State Raises the Bar for 5th-through-8th Grade Tests

State Raises the Bar for
5th-through-8th Grade Tests—Web Extra

New Jersey students’ performance on the state’s standardized tests has improved steadily. This year, however, parents and other community members might not recognize that fact as a result of the state Board of Education’s July 16 action to raise cut-off scores on the exams. Even though actual test scores have risen, fewer fifth through eight grade students will be deemed “proficient” or “advanced proficient” in language arts literacy and math.

“The impact of this decision will lead to identifying students for intervention and assistance earlier in their school careers, which has long been a goal of the state board,” stated Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy in a memo, explaining the proposal.

Retroactive The change—in effect, a raising of the bar—increases the scores at which students would be identified as proficient in the state academic standards set for their grade levels. The higher cut-off scores are being applied retroactively to tests administered in the spring of 2008.

Next year, the state Department of Education plans to recommend adjusted cut-off scores for the third- and fourth-grade exams.

AYP Impact The new cut-off scores might also affect schools’ and school districts’ ability to meet Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

AYP benchmarks represent the percentage of students at each grade level and within ranges of grades (e.g., sixth through eighth) who must meet the cut-off scores on state exams if a school or a school district is to be designated as making adequate progress. The AYP benchmarks are also applied to each of nine racial/ethnic, gender, economic and educational sub-groups.

By September, the state Department of Education will set new benchmarks that will be applied to the spring 2008 test results. Depending on where the state sets the revised AYP benchmarks, the higher cut-off scores could result in more schools and school districts not making adequate yearly progress.

A chart provided at the July 16 state board meeting shows projected drop-offs—some steep—in the percentages of students in many of the nine NCLB subgroups who do not reach the new cut-off scores. The same trend is present in tests at each grade level.

Communications Challenge “New Jersey students score at or near the top on nationwide measures of academic achievement, such as the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress,” said Marie S. Bilik, NJSBA executive director. “It is certainly appropriate to raise the bar for our own state tests.

“Ultimately, a testing process should enable schools to better identify where students need assistance,” she continued. “However, a sudden, retroactive change in cut-off scores gives many school districts the difficult task of communicating the fact that any decreases in proficiency rates do not result from a decline in academic achievement, but instead from higher goals and a desire to help students.”

For further information, go to the state Board of Education’s meeting Web page and select the “July 2008” agenda.