tests linked to common core in critics' cross hairs 8-2-13

7/27/2019 Tests Linked to Common Core in Critics' Cross Hairs 8-2-13

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Tests Linked to Common Core in Critics' Cross HairsAssessments cast as weak link

Education WeekByAndrew UjifusaAugust 2, 2013

Having failed to persuade lawmakers in any state to repeal the Common Core State Standardsoutright, opponents are training their fire on the assessments being developed to go with thestandards and due to be rolled out for the 2014-15 school year.

Theyre using as ammunition concerns about costs and the technology required for those tests, inaddition to general political opposition to the common core. A few statesincluding Georgia,Oklahoma, and Pennsylvaniahave already chosen to limit or end their participation in theassessments under development bytwo federally funded consortia, the Partnership forAssessment of Readiness for College and Careers and the Smarter Balanced AssessmentConsortium.

Legislators in Kansas, where a common-core repeal bill failed this year, may ultimately allowdistricts to pick their own assessments instead of requiring them to usewhat will be providedbySmarter Balanced, said Mark Tallman, an associate executive director of the Kansas Associationof School Boards.

I think theres a real good chance the tests could be targeted, he said.

The common assessments are intended to allow student performance to be compared acrossseveral states based on broad and high-quality standards, specifically the common core. They arealso intended to provide much better insight into students knowledge than previous tests underthe federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Without common assessments to assess students on the standards and compare statesperformance, the common core will enter no-mans land, said Jim Stergios, the executivedirector of the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, which opposes the new standards and has beenhelping state-level political groups advocate against them.

People will do whatever the hell they want, Mr. Stergios said of states deciding not to use thenew assessments. It means, Were not doing common core.

But officials from the testing consortia say its wrong to believe that support for commonassessments is crumbling.

Despite recent departures from PARCC, Mitchell D. Chester, the Massachusetts K-12commissioner and the chairman of the consortiums governing board, said he never believedevery state that had joined the consortium would stay. He sees it as evidence of strength that 14states and the District of Columbia have committed to field-testing PARCCs assessment in2014.
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Each state has a very particular context for its testing program, how much is being spent, howits used, he said.

Support for the common standards themselves isnt necessarily wavering in state educationdepartments. The Center on Education Policy, based at George Washington University in the

District of Columbia, reported last month that deputy state school superintendents in 37 statessaid it was not likely theirstate would drop out of or limitinvolvement in the common core.

But the consortias assessments are a key linchpin for the standards, said Maria Ferguson, theexecutive director of the CEP, even though there are other products out there that can fill thegap, she noted, referring to testing materials produced by ACT Inc. and others.

Financial Concerns

Cost factors come in to play at a time when the common standards themselves face vocal,grassroots opposition from conservative activists in particular.

Georgia announced its withdrawal from PARCC on July 22, after a recent uptick in anti-common-core activity in the stateand one day after PARCC released cost estimates showing a$29.95 median cost per student for its summative math and English/language arts tests. Thatshigher than nearly half what its members pay for their current federal accountability tests.

Georgia schools Superintendent John Barge, a Republican, voiced concern about the potentialper-student costs and whether lawmakers in his state would sign off on significant spendingincreases required to pay for the consortiums test.

The previous week, on July 17, Florida Senate President Don Gaetz and Speaker of the House

Will Weatherford, both Republicans,wrote in a letter to then-Commissioner of EducationTony Bennett that the state should drop out of PARCC over concerns about costs and otherreasons. Mr. Bennett resigned from that post last week in a controversy involving grade-changesfor a charter school while he was the Indiana schools chief.

Costs are likely to be an issue even in states like California where the standards themselves enjoyofficials broad support, said Robert Rothman, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Alliancefor Excellent Education and a standards supporter. California, a member of the Smarter BalancedAssessment Consortium, is projected to see an increase in per-student assessment costs, as wouldabout a third of that consortiums members.

If they see a big jump in the testing budget, thats going to cause problems in the legislature, notbecause of the tea party, he said.

Technology a Factor

Georgia and Oklahoma have also cited concerns about their technological capacity for newassessment regimes as a major reason they have decided not to use PARCC tests.
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Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Weatherford, the Florida lawmakers, wrote that they were worried aboutFloridas ability to add enough computers to satisfy PARCC's assessments. The consortium calls

for a minimumstudent-to-computer ratio of 2:1 for schools with three tested grades.

And in a survey last year of technology in Florida schools, the state education department

estimated that 1,616 schools would need new high-density wireless systems, and 67 districtswould have to get upgraded broadband to prepare for PARCC.

Even in California, a Smarter Balanced member that hasearmarked $1.25 billionover the nexttwo years specifically for districts to implement the common core, the targeted money is alsointended for textbooks and professional development, not just new K-12 technology.

New hardware and wireless capabilities are not the only issues. Brandt Redd, the chieftechnology officer of Smarter Balanced, said the consortium is trying to help school systemsfigure out what to do when Microsofts support for its XP operating system, used by a vastnumber of districts, ends in April.

Still, Mr. Redd said, We have designed the assessments not to be terribly demanding ondevices. He noted that they will require only a 10-inch screen, for example.

Both Mr. Chester and Mr. Redd highlighted the federal governments role in providing morefinancial support for school technology in the near future. The Federal CommunicationsCommission released a plan late last month to overhaul the E-rate program that K-12 advocateshope will improve connectivity and cost-effective purchasing, following President BarackObamas ConnectED Initiative unveiled in June.

Both also acknowledged, however, that in 2014-15, not all states will have yet reached their

technological goals for common-core tests.

Comparability Issue

As of late last week, PARCC officially had 18 member states and the District of Columbia, downfrom 26 states when it won the federal money. Smarter Balanced has 24 states. (Until recently,some states belonged to both.)

At some point, a decline in membership could raise concerns about the ability to look atperformance across the board for states and districts, although opinions about the value of thiscomparability, given the use of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, are divided.

Mr. Rothman said that while comparing nonconsortia and consortia tests would be verydifficult, comparison hasnt mattered much to the four states that have used the New EnglandCommon Assessment Program, or NECAP, for example.

Another concern is whether there will be large differences between the consortia tests andcommon-core tests from other organizations, such as ACTs (which Alabama plans to use), interms of students learning, their readiness for college and career, and teachers.
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As an analogy, Mr. Bennett, before resigning his post, argued that while the SAT and ACT aredifferent tests, college-admissions officers feel comfortable using both. He is an ardent common-core supporter.

But Daniel Koretz, a professor at the Harvard Graduation School of Education, stressed that

teachers whose students are facing different tests will approach the common core incorrespondingly different ways.

Consortium tests dont just measure what students know. ... Theyre designed to pushinstruction in a certain way, he said.

Vol. 32, Issue 37, Pages 1,20

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tests linked to common core in critics' cross hairs 8-2-13

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