Worcester offers MCAS alternative
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Clive McFarlane, Telegram & Gazette Staff
October 3, 2004
With the state labeling 22 Worcester public schools in need of improvement and identifying another for restructuring, Worcester officials say they will begin using their own assessment program to get a ''true value'' of the education the system is providing students.
--SNIP--
According to Mr. Caradonio, the current MCAS testing schedule measures the performances of different groups of students at various grade levels each year, but provides no means of assessing the academic growth of individual students over time.
As a result, the administration said it will kick off a pilot program in six schools this year, using a computer-assisted program to test and measure student performance in math over time.
Among other things, the assessment tool will allow teachers to pinpoint a student's skill level in mathematics, highlight areas of strength and weakness in the student's learning pattern, and allow teachers to monitor the student's growth during the school year and over several grade levels.
Teachers will be able to use the information gleamed from the new assessment program to implement school improvement and individual education plans, as well as to help parents become more active in their children's education.
--SNIP--
Ultimately, school officials would like to see the state adopt a similar approach in its accountability plan for schools and districts.Mr. Mills noted that a number of states have already adopted similar ''value-added'' assessment approaches.
Earlier this year, the Rennie Center for Education and Research Policy at MassINC released a policy paper in which it called on the state to implement a ''value-added'' accountability system that would track pupils' performance as they move from grade to grade.
S. Paul Reville, executive director of the Rennie Center, said the state's current annual testing in Grades 3-8 provides a framework for a value-added system.
The next step would be to ensure that the MCAS exams are statistically aligned from grade to grade. He believes it would cost the state approximately $3 million a year to build up the capacity to gather, analyze and distribute the value-added data.
''It is a particularly powerful intervention tool,'' he said. ''It gets timely data into the hands of teachers with students who are facing academic challenges.''
Julianne Dow, associate commissioner of the state Department of Education, said she believes the state will eventually move to a value-added assessment system.
Such a system, however, would be used in conjunction with the current accountability system, which tracks whether schools and districts are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) to fulfill the federal government's goal of having most students scoring at the proficiency level of the MCAS by 2014.
''We have to think about AYP,'' Ms Dow said. ''It is one stage of the process. It raises the flag when schools and school districts are struggling.
''It forces us to look further at what is going on in schools and school districts and the work they are doing to improve student achievement.''
