Dear Community, I will be serving on this Committee next week for three days - This report went out on OPB news yesterday, and thought you might find it interesting. As the article mentions, the possible consequences for the setting of the score cutoffs can have very significant effects.
Students In Limbo As State 'Re-Calibrates' Passing Scores For Tests
By Rob Manning
Since the federal No Child Left Behind act became law almost five years ago, schools have to worry much more about low test scores. If scores are low enough, for long enough, schools can face sanctions -- like paying for student transfers, or restructuring the school entirely. Now, the feds are asking Oregon to re-calculate what constitutes "passing grades" on state assessments -- and to do it immediately. Oregon officials talked today about how they're going to do that, as Rob Manning reports. Imagine you take a test on a computer. It gives you a three-digit score right away. But it doesn't tell you if that number means you've passed. That's the situation for kids all over Oregon, as they sit down to take state tests this year.
Christine Garcia: "We've tried hard to just say, 'You know, we don't know what the passing score is, but take the test, and we'll let you know as soon as we do.'" Christine Garcia is the principal at Alder Creek Middle School. Most of the seventh graders in this Alder Creek math class are finishing up tests they started in October. 12-year-old Michelle Phelps says the pass-fail mystery is not a big deal to her. Michelle Phelps: "I'm not like, really stressing over it because I have a whole lot of other stuff of mine that's more important, so I don't really care right now. But I'm pretty sure I have a passing grade because I'm pretty high, so it's not really bothering me that much." That conclusion didn't surprise Michelle's teacher, Laura Hilsenteger, who says the kids are following her advice -- to just do the best they can. But for Hilsenteger, not knowing the benchmark is a hassle. Laura Hilsenteger: "It would be nice, it would be nice to know your target before you start." Federal officials told educators in Oregon that because it has been ten years since the state calibrated its exams, it can't wait another year. The change won't affect the questions themselves, only what a passing score is. The implication, especially for elementary and middle schools, is that the passing mark will go up, and grade schoolers will have to get more questions right to pass. Laura Hilsenteger says higher standards will likely press teachers to think more about the tests than they do already. Laura Hilsenteger: "Yeah, when it comes down to the wire, in that second round of testing, and you got to get these kids to pass who didn't pass in the fall, you do find yourself doing more actual -- this test question revamped just a little bit. And I know my colleagues are doing the same thing, everybody does the same thing. Because you want your kids at that magic number -- whatever it is." Principal Christine Garcia says she can see some value in aligning standards that she says have been off for years. But she says making the changes in a year will have some serious consequences. Christine Garcia: "The fact that you'll have more kids failing than you did before. I think we will see the fallout from that when the test scores come out. It's going to be hard to look at your class and instead of having fifty percent of my kids pass this test, we're going to see twenty five. And I think that's a pretty good possibility." That may in turn lead to more schools facing federal sanctions, especially this next year, when schools are less prepared for the changes. In explaining the changes, state education spokesman Gene Evans, says that's a tough outcome from the federal timeline. Gene Evans: "It's kind of a tough love thing -- these are the accurate cut scores, and unfortunately, the targets moved this year, but you're still required to meet those targets that we set up under the No Child Left Behind plan." Educators do see a silver lining. They say they've known for some time that standards have been off. The current process is bound to make the tests more relevant, and a better reflection of what kids should know, and are learning. The process to re-calibrate scores begins next week, and will involve more than 300 people, mostly educators. The result will be new scores for a passing grade in math, reading, science, and the test for English among non-native speakers.
