State board votes for switch to one standardized test

Goal is to have fewer exam days

by Cynthia Howell

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

In a move to reduce the time Arkasas public school students spend takiing standardized tests, the state Board of Education voted 5-4 Monday to develop a single test that will combine elements of the Benchmark Exam with questions from a nationally standardized exam.

A combined test, affecting more than 200,000 Arkansas students every year, would measure student mastery of the state’s education standards and at the same time compare Arkansas students to achievement across the country. The revised test would be another change in a testing system that undergoes significant tweaking every year in response to state and federal laws and the department’s own policies. 

The combined test, which needs federal approval and is not likely to be put in place before the spring of 2008, would eliminate a repeat of this year’s multiple days of standardized testing scattered throughout the months of February, March and April. 

Advocates of the single test told the Education Board on Monday that a streamlined standardized testing program will return valuable instructional time to teachers, while opponents warned that the rigor of the current state Benchmark test with its emphasis on openresponse questions and writing could be lost. 

Ken James, state commissioner of education, urged board members to make a decision to put the long-debated issue to rest — especially if the test is to be put into use in 2007 or 2008. He also told the board that a single test could bring an end to some complaints. 

“We can’t win this conversation as a state,” he told the board. “We get constantly criticized because there is too much testing. We get constantly criticized because the [test] results are not back in time. One of the supposed byproducts of moving to an augmented assessment would be combining the examinations, cutting down on the testing time and getting the results back sooner.”  But James also said that the current testing program has served the state well and that on some points in developing a new test there will be no negotiations. 

“We have to maintain ‘A’ quality,” James said. “We do not have in any shape, fashion or form a desire to go backwards. We want to maintain where we are now for the first time in the history of this state.”  He said the state is at or closely approaching the national average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national test given every other year to a sample of students. The test, called the Nation’s Report Card, is a check on achievement in the 50 states. 

In changing the state test, James said afterward there are statistical ways to track student achievement based on data from one test to a successor test. 

TEST DAYS PILE UP     As part of the Arkansas testing program this year, students in grades three through eight and 11 took a state Benchmark writing exam on two days in February. And last week, pupils in grades three through eight took the Benchmark Exam in reading and mathematics over three days. The reading, writing and mathematics testing amounted to 308 minutes. A fourth day — 125 minutes — was used to test fifth- and seventh-graders in science. 

Additionally, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a nationally standardized battery of tests in reading, language arts, math, social studies and science, will be given to students in grades three through nine over several days between April 10 and April 21. 

The Benchmark exams, which contain multiple-choice, shortanswer and essay questions, are criterion-referenced tests used to measure student mastery of the state’s own education standards or curriculum frameworks. The test is used to measure achievement as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. 

Any plans to replace the Benchmark test with an augmented test would require approval by the U.S. Department of Education. At least a half dozen states — Delaware and South Dakota for example — have augmented tests. 

NATIONAL TEST OPTIONS     The Iowa Test is a nationally normed, multiple-choice test that compares the achievement of Arkansas students to a national sample of students who took the same test. The Iowa Test would not necessarily be the nationally standardized test used in an augmented test for Arkansas. Harcourt Assessment Inc., publishers of the Stanford Achievement Test, a different standardized test, late last year submitted a proposal to the state to develop an augmented test. 

Questar Education Systems, the company that put together the Arkansas Benchmark and End-of-Course exams, also has submitted a proposal. 

Luke Gordy, a former Education Board member who is now executive director of Arkansans for Education Reform, a group of prominent business leaders, said the augmented test will provide the state with the “next generation assessment tool.” He said such a test shouldn’t “throw the baby out with the bath water but preserve important components of the Benchmark exams, including the constructed open-response items.” At the same time, the new test could be given later in the school year, comply with the demands of state and federal testing laws, and provide rich, usable data. 

LAWMAKER OPPOSED     More than a dozen people addressed the board. Besides Gordy, proponents were Little Rock School District Superintendent Roy Brooks and Associate Superintendent Olivine Roberts; business leaders Stacy Pittman and Kenneth Hall of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce; Linda Remele, a former elementary school principal and now education program director for the Little Rock Foundation for Public Education; and Lynn Hamilton, a former North Little Rock School Board member who is vice president of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. 

Peggy Woodell, a fourthgrade teacher in Little Rock, told the board she supports the concept of an augmented test that would provide more teaching time — but only if the new test retains open-response questions. 

Those speaking against the proposal included Rep. Jodie Mahony, D-El Dorado; Dan Marzoni and Rich Nagel, leaders of the Arkansas Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union; and Ron Harder of the Arkansas School Boards Association. 

“I’m resistant to change when there is no reason for it,” Mahony told the board, adding that legislators rejected attempts to legislatively create an augmented test. 

Harder warned that an augmented test that is not fully aligned to state education standards would be unfair to teachers who are required to teach to those standards. 

“It will give an inaccurate picture of the level of learning occurring in Arkansas classrooms,” he said. 

Board member MaryJane Rebick of Little Rock said she opposed the augmented test in part because of the opposition by the organized teacher and school board groups as well as legislators. 

“I’m not against change, but I don’t see a compelling reason to change,” she said. 

Board member Naccaman Williams of Springdale said he supported the augmented test. 

“I have a third-grader,” he said. “We just finished all the stress that goes along with the Benchmark test. Now we’ll go through spring break, gear up and go through all the stress that goes with the Iowa Test. ... I believe accountability is important. I believe testing is important. Can’t we do it all at the same time? It’s not the test that’s important; it’s what’s done before you ever get to the test.”  

The initial vote on developing an augmented test was tied 4-4, prompting board Chairman Jeanna Westmoreland of Arkadelphia to break the tie by voting in support. The chairman of the board does not usually vote except in the case of a tie. Other board members voting for the proposal were Williams, Sherry Burrow of Jonesboro, Shelby Hillman of Carlisle and Randy Lawson of Bentonville. Those who voted against it were Diane Tatum of Pine Bluff, Calvin King of Marianna, Ben Mays of Clinton and Rebick. 

Gayle Potter, the state’s testing director, attempted to allay complaints about the length of time it has taken in the past to get the Benchmark Exam scores back to schools. In the past, for a variety of reasons, it has taken until September and October to get the results of tests given in April. Potter said electronic score reports will be sent to school districts by May 31 this year, with print reports to follow. 

She also said the testing schedule for next year moves the March testing to April, in response to complaints about the early testing this year. 

Potter said she could not yet estimate how many minutes or days of testing would be necessary for an augmented test but said it could be shorter than the amount of time now devoted to testing because it wouldn’t be necessary to give students the complete battery of tests that make up the Iowa or Stanford exams. 

Potter said the cost of the augmented test also would depend on its actual design, but once it is established there may be some savings over the current program. 

The Education Department expects to spend about $21.8 million this year on assessment that includes the Benchmark and Iowa tests as well as the End-of-Course and other state exams not affected by the augmented test plans.