Put to the test

NEA Today, Mar 2002 by Loschert, Kristen, Jehlen, Alain

New federal

mandates on

testing are in

place. What will

happen now?

These schools

may offer a

preview.

In Texas...

At test time each year, Ginny Evans knows the stakes tied to her students' scores: If they don't pass the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), they don't graduate. For Evans' students at Hebron High School, that threat looms large, because as students still learning English they lack the language skills needed to understand and pass the test.

"We're always concerned about our ESL population," Evans says. "Language is a barrier."

Evans isn't the only one concerned about students with limited English skills. Under the No Child Left Behind Act passed in January (also known as the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act), schools are now accountable for the performance of students in defined sub-- groups, including students with limited English skills, economically disadvantaged students, migrant students, and minority students. "Performance" is determined by annual tests.

States must establish performance goals and report test scores for these subgroups, and they face sanctions if individual groups do not improve.

The goal: Close the achievement gap between poor and minority students and their affluent and/or nonminority peers.

Texas schools have already had to account for their African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian, economically disadvantaged, and special education students. Low performances by these groups impact a school's overall rating, which determines whether the school receives sanctions. (The state does not require separate reports for other minority groups and English-language learners.)

When schools use test scores for diagnostic purposes the system works fine, says Kristin Malone, an English teacher at Memorial High School in Spring Branch. The tests show whether students are learning and how teachers can better serve them, she says.

"I think it gives a teacher a fair chance at trying to do an academic intervention," Malone says. "It provides a focus so we are not just guessing at the problems."

Separating student scores also helps educators monitor the needs of each student population, Evans says.

"If we see a higher percentage of students who are not successful, we will regroup and see what is working or what isn't working," Evans says. "The breakdown of scores helps us see if there is a breakdown in instruction."

But the system breaks down when scores become ammunition to judge schools.

"The assessment is just a snapshot," Malone says. "It's a day when the kids take a test and that day is the only day being measured. It does not include everything else those kids do not do on paper."

While it's reasonable to analyze student scores by subgroups, the new ESEA does not look at the meaning behind those scores, says Walt Haney, a Boston College education professor. The ESEA simply ties school accountability to the progress of low-performing students.

Consequently, schools may find ways to exclude their low performers from the testing cycle, instead of meeting their educational needs, Haney says. Schools could manipulate test scores by reclassifying students into exempt groups, retaining them in grades, or encouraging them to leave school, he says.

Malone at Memorial High School believes schools remain accountable for all students.

"We're not shoving the undesirables under the carpet," she says. "If anything, we have created centers where we can help them succeed."

Overall, Malone and Evans believe the Texas system serves their students. And they expect the new ESEA will meet the needs of students in other states.

"It's a good system," Malone says. "Even though we have a diverse population, we approach the TAAS with unified goals. So even if you are in an affluent community or one of the Title I communities, you have the same expectations."

-Kristen Loschert