ESSA Innovation: How 2 States and Puerto Rico Aim to Transform the Way They Assess Student Learning
When students take a standardized reading test, they are often given a passage that is unrelated to what they are learning in the classroom. These "content agnostic" tests are meant to focus on students’ reading and writing abilities rather than their knowledge of a specific topic.
However, Louisiana State Superintendent of Education, John White, disagrees with this approach. He argues that these tests are not as content-neutral as they claim to be. White gives the example of the Mona Lisa as a potential topic that could appear on a traditional standardized reading test. Even though students may not have studied the Mona Lisa in their English class, some may have personal experiences or background knowledge related to the painting. White believes that this background knowledge can give certain students an advantage on the test.
To address this potential unfairness, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds, Louisiana has applied for a new program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. This program, part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, allows states to experiment with alternative assessment methods in a subset of schools to measure student learning outcomes.
Louisiana’s application proposes streamlining the English and social studies assessments to align with classroom instruction. This would allow students to apply the knowledge they have gained in class to the assessments. New Hampshire, on the other hand, aims to expand its "competency-based" approach to assessment. This method requires students to demonstrate proficiency in a given topic before moving on to the next task. Puerto Rico, currently undergoing education reforms following Hurricane Maria, plans to adopt a "computer adaptive test" where question difficulty adjusts based on student responses.
While the assessment pilot program has received attention and interest from some states, a few, such as New York, have withdrawn their participation. The program places significant demands on states, including the requirement of accessibility for students with disabilities and English language learners, without providing additional federal funding.
Under the pilot program, approved states have five years to develop and implement their assessment models. Louisiana’s plan involves assessing students on the content they have covered in class, rather than using unrelated passages. Additionally, students would be tested multiple times throughout the school year to monitor their progress in real time. The pilot would initially focus on high schools and expand to include elementary school students in the future.
Rebecca Kockler, Louisiana’s assistant superintendent of academic content, highlights the advantage of having a shared curriculum among districts, which allows for targeted assessment of specific knowledge and books.
Education expert Robert Pondiscio praises Louisiana’s approach as an "assessment holy grail." Pondiscio argues that the current testing system often misinterprets a lack of background knowledge as poor reading skills and believes that Louisiana’s plan can address this issue.
It is not surprising that New Hampshire has chosen to participate in the pilot program, as they claim credit for inspiring the federal initiative. For years, New Hampshire has been working on scaling up their competency-based approach to assessment, known as the Performance Assessment of Competency Education.
“We are aware that the results of a single end-of-year test may not accurately reflect a student’s true learning and mastery of academic skills,” stated Frank Edelblut, the education commissioner of New Hampshire, in a press release. In contrast, the competency-based system provides students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge. Additionally, this system argues that annual assessments do not effectively support a diverse student population.
In Puerto Rico, officials are introducing a comprehensive education reform law as the island recovers from Hurricane Maria and a severe financial crisis. As part of their plans to close almost 300 out of 1,100 schools, educators are gradually implementing a new accountability system that focuses on improving underperforming schools. However, Julia Keleher, Puerto Rico’s education secretary, explained that this work started before the hurricane. Education leaders have spent over a year developing new strategies to collect student performance data and make it more relevant for teachers.
Keleher emphasized that the assessment pilot program allows them to explore alternative assessments that can "quickly and effectively adapt our teaching to meet the needs of each student."
The Puerto Rico plan aims to introduce a computer adaptive test in 120 schools that have historically shown poor performance on standardized tests. According to Puerto Rican officials, students and educators in these underperforming schools often view standardized tests as a form of punishment rather than a tool to measure progress and implement improvement strategies. An adaptive testing mechanism that adjusts to match each student’s abilities would provide students with more opportunities to apply their knowledge. Puerto Rico intends to implement this technology-driven testing system in the upcoming 2018-2019 school year.
Keleher stated that computer adaptive testing allows educators to gain a better understanding of the topics that students have mastered, rather than solely focusing on their weaknesses. By using data to identify individual students’ strengths, schools can effectively group students who require specialized instruction or those who may be ready for more advanced material.
