphs, geometry, and algebra. AIMS Mathematics provides multiple choice items that measure student ability in these areas. AIMS Mathematics is based on Number and Operations; Data Analysis, Probability, and Discrete Mathematics; Patterns, Algebra, and Functions; Geometry and Measurement; and Structure and Logic. AIMS Mathematics
contains multiple choice items with four possible answer choices for each item. The answers are machine scored.
Science
AIMS Science is designed to assess each student’s ability to apply the processes of scientific inquiry to real-world scientifi c investigations. Students also answer questions that test their understanding and application of science content knowledge. Other questions evaluate students’ understanding of the history and nature of science, the relationship between science and technology, and the impact of science and technology on humans and the environment. AIMS Science contains multiple choice items with four possible answer choices for each item. The answers are machine scored.
About Stanford 10
Stanford 10 is a norm-referenced achievement test. This means student’s scores describe how he or she did on the test compared with other students in the same grade across the nation who took the test at about the same time in the school year. Students cannot pass or fail a test such as the Stanford 10, nor are results used to assign grades. The Stanford 10 is a multiple choice assessment administered in Grades 2 through 9.
Reading
The Reading component assesses phonemic awareness, decoding, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. It includes literary, informational, and functional reading selections.
Mathematics
The Mathematics component measures mathematics problem solving as well as the ability to communicate and reason mathematically.
Language
The Language component includes questions to test strategies in prewriting and composing. It mirrors a real editing situation with a variety of embedded errors. It is an integrated test that measures prewriting, composing, and editing and resembles an authentic writing task.
You can take a practice test at https://www.ideal.azed.gov/p/aims