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Education Week
Online-Testing
Stumbles Spark Legislation in Affected States
By Daarel Burnette II
The nationwide shift from paper-and-pencil tests to online standardized
assessment has caused serious heartburn for educators and students
alike in many places: server meltdowns, frozen computer screens, and
test-score dips.
But in a handful of states, the sometimes-temporary, but ill-timed
glitches have fueled legislation that would crack down on testing
companies and have lasting impact on the role tests play in evaluating
schools and teachers.
Indiana lawmakers are considering scrapping altogether the state's
decades-old ISTEP exam after two years of widespread problems with the
administration and scoring of the test.
In Tennessee, where tests were put on hold at the last minute this year
because of server meltdowns, the governor and legislators want to let
teachers choose whether to factor this year's results into their
evaluations.
Minnesota teachers, meanwhile, are pushing legislation that would make
more transparent the scoring of the statewide exam and complaints that
students and teachers file with the state. And Alaska lawmakers want to
revamp the state's entire accountability system after test scores were
botched and arrived late.
Lawmakers Bombarded
In recent months, teachers' unions and anti-testing groups have
bombarded lawmakers in some states with letters from students and
teachers that describe the emotional toll that last-minute online
assessment problems have caused.
"We've seen the testing industry suck the joy out of teaching and
learning," said Denise Specht, the president of Minnesota's teachers'
union. "That's not new for educators. But with the glitches, parents
and educators can no longer trust the tests."
Testing companies and their allies say unions are exploiting the
incidents to eradicate tests, which advocates consider long-standing
and reliable tools for grading students. When placing tests online,
hiccups are bound to happen, they say.
"I think school districts and parents especially want to know how their
children are doing in school, and in order to do that, you need some
kind of tool to measure that," said Henry Scherich, the president of
Measurement Inc., based in Durham, N.C., which was hired to administer
Tennessee's tests this year. "So far, I don't think anybody has come up
with a better system than having a testing program."
Adding to the volatility: the recent passage of the federal Every
Student Succeeds Act, which will give state legislatures greater
flexibility in shaping the details of their testing systems to
determine whether students have a solid grasp of state learning
standards.
In Indiana, which once led the charge in ranking schools and evaluating
teachers partly using test scores, even the state's conservative
lawmakers have turned against the ISTEP exam after a spate of technical
problems.
In 2014, the state had already backed away from the Partnership for
Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, exam after
lawmakers determined it was too closely aligned to the controversial
Common Core State Standards, which Indiana altered. Within months, the
state school board wrote and approved a test that CTB/McGraw-Hill
administered online last spring.
Lawmakers and educators seem to agree now that the rollout of the
revised ISTEP exam was nothing short of a disaster.
In January, an Indianapolis Star investigation revealed that CTB/McGraw
Hill had miscalculated several students' scores, setting off a
statewide controversy over the legitimacy of the scores. Adding more
fuel to the fire, a subsequent investigation by the Associated Press
revealed that a school board employee attempted to minimize the
critical language in an audit of the exam.
In one of his first moves this legislative session, Republican Gov.
Mike Pence in January signed legislation that decoupled the 2015 test
scores from teacher pay and school report cards.
After superintendents began complaining last month about problems with
this year's practice exams…
Read the rest of the article at Education Week
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