Clearing up the fog surrounding school testing

This week is the heart of the Fall testing season around Northwest Arctic schools – and yes, just last April was testing season too.

It’s a time the statisticians in Juneau dream about, as a fresh batch of raw data comes streaming in for interpretation; it’s a time when students might come home tired from clicking at a computer screen for hours.

But the tests our students take serve two very important purposes: some tests are given to track your son or daughter’s academic growth over the years, and let teachers know what your child’s strengths are, and what could use more work; other tests are simply required by law, for our district to report back to the state.

But why do they last so long? A look at the school district’s testing calendar shows a test for kindergarteners, called the DIBELS test, lasting for the entire month of September – and January and April too. Of course, those dates are only windows when the tests may be given – not a sign of how long the tests do take. Most students are finished with even the longer tests within a few hours – and then are right back in the classroom.

The State of Alaska now requires all students from grade levels 3 to 9 to take Standards Based Assessments (SBA’s) each April, which are used to determine schools’ yearly progress – under the No Child Left Behind Act, tests like these are given to all students every year, in all 50 states.

Last year, the state also required our district, among others around the state, to give a number of additional tests for certain grade levels.

There are two assessments the school district gives that we are not required of us by the state. DIBELS, mentioned above, is a skills test based on activities that are already a part of normal kindergarten class time. DIBELS is given to every second-year kindergarten student, as well as new first-graders to the district.

Students from the Primary Primary level (the former 2nd grade) up to 12th grade also take the NWEA, a unique computer-based test that adjusts its questions to the individual student, regardless of their age.

The NWEA is what our schools use to make decisions about what level your son or daughter will be in next year, because it gives instant results. The schools are empty and scheduling finished by the time the state’s SBA results come back.

“[The NWEA] is a measurement of student growth that’s used for instruction,” says Superintendent Bob Boyle. “That’s what testing should be.” The state exams are designed with school accountability in mind – deciding which schools make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), not deciding how best to educate your children.

NWEA, given two or three times a year, is also a powerful tool for your child’s teacher, giving them a detailed report on which skills need the most work in the class, and which are being covered best.

Far from taking away from students’ time in class, the NWEA test can give a teacher a clear direction for months of more meaningful class time, with only three hours of testing, according to Dr. Dan VanOverbeke, Superintendent of Hutchinson Public Schools in Minnesota, who was in Kotzebue last week to train district staff in reading test data. “Your instruction time is so precious,” he says, “and when teachers match their lessons to the test results, that concrete evidence is very important.”

The NWEA test, not the state SBA, fits the district’s new standards-based Quality Schools Model, testing students according to what they demonstrate they can do, not according to their age or grade.

For this reason, says the district’s Dr. Annmarie O’Brien, the state tests will not get the job done. “The problem we have with the SBA’s is that our schools are no longer graded. The commissioner of education agrees with our standards-based system,” she says, “but we’re still tied to the federal system.”

Ultimately, there is more testing now because times and politics have changed; the majority of the tests our students take are required by the State of Alaska. As long as the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam is required to earn a diploma, success in testing will be a piece of the successful life we envision for each of our children.