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Idaho Pushes Ahead With Test--No External Review
In six months, 20,000 Idaho 10th graders must pass a statewide achievement test or risk not graduating from high school.
But the test they´ll take likely will not have been independently analyzed for its effectiveness in accurately measuring what students know.
Outside evaluations of high-stakes exams are key in ensuring that students who pass or fail them do so because of their knowledge and not because of problems with the exams, such as questions that are culturally biased or poorly written.
The State Board of Education said Friday it has faith in the internal vetting its exam--the Idaho Standards Achievement Test--has undergone to assure the test measures student ability. It also will pay for an independent analysis that would likely be completed in fall 2004, several months after students take the spring exam.
Some educators and parents, however, say fall 2004 is too late.
Marilyn Howard, state superintendent of public instruction, and some national testing experts say Idaho is pursuing a dangerous course by not having an independent study in hand well before students begin taking the spring exams.
Idaho must have a test with reliability that is above question if it is going to use it to deny students diplomas, Howard said.
"The situation is that we do not have a test we can hang our hat on," she said.
Capital High School parent Tricia Mulhern, who already is worried that the state robs learning time by giving too many tests, said she´s uncomfortable that students could take tests that might have problems with them.
"That´s scary to me," she said. "Why does the state feel another test is required. Wouldn´t a teacher test be a good enough criteria?"
Howard, a member of the State Board of Education, has repeatedly called for delaying a link between testing and graduation until the exams´ reliability is proven. But she has consistently been overridden by the other seven of her fellow board members who are determined to move forward on student accountability measures.
Besides, the State Board expects an outside study to support the work they already have done in assuring the exam´s fairness, said Randy Thompson, the board´s chief academic officer.
"We have an internal measure, and we have every reason to believe it will be confirmed," he said.
If an independent assessment of the achievement test turns up problems, Thompson said he would ask the State Board to pull back on its graduation test requirement until problems are fixed.
"We are not going to punish students for things adults should have done," he said.
Testing and responsibility
Idaho´s Board of Education voted last week to require high school students - beginning with the graduation class of 2006 - to pass the ISAT in reading, writing and math before getting a diploma. The board also lowered the bar that students must reach to pass the exams for the classes of 2006 and 2007, so students would have time to get used to the exams.
As more and more states latch onto high-stakes testing, assuring that the tests are accurate has become of greater importance.
"If you are going to make a decision on the basis of a single test score, you have to protect the rights of the individual," said John Poggio, a University of Kansas education professor who has helped with similar studies in California, Alabama, Virginia and Massachusetts. "Understand that there are going to be errors in the system. There will be students who fail the exam who shouldn´t, and students who pass the exam who shouldn´t."
The outside studies are a backup mechanism to make sure those problems happen as little as possible, he said.
Moreover, studies that measure a tests´ validity are proving to be a vital legal tool when states are forced to defend themselves in court. In some cases, parents or minority groups have sued and blamed the test when their children were denied diplomas after flunking an exam.
Courts are taking a hard look at states, for example, where there is a large disparity in the failure rates among ethnic groups, Poggio said.
If failure rates among ethnic groups vary by more than 20 percentage points, courts have begun to look at the tests to ensure they aren´t slanted against minorities.
In Idaho, the difference between failure rates of caucasian and Hispanics is about 35 percent, based on 10th-grade pilot tests given last spring.
If such a gap continued to exist, lawsuits could emerge in which the state would have to prove that the student, not the test, is the problem.
If that happens, Poggio said, "Line up the wagon, feed the horses, we are going for a ride."
— Bill Roberts
Idaho won't wait for ISAT test's review
Idaho Statesman
2003-11-09
http://www.idahostatesman.com/News/education/story.asp?ID=53578
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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