# MEAP vs. IOWA testing

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meap-vs-iowa-testing/142721>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 14, 2002, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meap-vs-iowa-testing/142721 "2002-12-14T11:14:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meap-vs-iowa-testing/142721/1 "2002-12-14T11:14:19Z")

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When the boy was in public school, he did really well on the MEAP and Stanford testing. He was even showing some post high school abilities, which is pretty exciting. But now that he’s in private school, they use the IOWA test and he scored a 78 overall.

I was hoping for opinions on whether one test had the advantage over the other. Is either test a good measure of his abilities? Or should I just forget about the scores and just wait for the next report card?

I was also thinking that if all the Michigan public school kids take the MEAP and he’s taking the IOWA, how would I compare school to school scores? We pulled him out of our ailing school district, but it would be helpful to know whether he is in a better school or not.

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**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meap-vs-iowa-testing/142721/2 "2002-12-14T23:05:14Z")

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Can’t help you on the comparison…but FTR, the “IOWA” test is actually called the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)

More info [here](http://www.uiowa.edu/~itp/itbs.htm)

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**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meap-vs-iowa-testing/142721/3 "2002-12-15T08:41:08Z")

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Thanks for the info!

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**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meap-vs-iowa-testing/142721/4 "2002-12-15T16:11:20Z")

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My daughter just had this, and I have to admit that the results are a bit confusing. Generally she did very well and her school did very well. But she had a lower score in one section (like a 71) but an offsetting higher score on a different section (like a 98) and it implied that the one would not have predicted the other.

I’ll have to dig out the test scores and actual sections to frame this better, but it seemed to be testing inate ability versus what was learned. I’m curious how they can do this at her age (first grade).