Grays Harbor elementary, middle and high school students will take the Smarter Balanced Assessments this month, a standardized test based on the new Common Core Standards that 46 other states across the country, and the District of Columbia, have adopted as part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
The new assessments have meant a transition for students and teachers, as the tests are made more rigorous than past state exams and have forced teachers to implement the new standards into their curriculum.
The new standards will test students on English Language Arts and Mathematics. The tests are not a graduation requirement for high school students right now but will be for the class of 2019.
Students in grades three through eight, 10 and 11 will take the tests within a certain window of time provided by the state. Recent legislation allows third graders to take the English Language Arts portion of the test between March 10 and April 23, so if a student does poorly, a plan of action can be taken to better the child’s performance.
The time frame for third graders to take the math portion of the test is March 10 through June 15. Students in grades four through eight will take the test between March 10 and June 15, while eleventh graders will take the exam between April 6 and June 15.
Randy Dorn, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, adopted the Common Core standards in 2011 and districts around the state have been aligning their curriculum to comply with the new assessments ever since.
The tests employ more questions that deal with critical thinking and analysis and are aimed at making sure students are college and career ready once they graduate from high school. The new exams are part of an effort to have students in different parts of the country assessed using the same standards, or “common core” skill sets.
Testing standards for students in Washington State have changed three times over the past 17 years, with the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) being the primary assessment from 1997 to 2009, followed by the High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) which will be phased out by the Smarter Balanced assessments by 2016.
Given the novelty of the exams, Aberdeen School District Director of Teaching and Learning Judy Holliday said it should be expected that some students struggle when they take the new tests. Holliday also told the school board last month that 11th grade students in Aberdeen hadn’t taken the pilot test last year, putting them at a disadvantage taking the exam this year.
“It’s getting used to the new format. Back when we first started the WASL, it took a while for the tests to take hold and the students to start understanding and performing each and every year,” said Holliday.
The tests will be taken on computers, as well, something that Holliday said elementary and middle school students have experienced in the past, but high schoolers have not.
Teachers have also had problems making sure the tests will be taken on time, given the shortage of computers at certain schools. At Central Elementary School, there are only two computer labs in the nine-classroom school.
“We’re up against some timelines and some technology issues,” said Central Elementary Principal and Director of Teaching and Learning Traci Sandstrom.
Cori Krick, an Aberdeen High School English teacher, likes the new test, saying its more complex questions better prepare students for a successful life after graduating from high school.
Krick talks of questions on the English Language Arts portion of the SBA that force students to read an article and then write a response to what they’ve just read. She also points out parts of the test in which students must analyze videos, infographics, print and text.
Krick also understands, however, that testing puts a great amount of stress of students.
“(The test) is much harder than the HSPE and they’re nervous about that. They are tested and tested and tested since third grade. When it happens in high school, it’s serious,” she said.
Under No Child Left Behind, federal legislation passed in 2001 that supports standard-based education reform, schools who do not meet “adequate yearly progress” on the tests, are sanctioned by the federal government. If a school doesn’t meet the progress standard for four years in a row, for example, staff could be replaced, or the school year or day can be lengthened.
“Pressure is an understatement,” said Crick. “I have stopped doing a lot of things because they are not tested, and that’s unfortunate.”
Hoquiam High School Math teacher Kory McElravy said the SBA math test has multiple choice questions with more than one right answer, forcing students to recognize different solutions to the same problem. McElravy also said the new tests don’t only ask students to give an answer, but make them explain how they arrived at that answer.
McElravy said he thinks the new approach is a good one. “You want the kids to be problems solvers. These are better questions,” he said.
Not everyone believes the new testing format yields a better approach to testing and education in general.
Jim Sawin, principal at Central Park Elementary, said he wondered how good `an indicator the test really is for student success. He doesn’t mind the new standards, but believes the structure of the test and students’ unfamiliarity with it might say more about results than what they do or don’t know.
“If you’ve never had that test format before and you see it once a year, it’s probably not a complete measure of what you know,” he said.
Sawin also said he’s not sure a test made outside of the district, with very little input from local schools, adequately addresses the individual needs of students and staff.
“Researchers are creating a test away from a school environment with very little input from the school. I really question if they’re in touch with what’s appropriate for a third or fourth grade student,” said Sawin.
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