Officials applaud students’ test gains; Scores top 2005’s on several exams

by Cynthia Howell

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Arkansas’ education leaders released the mother lode of standardized test results on Tuesday, nearly all of which showed either gains over last year’s results or scores close to or above national averages. 

“Teachers are getting it done in the trenches,” a jubilant Arkansas Education Commissioner Ken James said. 

“This is fantastic news for us,” he told reporters shortly after announcing the results of the Benchmark, End-of-Course and Iowa Test of Basic Skills to 1,200 teachers and principals at a professional development conference in the Statehouse Convention Center. 

On 2006 Benchmark exams, 50 percent or more of test-takers scored at grade level or better on both the math and literacy sections of the test, except in eighthgrade math, where 44 percent of test-takers scored at grade level or better. Even then, that was an 11-point improvement over the 33 percent proficient — which is considered grade level — or better in math in 2005. 

Similarly, the majority of test-takers scored at grade level or better on the Endof-Course Algebra I and geometry exams. However, only 45 percent of eighth-graders scored at a proficient or better level for the third consecutive year. 

On the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Arkansas students last spring scored above the national average in grades three through seven, and at the 49th percentile in eighth and ninth grades, which was just shy of the national average at the 50th percentile. 

Children in kindergarten through second grade were not tested in all five academic subjects but scored well above the 50th percentile in reading, language arts and math tests that they did take. 

If a student or a school scores at the 65th percentile on the Iowa test, that is interpreted to mean the student scored better than 65 percent of the national sample students who took the same test. 

The Iowa test is a multiplechoice, nationally standardized test that compares the achievement levels of Arkansas students with a national sample of students who took the same test that covers reading, language arts, math, science and social studies. 

Nearly all of Arkansas’ 452,000 public school students took at least one and, more often, two or more of the exams during the spring semester that just ended. 

In all, nearly 640,000 standardized tests were given. Now the results will be used to evaluate schools, prepare academic improvement plans for individual students and determine which students must participate in remediation programs this fall. 

“You have been working diligently for a number of years and that hard work is beginning to pay off.,” James told the teachers, thanking them for attending the two-day “Smart Start” training session. 

“This is one of the big reasons why our test scores continue to go up. This is one of the big reasons our student outcomes continue to get better in the state.” 

Gov. Mike Huckabee also attributed the improved scores to diligence and the state’s teacher development programs, which target elementary, middle and high school teachers. 

“I congratulate our teachers and students for working hard to prove that raising standards and expectations as we did with Smart Start, Smart Step and Next Step would make a difference,” Huckabee said Tuesday through spokesman Alice Stewart. 

The Arkansas Benchmark Exams are tests of math and literacy given in grades three through eight. The state’s Endof-Course exams are given in algebra I and geometry and in 11th grade literacy. 

Students who score at a proficient level on the Benchmark and End-of-Course tests are considered to be achieving at their appropriate grade or academic course. 

Schools must develop individual academic improvement plans for each student who scores at basic or below-basic levels on any part of the exams. And, students who scored below proficient on the End-of-Course exams will be required for the first time by Arkansas Department of Education rules to participate in remediation programs this fall or lose credit for the courses that corresponded to the test. 

The test results were released Tuesday under the shadow of questions posed recently by the U.S. Department of Education about whether the Arkansas test questions are sufficiently difficult. 

The federal department has directed the state to submit evidence by the end of this month showing that the test measures higher order thinking skills. 

James and his staff have repeatedly defended the difficulty of the Arkansas tests, which are made up of multiple choice, short answer and essay questions. 

James has pointed to the state’s improved results on yet another exam, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, as evidence of how rigorous the Arkansas tests are. 

The Benchmark and End-of-Course exams are considered Arkansas’ high-stakes tests. 

The results of those exams are used by the state and federal governments to evaluate schools as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. 

That act is President Bush’s push to get all students — regardless of their race, disability or socioeconomic status — to achieve at their grade level by 2013-14. 

Schools and districts that repeatedly fail to meet state minimum achievement levels on the Benchmark and End-of-Course tests are placed on the state’s school improvement list and sanctioned. 

The sanctions, which become more severe over time, include requiring an academically troubled school to permit its students to transfer to a higher achieving school or to pay for after school tutoring. 

Other penalties require a troubled added school to put in a new curriculum or replace faculty members, including a school principal. 

Currently, 255 Arkansas schools out of approximately 1,100 public schools are on the state list. State officials said an updated school improvement list — based on the just-released scores — will be prepared and announced in the next few weeks. 

The Benchmark scores in math ranged from 44 percent of eighth-graders scoring at proficient or advanced levels — up from 33 percent in 2005 — to 67 percent of third graders scoring at proficient or better levels, up from 58 percent in 2005. 

The greatest improvement was in sixth grade, where 57 percent of test-takers scored at proficient and better levels, up from 43 percent in the previous year. 

In literacy — a combination of reading and writing exams — the average achievement levels ranged from 53 percent of test-takers scoring at gradelevel or better in seventh grade to 66 percent of eighth-graders doing the same. 

James noted some concerns about the exam results, including the stagnant 11th-grade literacy test score and the ongoing achievement gap between black and white students in Arkansas and across the country. 

For example, on the third grade literacy exam, 64 percent of 23,436 white students scored at proficient or above, while only 35 percent of the 7,914 black students who took the same test scored at proficient or above. 

“Our news is mixed as we look at the achievement gap,” James said. 

“The good news is that higher achievement is evidenced across the board. That results in the achievement gap staying about the same. Our goal is to see that gap narrow in the future while maintaining increased performance for all,” he said. 

Dan Marzoni, president of the Arkansas Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union, said the association believes the achievement gap can be addressed in large part by the state’s efforts to make early childhood education programs more accessible. 

“We need to keep going,” Marzoni said about educational improvements. “Now is not the time to rest on our laurels. We need to see everyone making it better. We want great public schools for everyone.” 

Luke Gordy, executive director of Arkansans for Education Reform, a group of state business leaders including the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, said he was heartened by James’ announcement to the teachers. 

“Accountability is working,” said Gordy, a former chairman of the Arkansas Board of Education. “While we are not yet where we want to be, the state has shown consistent growth in almost all areas. I am more optimistic than I have ever been that we are on the right course to continually improve educational outcomes for all Arkansas children.” 

Educators at the conference Tuesday acknowledged that they had changed the way they teach after the Benchmark and End-of-Course tests were developed. 

“When we found out the [first] test scores were so low, we started searching for different ways to teach,” said Sherri Youngman, a science teacher at Augusta High School. 

She gave credit to school administrators who responded to teachers by finding meaningful training programs so classroom instruction could be more effective. 

“There has been a coming together of teachers and administrators statewide,” she said. “It’s not like we are on the opposite sides of the fence anymore. We all have the same goals. We are united.” 

Tyrone Harris, principal at Little Rock’s Martin Luther King Elementary, said the overall scores at his school increased. 

That is good news, he said, for a school that is on the state’s improvement list. He said he is anxious to see whether the results earned by subgroups within the school also improved. 

That will be necessary for the school to be removed from the state’s needs-improvement list. 

James on Tuesday encouraged teachers and administrators to celebrate the scores. 

“If you look back at those early years when the Benchmark came to be, we were down in the teens in terms of the percentages of kids at proficient and advanced,” he said. “We have moved light years away from that.” 

The results of the different tests by state, district and school level can be viewed on the Arkansas Department of Education’s Web site: http:// arkansased.org.

Information for this article was contributed by Heather Wecsler and Charlotte Tubbs of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.