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DOE goal: Devise tests
but ensure learning

DOE looks to tighten
special-needs money belt

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

How will Hawaii's Department of Education find out if public school students are mastering the new academic standards?

A. Guess.

B. Seek psychic guidance.

C. Give them a test.

The answer is C. This summer, state educators are fine-tuning a testing system expected to link academic standards to accountability in Hawaii for the first time.

As the presidential race turns testing and accountability into a hot topic nationwide, test developers here are assessing how well a practice test given to students in the spring meets their goals for Superintendent Paul LeMahieu's reforms for Hawaii public schools.

Hawaii can learn from this national debate, folks here said.

"Most states are engaged in something very similar," said Michael Heim, director of the Department of Education's planning and evaluation group, which is overseeing the development of the standards test along with a core team of eight department staffers and a private test-publishing company providing technical assistance.

Texas has received attention since Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential candidate, has both bragged about and defended his state's testing system, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills.

"People are looking at Texas right now and wondering whether the change is as real as the test scores suggest," LeMahieu said.

Texas has seen test scores rise over six years especially for minority students.

But critics say minority students still lag behind white students, teachers are burning out and that the assessment has caused minority students to drop out, special education students to be excluded, some to cheat, and students to be "taught to the test" rather than to learn.

These kinds of unforeseen consequences worry Hawaii State Teacher Association President Karen Ginoza, who says Hawaii should address these issues in the development of its testing and accountability system.

"Those are the dangers," Ginoza said. "We want to make sure our children are learning."

Though other states are further along in the process, LeMahieu contends Hawaii is able to learn from their mistakes. "There are a lot of ways that test scores go up. We want it to be because kids learn something," LeMahieu said.

"We intend to take accountability seriously, which means the test scores will be important," LeMahieu said, "while still making learning what matters."

He said the answer is to invest in ongoing professional training and support for teachers in the classroom so they can focus on student learning. Part of that investment will be to align what's taught in the classroom with the standards.

"Then the test can mean that real learning happened. There's integrity and validity to the scores," LeMahieu said.

Some teachers are worried that the pressures of accountability and high stakes testing could lead to teachers teaching to the test and not spending enough time helping students to master standards and develop skills, Ginoza said. "We want to make sure the assessment measures what you are teaching," she said.

The alignment between the standards and the test also becomes important because the assessment results will paint a picture of how well the school system is performing.

"It lets people know who's making it and who isn't and who needs what kind of help and who doesn't," LeMahieu said. "And if that whole measurement system isn't looking at the right stuff, it's essentially worthless.

Heim said this is the first time Department of Education testing experts have developed an assessment on this large a scale.

"Certainly it was in the back of my mind that some folks are going to live with this and some folks are going to hate this," Heim said. "We're being as careful as we know how to be to make sure this is done right, make sure this is a valid and credible assessment."

Accountability will be phased in over the next few years with the full system planned to be in place by 2004.

"There is the opportunity for learning to be in place before we start to hold schools, staff and students accountable" for test results, Heim said. "It's fair we give them advance warning."

Long, winding road to tests Here's where things stand on a testing system linking academic standards to accountability in Hawaii: Content standards were established last summer for all grades and performance standards are still being developed. Content standards define what students should know and be able to do in core subjects, while performance standards define how good is good enough. The test to measure student mastery of standards in reading, writing and math was given a trial run in May to an estimated 55,000 students statewide. Educators are evaluating the practice test to see which of its questions and tasks work best. A final version of the test, which will be given in grades 3, 5 and 8 and in high school, will be used to get a baseline measurement in 2001. Coming, in stages, between now and 2004 are the ways schools will be held accountable for how well or how poorly students meet standards based on the test results. This accountability system is expected to include rewards for schools that perform well, assistance for those needing improvement and sanctions for schools that repeatedly fail to pass muster.

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DOE looks to tighten
special-needs money belt

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

The state Department of Education may revise its way of allocating some $3 million a year in special funding that has gone to low-performing schools since 1989.

That's because schools with low student test scores and poor attendance have not demonstrated these funds have had a significant, positive effect on learning.

The funding nonetheless produced a few bright spots earlier in the 1990s.

Third-grade reading scores showed some improvement in Nanakuli and Waianae. Also, Lanai and Kapaa (Kauai) complex schools improved after receiving special-needs money. Results in other jurisdictions were less favorable, however.

Francine Grudzias, state education administrative services director, told the school board's Committee on Regular Education yesterday the department will continue to keep the board up to date and offered recommendations.

If the state continues to allocate special-needs funds in an effort to improve students' reading, writing and math at targeted schools, Grudzias said the Education Department favors two key changes:

That schools with high absentee rates, high disciplinary referral rates and low test scores now receiving the funds be required to submit plans which show how the money will be used to support their design for improvement.

The basic grant to an individual school would be $50,000 a year plus a formula to be worked out based on student numbers and available funds.

That these schools make follow-up reports on how the funds were used and resulting student achievement as indicated by valid measurement of reading, writing and math skills.

Funding would be renewed for a minimum of three years, not to exceed a total of six years.

At the end of the third year and each year thereafter, schools would be required to submit evidence of student achievement before receiving more funds.

It was also suggested the department look into using these funds to help schools administer the new accountability system.

Special-needs schools are now chosen for low student achievement, high absentee rates and high rates of discipline referrals.