The Iowa Tests are used to assess the academic skills of students around the country, but when the tests are given to students overseas, the results aren’t always accurate.

Many students in Iowa have taken an Iowa Test at some point in their academic career. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) are given to students in kindergarten through eighth grade to provide an assessment of student progress in major subject areas.

The Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) are given to students in grades nine through 12 as a way to assess academic skills that are needed for secondary education.

Captoria Boamah, former vice president of the school board for the International Community School of Abidjan in C“te d’Ivoire, wrote in an e-mail that, during her five years with the school board, she helped administer the Iowa Tests to students.

“In C“te d’Ivoire we had 460 children in attendance at the school. The test is given once a year, and they begin in the third grade,” Boamah wrote.

Boamah wrote that the tests were administered to compare students with those in the States in terms of their academic performance.

“Many of the international students apply to colleges and universities in the States,” Boamah wrote. “We wanted to make sure they were competitive with the U.S. students, and that our teachers were teaching at an above level so that our students can compete in the world.”

Boamah wrote that one benefit to the tests were that they provided parents with information on how their students compared to students in the states.

“I like having them because, as a parent who knew their children would be returning to the States, I did not want my children to fall behind or lack anything in terms of education,” Boamah wrote. “Another aspect of the test that I do appreciate was that we did receive our children’s results back, indicating how our student was doing in comparison to other students in the states at that same level.”

Boamah added that some didn’t find the tests to be a fair judgment of international students’ knowledge.

“Particularly among families who were not educated in the States at times felt the questions were biased,” Boamah wrote.

She wrote that the Iowa Tests cover subjects not taught in international schools.

“The test is more for American students and not international students, such as the use of the land measurements and money,” Boamah wrote.

“In the States, children are taught yards and feet; in the international school they are taught the metric system because that is what is used overseas.”

Boamah also wrote that test questions over United States currency aren’t fair for international students.

“If you’re not from the states you cannot relate to this currency because in other parts of the world you might use the Euro or the British pound,” Boamah wrote. “Sometimes, children would score lower on a math test because they had no idea what a penny is at all.”

Many international students mentioned their thoughts of unfairness in the Iowa Tests.

Osama Hussein, a student at Ryerson University and former International Community School of Abidjan student, wrote in an e-mail that the Iowa Tests are a good measurement for American students, but not for those outside of the United States.

“I thought that the Iowa Test, which was supposed to be an aptitude test, made us look bad because we were not necessarily familiar with American culture, history and even measurements,” Hussein wrote, “A lot of the math didn’t use the metric system, which made it hard for the non-Americans to understand.”

Kofi Nyame-Mensah, student at Temple University and former International Community School of Abidjan student, wrote in an e-mail that international students shouldn’t have to take the tests.

“I believe that these tests never presented my actual learning potential and it made no sense for students from overseas to take them,” Nyame wrote.

Boamah wrote that students come from over 70 countries to attend school in C“te d’Ivoire. However, the teachers are from the United States.

“For many of the teachers, they have never encountered students from many different backgrounds and cultures,” Boamah wrote. “Of course, they were trained in the States and teach more of the U.S. philosophy but, then again, some teachers have had to incorporate other types of learning to deal with the diversity in their classroom.”

Kiran Venkatramani, student at Drexel University and former American Cooperative School of Tunis student, wrote in an e-mail that she didn’t know what a majority of the questions were even talking about or referring to because they were completely focused on topics of American culture.

“The history questions were mostly on American history, which we never studied, and the vocabulary was also more American than British which, for us, I think was confusing,” Venkatramani wrote. “The problems in the science section were U.S.-biased in terms of the measurement questions.”

Boamah added that, while the tests are geared toward American students, international students can still compete well.

“In terms of the international students, they can compete too, but in some areas the test is biased to those students who do not come from the States,” Boamah wrote. “Nonetheless, many of the international students who have graduated have gone to colleges in the U.S. and in Europe and have done quite well.”