State Board of Education to Shove Schools Off Testing Cliff

School districts across the state received an email from Illinois State Superintendent Chris Koch pertaining to the proposed increase in “cut” scores used for the Illinois Standards Achievement Test ( ISAT) that is administered each spring to students in grades 3-8. Cut scores are used to determine a range of scores necessary to assign a student an overall performance level of “exceeds standards,” “meets standards,” “below standards,” or “academic warning,” in the areas of reading, math, and science.

Superintendent Koch stated in his email to schools that “the increase in performance levels will align our expectations for our grade 3-8 students with the more rigorous standards of the new Common Core State Standards that are focused on college and career readiness.” ISBE staff has made it clear to districts that the increase in cut scores is part of the transition to the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment that all schools will be required to administer beginning with the 2014-2015 school year.

The impact of these new cut scores will be dramatic. Dr. Brooks applied the new cut scores to the 2013 results for 3rd grade students tested in math, and found that whereas 100% of the students would have met before only 50% of them do now. Similar trends will be seen in districts across the state. ISBE has advised school administrators to prepare to have “tough” conversations with the many parents who will be alarmed that their child is now performing “below” standards on the same state assessment that in previous years they earned a “meets” or “exceeds” designation.

ISBE acknowledges that Illinois’ previous expectations for grade 3-8 students did not align to the new Common Core State Standards that are now focused on success in college and the workforce. So, why are schools wasting valuable instructional time and resources by continuing to administer a test that fails to produce meaningful results?

Perhaps the most distressing aspect of the “transition” from the ISAT to PARCC assessments and the increase in cut scores is the disregard how these changes will impact the children in our classrooms. Why are we subjecting thousands of children and teachers to the stress of ISAT administration for the next two years and the humiliation of a pre-determined course of failure on the ISAT? How do school staff and parents explain to a 9-year-old that their failure to meet state standards is to due to a statistical adjustment that will enable ISBE to avoid the public relations disaster of a dramatic drop in test scores with the new PARCC assessment? How do school administrators explain to their dedicated teachers that they are doing an outstanding job of working with children despite a dramatic downturn in test results?

School districts across the state face historic cuts in state funding coupled with an overwhelming increase in state mandates, rules and regulations. The pace of these changes under the guise of “reforms,” has accelerated at the same time that schools face unprecedented budget deficits, due in part, to existing state mandates. This latest decision by ISBE illustrates the complete disconnect that has developed between the agency and the dedicated school administrators and teachers who work every day with the children in our school districts. It also represents a further erosion of the local control of duly elected school board members, who represent the very property tax owners who are paying an increasing percentage of the cost of education while the state abdicates its responsibility to fund our schools. Most importantly, it is not good for the children that we serve.

By: Andrew Brooks, Ed. D.