Results from the 2016-2017 Iowa STEM Evaluation Report continues to show that students who participate in a STEM Scale-Up Program score better in National Percentile Rank on mathematics, science, and reading assessments. Scale-Up Program participants scored an average of +3 points higher in National Percentile Rank in Mathematics and Reading and +4 points higher in Science.
Elementary Scale-Up Program participants score +4 higher in National Percentile Rank in Mathematics and Reading and +5 higher in Science compared to all students statewide.
In addition, a higher percentage of STEM Scale-Up Program students report they are very interested in mathematics and other STEM-subject areas compared to all students statewide. The percent of students in 3rd through 12th grade who said they were 'very interested' in mathematics was 35% of STEM Scale-Up Program participants compared to 29% of all students statewide.
Annual monitoring of publicly available data also indicates slight increases in the proportion of Iowa's students who are proficient in mathematics on standardized tests that most students in Iowa take annually. On the Iowa Assessments, 79% of students in 4th grade, 76% of students in 8th grades and 84% of students in 11th grade were assessed to be proficient in mathematics in 2014-2016 time period. This was a 2% increase across all three grades compared to the 2011-2013 time period.