State believes it would be violating federal law if it stopped giving MSA, which doesn't align with new curriculum
By Liz Bowie,
The Baltimore Sun
2:00 AM PDT, September 16, 2013
Maryland wants to continue annual
assessments of students this year at a cost of about $9 million, even though
the scores wouldn't be used to gauge school progress — one of the main reasons
for giving the tests.
State officials, in plans to be
considered by the Maryland State Board of Education this month, said they would
continue to give the Maryland School Assessments to comply with federal law.
But, they said, the results won't provide reliable data for evaluating schools
and teachers because the tests are geared to curriculum that's being phased
out.
The new common core curriculum,
launched this year in every public school in the state, won't have new
assessments to match until the 2014-2015 school year. The state must field test
the new assessments next year, and officials say they have chosen to do so on
50,000 students across the state — a small group of students in every
elementary and middle school.
A Maryland teachers union is calling
for a one-year moratorium on testing. And the National Education Association,
another teachers union, said the focus during this year of transition should be
on making sure teachers are prepared and getting enough support to teach the
new curriculum rather than on testing.
"It doesn't make sense to give
a test that you know is not aligned to what you are teaching because that is
just a waste of everyone's time and, frankly, money," said Donna
Harris-Aikens, the NEA's director for education practice and policy.
State officials say they must go
forward with the MSA, given in math and reading to third- through eighth-graders,
because annual state tests are required under the federal No Child Left Behind
law. Until Congress reauthorizes the law, said Jack Smith, the chief academic
officer of the Maryland State Department of Education, the U.S. Department of
Education has little choice but to enforce the provision.
"There will be some benefits
that can be derived from the test," Smith said, though he acknowledged:
"It is not a perfect situation or a particularly good situation to
administer the MSA during this transition."
The timing issues have arisen as
states struggle to put in place several reforms, including the common core, the
new assessments and a new teacher evaluation system based on the new tests.
Many states agreed to an aggressive timetable because they were trying to win
federal dollars under an education reform competition called Race to the Top.
If given the go-ahead by the state
board, Maryland officials would ask the U.S. Department of Education for a
waiver from some requirements under No Child Left Behind. First, state
officials are asking for permission to forego giving the old Maryland State
Assessment to the students who are taking the new test. Without the waiver,
those students would have to take tests in March.
And because some students would be
taking the news tests, state officials said they would have only partial data
on student achievement in each school, so it would be unfair to use the test
results to rank schools. Officials propose keeping in place the current
rankings, called the School Progress Index, until schools can be evaluated
under the new system.
Maryland also is seeking to delay
tying a teacher's evaluation to test scores until next school year. Under a new
system, as much as 20 percent of a teacher's evaluation will be tied to how
much a student learns during a year.
Because the old tests are not
measuring what is being taught, test scores are expected to go down next year —
as they did this year.
So if the old tests aren't a good
measure of student achievement and shouldn't be used to evaluate schools and
teachers, some education leaders wonder why the old tests should be given.
California has decided to not test
at all; other states have created interim tests.
"I would like to see states
step up and say, "Wait a minute, is this really the right thing to do? Is
it good to spend money on tests that aren't aligned and aren't going to give us
the information we need?" said Betty Weller, president of the Maryland
State Education Association. "We remain opposed to giving the MSA next
year."
Both the union, which represents
most teachers in Maryland, and the superintendents association have come out in
favor of a one-year moratorium on testing.
"This transition and lack of
reliable testing data from the state has created great concerns for local
superintendents who are trying to maintain and convey confidence in the quality
of education that Maryland students are receiving," said Michael J.
Martirano, superintendent of St. Mary's County Public Schools, and president of
the Public School Superintendents' Association of Maryland.
But Smith, at the state department
of education, said he believes MSA testing could still be useful in
illuminating potential problems in teaching certain groups of students,
including special education students or those for whom English is not their
first language.
Officials with the U.S. Department
of Education also contend the MSAs would continue to yield valuable
information.
"History shows that when we
don't [give the tests] it's the performance of the most vulnerable students
that gets swept under the rug," said Cameron French, deputy press
secretary for the federal department. "Although it's not ideal to use the
old test when you are transitioning to new standards, we do believe the data
provides some use to parents, policy makers, teachers and educators where there
are access issues and chronic low performance."
Several educators, including
Baltimore County Superintendent Dallas Dance, said they would like to see more
students take the new field test of the PARCC and that other tests routinely
given by school systems during the year could be substituted to satisfy the
federal requirement.
Dance said the misalignment between
the new curriculum and the old tests is particularly difficult in math.
Concepts that are tested in one grade on the MSA may now be taught in a
different grade under the common core.
He will push to have more county
students take the new test, but he also said the county does not have enough
computers to give the test online to every student in elementary and middle
school. The MSA is a paper and pencil test, but the state will eventually move
all testing online.
Many states, caught in the same
transition, are continuing to give the old tests, but New York and some other
states have paid to create a new test to be given in the interim.
California's legislature voted last
week to stop giving its state test for at least one year until a new curriculum
and tests are in place. Gov. Jerry Brown has said he supports the legislation,
which passed despite U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's warning that he
could take away federal funds from California. Federal funds represent about 10
percent of school budgets there.
Bob Schaeffer, public education
director of Fair Test, an organization that is opposed to the extent of testing
in public schools, said that children will not benefit from taking the MSA.
State officials "should stand
up to Washington and say enough is enough," he said. "Lurching from
one set of tests to another is going to make things worse and be disruptive in
the short run."
Tribune Newspapers contributed to
this story.
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