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Chicago dumps Iowa Test of Basic Skills
Here's a blurb from the Stanford Learning First. What has a third grade teacher got when she's got the power of the Internet in her hands?
Converge State Standards with State-of-the-Art Technology.
Powered by Harcourt Unison™, Stanford Learning First gives teachers and administrators the unique ability to administer and score paper and
online assessments using Web-based technology. Testing, scoring, reporting, local scanning, and professional development are all available
online in real-time. Stanford Learning First puts the power of the Internet in your hands.
CHICAGO -- Children attending public school in Chicago no longer have to take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a standardized test used by the district for more than three decades.
Instead, students will take a lower-stakes reading test, given three times throughout the year, Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan said.
The new exam, called Stanford Learning First, will give schools faster feedback, Duncan said. Results are available in two weeks instead of the usual two months for the Iowa test.
"Testing is important, but we want to test ... in a way that gives our teachers and our principals useful information about their students," Duncan said Friday during a meeting for school administrators.
The new test will cost the school system about $1.5 million, roughly the same cost as the Iowa test.
The Iowa test, given in May, held high stakes for both children and schools. Students in third, sixth and eighth grades learned whether they would be promoted to the next grade based on their test scores. Schools could also be put on probation for low school-wide averages.
Now the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, given in March and already used to activate sanctions against low-performing schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, will be used for those purposes.
The new Stanford test comes from San Antonio-based Harcourt Assessment Inc., the company also commissioned to revamp the ISAT for next year.
— Associated Press
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http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/082205/new_20050822007.shtml
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