Download HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force

HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel What would an effective statewide assessment system include? • Flexibility for different school models to be able to have a similar outcome but a format that works • Safe system for data collection that protects students' privacy • What is the purpose of assessment? o Clarity about the fact that this is “standardized”assessment, statewide, in the discussion o Bring attention to areas that need to be taught (for instance, social studies has been pushed to the side until now it’s tested) o Requiring that Social Studies is taught, because it’s assessed o If you’re not comfortable with geography, with history, can let that slide to the side, if it’s not tested o Business people need Colorado graduates to know about the world o Intermittent usage throughout the years, with the data to parents so that they know if their school has consistent results in comparison to other schools across the state o Should be used to affect instruction, provide good data about how they are instructing our kids, and giving teachers the capability to adjust instruction o Results for an individual student show how that student is doing within the school, within the district, within the state • Consider the timing of the assessments especially for our high school students as they are preparing for college, and they have zero investment in the state test because they’re prepping for ACT and IB assessments, finals • Can a rigorous test be created that is not so much time, so many sessions • Could a reading test also assess history, multi‐purpose, with the results disaggregated? Context and concepts? o Currently as well, if they’re not a good reader they’re going to struggle with social studies test o If they’re not a good typist or good with technology they’re not going to do well with the test • If a school is struggling… sufficient help should get to that school • What if low scores triggered additional, specific professional HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel development for a school or a teacher rather than some of the punitive measures with “high‐stakes” testing. • What if student buy‐in was developed for students to receive college credit, prestige, tangible and practical benefits for students with high scores? Mr. Jenning left at this point for another meeting. How could Colorado improve its assessment system? Please provide specific examples. • Whatever is used, the testing environment should not become more and more and more restrictive based on whether other schools are using unethical practices. There should be penalties for that school, not a practice of placing all the rest of the schools placed on one more new restriction as a result. • We need to optimize our results so that there are not numerous standardized assessments, but instead more time for actual instruction • What if there was a way to have interim checkpoints with kids rather than a big final? Could we see a trajectory across instead of these massive summative pieces? Are you familiar with the local assessments that are administered to students according to requirements of your district? If so, do you believe these assessments are valuable? Why? 1 ‘not really’ (kindergarten, first grade parent) 1 ‘somewhat’ (homeschool parent) 3 ‘intimately aware’ (parents and educators) Other: There are still WAY too many standards, and not enough time in the day to teach that many with depth HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel Pam Mazinec – State Board of Ed.\ Gloria T., Feedback to Task Force on Colorado State Assessments & Standards 1. Colorado schools should test at federal minimums, not at maximums. 2. Rather than PARRC tests, provide skills‐based tests a. MAPs would be a better option: nationally normed i. Based on CO state standards ii. MAPS adapts difficulty of test to student. b. The new standards “dumb down” schools that teach to a higher standard and expectation. PARRC is a “floor” level test, and is not a good system or design of test. 3. Computer testing is very limiting: a. Not all schools start keyboarding until middle school. b. Computer‐based testing require schools to change their philosophy of education: i. Montessori schools ii. Cursive‐first schools or those that support pencil/paper 4. Let teachers do their jobs: they don’t need state and federal oversight. 5. How could Colorado improve its assessment system? Specific examples a. The new state tests take too much contact time for students and teachers away from instruction: READ assessments; English Language assessments; PARRC; CMAS; ACT for Juniors; GOLD, etc. b. PARCC tests are disruptive to staff, facility, students, non‐tested students. (E.g., Freshmen, sophomores, juniors miss school when seniors are tested.) c. In Elem. School, younger grades can’t use parts of building during tests, parent volunteers can’t access building, playgrounds can’t be used during testing. d. Accommodations must be made for students with physical or learning disabilities: no facility space is available because computers labs are needed for PARRC tests. e. Duration of tests is excessive: 80 minutes (without accommodated extra time for ELA 4th grade and above) is not appropriate. f. Costs of PARCC test are prohibitive for schools and use limited resources for non‐
instructional purposes: purchasing computers, infrastructure, band width, hire HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel multiple tech experts. g. Students should have paper and pencil options in testing for which the DESIGN is easily accessible (not several stack of papers needed to take a pencil/paper test). h. Tests should NOT be a measure of keyboarding skills. 6. Concern about Task Force composition of members: a. Why does the Task Force include a member from PARCC? That member has an invested interest in keeping the current tests in place. (The parents on the committee do not have a monetary interest in either promoting or opposing the standards or tests.) b. Shouldn’t there have been more parents participating (instead of having 2 parent members)? 7. Penalties for schools that have low rates of participation in the tests: lower accreditation rating is not a good consequence. 8. STOP the Data Pipeline: a. Restore parental rights of privacy. FERPA should not have been altered to allow third parties to have access of PII (Personally identifiable information). b. This kind of intrusive data collection is illegal, and parents have not given permission on behalf of their minor child. c. TS GOLD – video taping or photographing students is NOT appropriate. This assessment in a waste of teacher’s time, and the social‐emotional components are inappropriate. d. Teacher‐Student data link to Data Pipeline should be dismantled. This is creepy. 9. Are you familiar with the local assessments that are administered to students according to requirements of your district? If so, do you believe these assessments are valuable? Why? a. Yes, HOWEVER local districts are monetarily penalized for not participating in the state tests. 10. High school students: take end of course tests. Knowledge‐based tests would be better than grade‐level tests. HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel What would an effective statewide assessment system include? ∙ Testing that aligns with the subject that is actually studied that year. ∙ Assessments that are applicable to the classroom / can support the teachers in improving their instruction. It should connect results to individual students that need support and get that information to the teacher. ∙ The use of computers allows for more meaningful questions. ∙ It should NOT include a connection to evaluating individual teacher effectiveness. This encourages teachers to merely teach to the test. ∙ It should NOT be used for data mining of non‐academic material. ∙ The system should include summative content tests, but they are just one piece of information, not the end‐all, be‐all of achievement. ∙ A thorough understanding of what the results are used for and how they are useful. How could Colorado improve its assessment system? Please provide specific examples. ∙ Personal information gathered from tests should not be connected to individual students. At least, that information should not leave the district. ∙ Some way to level the playing field for children who are not exposed to technology regularly. They will underperform on the test. ∙ Teachers should be assessed only locally within the school based on observation and results within the classroom. ∙ The tests themselves are interesting, but there are major problems with the way they impact the school day and year. ∙ It needs to take less time while accomplishing the goal of assessing student knowledge. ∙ Concentrating more effort on funding equity. Use test results to be supportive of underfunded districts rather than punitive for lack of performance. Testing should find out “who needs to the resources?” ∙ Narrow the purpose of the tests. They should give us global results about how the state, district, or school is doing in specific areas – not to evaluate teachers connect information to students. ∙ Test frequency should be drastically reduced. There should not be testing every year. You would still get a good snapshot of performance while giving weeks of instruction back to the teachers. HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel Are you familiar with the local assessments that are administered to students according to requirements of your district? If so, do you believe these assessments are valuable? Why? ∙ DIBELs, MAPs, PARCC, CMAS, Aspire, PSAT, ACT, CoGat, STAR, “The New Kindergarten One.” ∙ STAR is a good indicator at the beginning of the year (formative). ∙ These are not poorly written tests. They have potential as tools. Other comments. ∙ The best way to evaluate teachers is not to assess them through standardized teaching but by giving the administration the power to remove ineffective teachers. ∙ Student at the table never really knew why CSAP/TCAP was valuable to students and has the same concerns about CMAS/PARCC. ∙ Tests like this encourage “teaching to the test” and not improving student knowledge and well‐rounded education. ∙ Where are the questions about the standards? ∙ Where does the student voice about all of this testing come in to play? What brought you here? ∙ Testing schedule would cost my AP chem class 18 days of instructional time. It will stop them from being able to do well on AP exam. ∙ Concerns about seniors taking test that has quite a bit of information on it from past years. ∙ We have not been getting any kind of schedule from the state. ∙ Seniors are not taking the test seriously. ∙ Students are not aware of what is going on or why. ∙ Large numbers of students either opting out or not showing up for testing. ∙ Students have noticed quite a bit of disruption to school day. ∙ Observing event for politics class. ∙ Curious about how this will impact scheduling and class time at my school. ∙ Wondering how this will affect schools with concurrent enrollment in college because students are missing several days of college courses to take high school tests. HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel ∙ This is critical. It’s part of my work in preparing teachers to teach geography. Curious to find out about roll‐out of social studies test after push from “social studies” community. ∙ Have noticed odd achievement gap in social studies results from the spring in social studies. ∙ Concerned that this large state assessment should be used to improve classroom instruction and provide support – not as punishment. ∙ We’ve turned testing into an event that shuts down the entire school. ∙ Our kids in online classes cannot access computers on testing days. ∙ Very opposed to common core and data mining. 
Worried about how much money the state is spending on an effort that ends up shutting down schools for days at a time instead of increasing instructional time. HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel Thank you for taking notes this evening. I would like to clarify some points of this discussion that are not clear, or that I believe have not been adequately represented. o
It should NOT be used for data mining of non‐academic material." Some individuals around the table would disagree with this statement, as valuable information about schools and districts in terms of numbers of children in poverty (usually represented by students using free and reduced lunch benefits), minority students, special program status, English‐language learners, and geography (schools in urban, suburban, or rural areas) are essential for figuring out how to support students who generally are not performing at sufficient levels. "Data mining" of individuals is different than using data to understand how to use limited resources or to understand where across the state students are not being well‐served. The data does not answer "why" they are not well‐served, or "how" to address that issue, but it provides one piece of information, just as do graduation rates, for instance. o
"Curious to find out about roll‐out of social studies test after push from 'social studies' community." As I was representing the social studies community this evening, I am not sure about the interpretation of this comment. The social studies community has been awaiting the results of the social studies tests in 4th and 7th grades because social studies teachers, social studies district coordinators, and nonprofit professional development providers are all seeking more accurate knowledge about whether or not students are leaving Colorado schools with a firm grasp of history, geography, civics, and economics. If they are not, then the social studies community needs to identify how to support teachers in their work with students so that they do master these subjects. Without a statewide assessment, there is no general information on social studies achievement by students in Colorado. o
" Very opposed to common core and data mining." Only one person in the group expressed this particular viewpoint. o
Tests like this encourage “teaching to the test” and not improving student knowledge and well‐rounded education." It is not clear what "tests like this" means. Nowhere in the notes are included the observations from the two teachers who have been implementing the Colorado Academic standards and the state assessments. They stated that they found both the Colorado Academic Standards and the Assessments to be useful and rigorous. The science teacher described that the seniors taking the science assessment had to conduct a lab, which is much more substantive than filling in a bubble sheet. The fifth grade teacher noted that the Colorado Academic Standards are a good framework and do not prescribe curriculum, giving teachers and districts a great deal of freedom. The satisfaction with the content of the state assessments themselves is not reflected in the comments submitted. The comments about the time used for testing instead of instruction and the challenges of technology are accurate, but the content of the standards and the assessments is a different issue. HB14-1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force
Notes from Public Hearing, Colorado Springs Early Colleges,
Colorado Springs – November 13, 2014
Submitted by Ilana Spiegel o "Have noticed odd achievement gap in social studies results from the spring in social studies." I had observed that 80 percent of students identified as gifted and talented in both language arts and mathematics and 71 percent of students identified as gifted and talented in "language arts only" scored "strong" or "distinguished" in fourth grade. The numbers for seventh grade are 76 percent and 63 percent respectively. I would not describe this as "odd", but as unsurprising. Whether students identified as gifted and talented are scoring higher than average because they are more familiar with technology, because they have more access to content generally associated with social studies, or because they are better readers is not clear. This kind of data prompts multiple questions about how to use limited resources most efficiently. I was impressed with the willingness of the group around the table to acknowledge different viewpoints. This discussion represents the importance of understanding how to balance individual rights and community responsibilities at all levels of governance.