The era of the bubble test is over. In California and across the nation, public schools have scrapped the traditional pencil-and-paper standardized tests that had become an annual rite of passage for children.
Testing hasn’t gone away. But it has gone high-tech. For the first time in California’s history, millions of students will be taking the Smarter Balanced online assessments. The computerized test – known as the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP – is intended to measure how students in third through eighth grade and 11th grade are learning Common Core, the new academic standards in math and English-language arts adopted here and in 42 states.
“This is the future,” said Pam Slater, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Education. “The future isn’t pencil and paper anymore.”
Schools have been given a choice about exactly when to administer the tests during the last three months of the school year. While some California schools began as early as mid-March, most Orange County schools started assessing in late April or will begin this month, said Christine Olmstead, assistant superintendent for instructional services at the Orange County Department of Education. At any given school, students from different grades may take tests during different weeks, depending on the number of computers available on campus.
So what is the test like?
For any parent who wants to experience what the CAASPP is like, the simple answer is to go online and take a practice version. You can do so at sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test.
Be prepared to have your brain challenged. The test requires a great deal of concentration and critical thinking. No more trying to create a design with your bubbles and hoping for the best. And you can’t skip questions, though you are able to flag a question and return to it later.
The new test is a computer-adaptive assessment, which means it can be tailored to the student’s ability. Children who answer questions correctly can be given progressively more difficult questions, while those who perform poorly can be given simpler questions. Education officials say computer-adaptive tests offer teachers a more detailed picture of where students excel or need additional help.
The test requires writing at every grade level, and it also includes performance tasks in English and math, which are longer activities designed to measure analytical and research skills in a way that multiple choice questions can’t.
Although the test is not designed to be timed, it will take seven to eight hours of total testing time on average, education officials say.
“The previous test was more about rote memorization,” said Olmstead. “This assessment requires children to show a depth of knowledge and apply critical thinking.”
What if I don’t want my child tested?
No child in California can be forced to take the CAASPP against the wishes of a parent. A state law passed in 1996 permits parents to excuse their children from any or all assessments.
For families who want to opt out of the tests, the parent should submit a written request to the principal of the child’s school.
In the era of standardized pencil-and-paper testing, just a small fraction of California families opted out, said Slater. Three years ago, for example, 7,369 children of the 4.7 million taking the STAR tests opted out, Slater said.
The state won’t know how many families opt out this year until after the testing period is complete.
But it could be more, as groups opposing Common Core are encouraging families to skip the test as a form of protest.
“There’s a lot of concern that the tests are far too long. They’re longer than the (graduate school entrance exams),” said Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a Massachusetts-based organization also known as FairTest. “There’s the concern that they may be developmentally inappropriate for young kids or confusing. The leap in what’s expected of a third-grader is enormous.”
Donna Turner, mother of a fifth- and eighth-grader in Saddleback Valley Unified School District, has opted her children out of this year’s CAASPP. Turner said her decision is partly based on her concerns about privacy, the kind of data about her children being collected under Common Core and how it could be used.
The stressful nature of the tests is another factor, said Turner. “How does it help to have kids feeling stupid, feeling defeated and full of frustration?” she asks. “The kids already struggle, and they don’t need the school to highlight some of the weaknesses. The old methods of testing were sufficient.”
When will I know how my kids performed?
Orange County parents can expect to receive the results of their child’s tests by mail in midsummer, said Olmstead.
The state has scrapped the old levels of achievement (far below basic, below basic, basic, proficient and advanced) that were used with the old California standardized tests.
Instead, scores – from 2,000 to 3,000 points – will measure whether a student has not met, nearly met, met or exceeded standards in English and math.
The report will also compare the average scores in a given category of students who took a field-test version of the CAASPP last year.
Parents will also get a breakdown of how their child is performing in specific areas, such as reading or writing for English and problem-solving or applying concepts for math.
“This is really used to give teachers feedback of how they’ve been teaching through the year,” said Olmstead. “It’s more to see how your teachers are doing, not how you are doing.”
Yikes! Why are the scores so low?
State education officials have said they expect “many if not most students” will not meet the current standards for math and literacy.
“This is a huge undertaking. We are not only changing what students learn in the classroom, but how they learn it,” said Slater of the state Department of Education. “We do expect test scores will be lower than in the past. Now we’re asking students how they reached their conclusion and what it means.”
Slater notes that when California underwent an effort to revamp the STAR test in 2002, scores also dropped dramatically the following year.
“In 2003, just 35 percent of students were scoring proficient and above in English language arts on the STAR test; but by 2013, it had gone to 56 percent. We expect these tests to have a similar track,” she said.
Critics of the new assessments cry foul play.
“These assessments are deliberately designed so only 35 percent to 40 percent of children are proficient,” said FairTest’s Neill, who said the test is simply setting up children to fail. “It’s unreasonable in length and difficultly.”
Critics also worry that the scores could also be more of a reflection of familiarity with computers than math and English skills.
Even the youngest test takers – third-graders who are 8 or 9 years old – must use a computer mouse to scroll up and down a page, drag and drop text, and use a keyboard to answer essay questions.
“Some kids have a lot more computer experience than others, and that plays out with race and class,” said Neill.
Education officials maintain that the new assessments will give schools a better tool to measure student growth over time and help teachers know whether their students are on track to be college- and career-ready.
“It’s a learning process for everyone,” said Slater. “We would ask for patience on the part of parents, and persistence on the part of students.”
