Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS), a standards-based test, provides educators and the public with valuable information regarding Arizona students’ mastery of Arizona's reading, writing and mathematics standards.

Although students in Grades 3 through 8 and in high school will be taking new AIMS tests in Spring 2005, there are many similarities between the old and new tests.

• High School AIMS and AIMS-DPA are aligned to the new Articulated Reading and Mathematics Standards.
• Grades 3 through 8 will be tested using a dual purpose assessment which will measure the students’ level of proficiency in Reading and Mathematics and will provide students’ national percentile rankings in Reading, Language, and Mathematics.
• This will be the first operational AIMS testing at Grades 4, 6, and 7.
• Arizona teachers have selected test items from previous AIMS administrations that align to the new articulated standards.
• Arizona teachers identified which of the TerraNova items align to the new articulated standards.

Merit’s language arts and math software programs correlate to Arizona’s content standards and can help students prepare for the AIMS test. The content and format of Merit’s programs can help students develop and strengthen their test-taking skills as well as their reading, writing and math skills.

Merit reading software has been proven -- through rigorous, scientifically based research -- to increase both student reading comprehension and standardized test scores. Merit research study findings reveal that education software is an effective tool to improve test scores and academic performance.


Published: May 2005