Lingle says standards too high for school tests

A BOE official says making tests easier will not help students in the long run

HAWAII'S statewide public school assessment tests are "unrealistically high" and should be changed, Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday.

"It is not a question of dumbing down a test, it is being realistic and making sure our students are able to achieve the standards," Lingle said, speaking at a Hawaii State Teachers Association legislative conference at the state Capitol.

"We have chosen standards that are unrealistically high. No matter how much money we spend, no matter how much effort we put in, more and more students will fail."

Lingle also said the tests, which are based on state standards and used to measure Hawaii's progress in meeting the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, are hurting student and teacher morale.

An independent study released last year ranked the Hawaii State Assessment as one of the toughest state tests in the nation. State test results for 2005 showed improvement in some grade levels, while others had the same or lower scores from a year before.

But Board of Education second vice-chairman Herbert Watanabe said making the tests easier won't help students in the long run.

"It is a difficult test," he said. "If you want to look good, we can make it so easy that everyone could pass. As an educator, I don't know if that's what I'd like to see. Our kids are now having to compete on a world market."

State Education Department spokesman Greg Knudsen, who was not at the conference, said he did not want to respond directly to Lingle's comments. But he did say Hawaii has been recognized as having high standards.

He also said the standards are in line with the intent of the federal law.

"It's not appropriate to lower standards simply to allow more students to reach a watered-down definition of proficiency," he added. "Our results aren't what we want them to be, but the standards ... still seem to be a worthwhile goal."

Lingle told HSTA delegates that her own senior policy advisers took the fifth-grade Hawaii math test and could not pass it.

"I am supporting making the standards more in line with what the children need to know to be able to read and write and multiply, subtract and divide," she said. "Right now the standards are broader and are not focused on core proficiencies of the students."

For instance, Lingle said, in Mississippi, 89 percent of the students pass their state assessment test, but only 18 percent pass national tests. "Ours is a reversal of that," Lingle said. "Our kids do much better on national tests than on Hawaii tests."