Idaho Board to consider whether to start high-stakes graduation tests

Idaho high school students soon could be required to pass five exams in reading, language and math or not graduate.

Bill Roberts
The Idaho Statesman

A state commission has proposed graduation tests to measure students´ knowledge as part of an overall plan to hold Idaho schools more accountable for student academic performance.

The State Assessment and Accountability Commission will meet in Boise later this month to recommend which graduating class would be the first required to pass the exams before getting diplomas. Among the options: the classes of 2005, 2006 or 2007.

The State Board of Education originally set 2005 for the year students would be required to show they meet the state´s education standards before graduating. But the board could back off a year or two to give students more preparation time.

The State Board is expected to consider the graduation proposal and other accountability measures, including sanctions against public schools that don´t meet academic expectations, at its August meeting in Idaho Falls. The proposed accountability plan is a blend of state expectations for students and requirements to meet the federal “No Child Left Behind” education reform act signed into law by President George W. Bush.

The requirement for a graduation test is scoffed at by some students, who think it is a waste of time. But some parents say it gives a high school diploma meaning.

Idaho graduation tests are meant to be a kind of seal of approval that assures students have a basic level of proficiency in language and math before leaving high school, state educators say.

“The public must have confidence in schools that students are learning and that someone is paying attention to whether students are learning the essentials,” said Marylin Howard, state superintendent of public instruction.

Idaho´s proposed graduation tests are backed up by twice-a-year assessments in second through 10th grade meant to identify kids who are falling behind before they slip through the cracks, Howard said.

Idaho colleges and businesses have complained for nearly a decade that Idaho public schools turn out poor-quality high school graduates. Many students need remediation in basic skills — both at work and in college — that can be time consuming and costly. At BSU, for example, nearly 2,000 students were enrolled in high school-level math in 2001 because college-entry test scores showed they were not prepared for university-level math.

“The need for assessment and accountability is kind of a no-brainer,” said Dawn Justice, who pursues an improved state education system on behalf of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry. “You need some sort of performance demonstration from people about to leave 12 years of public education.”

Not everyone agrees.

Janet Orndorff, a Boise School Board trustee, said graduation tests are a “travesty” and focus too much accountability on students.

“If you are going to implement a system, make sure the adults in the system are accountable first and the students second,” she said. “We should not be causing students to fail.”

And Ann Klahr, a Borah High School art teacher, worries that some of her students, who have a promising career in art, might be blocked because they aren´t strong in subjects such as math or English and wouldn´t receive a diploma.

“I have kids for whom art is their only success,” she said. “The high-stakes test, I think, is really frightening to say at this stage that ´you are not worth a diploma.´ ”

What other states are doing

Graduation tests and the controversy over them aren´t new in education. At least 27 states now have exit-exam policies, and 18 require students to pass a test to graduate even if they have completed and earned passing grades on their high school coursework.

Across the country, thousands of high school seniors will receive largely meaningless certificates rather than diplomas this year because they repeatedly failed exams that many states require for graduation. Many receive certificates of completion.

Florida, for example, has pushed ahead with its graduation exams despite nearly 12,800 students — about 9 percent of this year´s graduating class — failing the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

“We don´t apologize for setting high standards,” said Jim Horne, Florida Education Commissioner. “We set these high standards, and students are getting there.”

In California, by contrast, the State Board of Education is expected to back off from initial plans to hold the class of 2004 responsible for meeting state education standards because half the students failed the language and reading tests.

A study in California found that many students weren´t exposed in the classroom to materials they were tested on.

“You just cannot withhold diplomas on half the kids,” said David Marsh, a University of Southern California education professor and co-chairman of the state task force that created the tests.

Idaho’s future in testing

It´s too early to tell how well Idaho high school students would do on a graduation test. This year´s 10th-graders took the Idaho Standards Achievement Test, or ISAT, last month. Results will be released by mid-June.

The ISAT comprises three of the five exams that would be required for graduation.

The tests were pilots and are still undergoing evaluation to determine whether they truly measure students´ knowledge of Idaho´s education standards.

The Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, a federally funded education think tank, expects to conclude the study of the exams´ validity this month.

But even before Idahoans have a hint as to how well students might do on the exams, the proposed graduation tests are having an impact in the classroom.

At Borah High School, Susan Multanen, a sophomore accelerated English instructor, took time away from her discussion of poetry in the weeks leading up to the ISAT to prep kids on basic grammar facts they likely would face on the test.

For 10 to 15 minutes on most days, kids completed worksheets prepared by the School District to practice using commas, periods and other punctuation.

“I do see some value,” Multanen said. “There are some students who need that refresher, and we´re not spending an inordinate amount of time in preparing.”

Some students don´t see it that way. Laura Johnston, an accelerated student, said the exams are a waste of time and make her wonder about the usefulness of the grading system teachers have used.

“If grades are not good enough in determining how you are doing, why do we have them?” she asked.

Johnston said she breezed through the tests — for which the school provided two-hour blocks of time — in a matter of minutes. And most of the material was covered in elementary school and junior high.

“If the information on these are for graduation, why didn´t I graduate in the seventh grade?” she asked.

Laura is, by all accounts, an above-average student. And her response to the ISATs isn´t unusual among Idaho´s brightest 10th-graders.

“For some of the really good students, I think it is frustrating to stop to do some of the things they feel like they have mastered,” Multanen said.

But in a sense, that is the goal of graduation testing, said Connie Johnston, Laura´s mother and a math instructor at Idaho Virtual Academy, a computer-based Idaho charter school.

“If kids are where they are supposed to be, the ISAT is a waste of time,” she said. “I understand the need to have standards, and I can´t come up with a better idea.”

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Bill Roberts
[email protected] or 377-6408

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