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Standardized Testing
Adapted from a Letter from Principal Cathy Howard, Barron Park Buzz, October 24, 2003
There are many ways we measure and quantify student performance as individuals and as members of their class and grade level. Standardized tests give us a snapshot of our children at one moment in time, and allow us to see how our children compare with others across the state and the nation. Teacher evaluations fill out that picture by looking at student progress over the whole year.
STAR, the state-mandated testing program for all public school students in grades 2-11, has two components: a norm-referenced test (NRT) and the Content Standards Test (CST). These components serve different functions. NRTs are constructed to rank student achievement in basic curriculum areas, such as reading and mathematics. The score produced, a percentile rank, simply tells us where a student’s test performance ranks with respect to a nationally representative sample of his or her grade-level peers.
Content Standards Tests, on the other hand, were developed to provide a better measure of student achievement on California’s standards (i.e., California’s curriculum). Like NRTs, CSTs also measure student performance in basic content areas, but CSTs more closely mirror what is taught in California’s classrooms. CST scores label student test performance on the basis of proficiency levels, from “Far Below Basic” to “Below Basic,” “Basic,” “Proficient,” and “Advanced.” As a school, Content Standards Tests are more helpful to us in looking at what our students are learning, and what they still need to learn. In looking at the scores of each class as they progress through the grades, our scores show steady progress in nearly all areas. Reviewing the scores helps us identify both individual and collective strengths and needs.
Our students also take two other tests which are standardized across the region (the MARS test in mathematics) or the nation (the ERB Writing Assessment Program or WRAP). On the MARS test, 3rd and 5th graders solve complex mathematics problems and explain their solutions and their thinking. On the ERB WRAP, students plan, develop, and write a three-page piece in response to a “prompt” or question. Both of these tests are scored by trained readers or rubrics showing different levels, and we use that data in planning our mathematics and writing instruction. We are especially pleased that on both of these measures the percentage of Barron Park students scoring at the highest levels has increased each year.
The final set of data is the end-of-year teacher evaluation of student progress toward meeting the grade-level standards in reading, writing, and mathematics. While tests provide a snapshot of one day or week in a student’s year, the teacher evaluations are based on a year’s cumulative success.
