Two State Groups Win Grants to Revamp Assessments

Over the next four years, states throughout the nation will create better, smarter assessments with grant funding from the Race to the Top Assessment Competition.

“This new generation state assessment will be an absolute game-changer in public education,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a press conference. “For the first time, many teachers will have the assessments they have longed for.”

Those assessments will test critical thinking skills and complex student learning — not just basic skills tested with fill-in-the-bubble sheets.

On Thursday he awarded grants to two out of three coalitions that applied, and they'll receive a total of $330 million to develop new assessments. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia joined the two coalitions, and 12 states participated in both of them.

The new assessments will line up with the common core standards that 36 states have adopted so far this year and be ready for schools to use in the 2014 to 2015 school year.

“The states have taken the lead in developing new standards," said Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. "Now we’re taking the lead in developing new assessments which will make the standards come to life, and that’s the way it should be: designed by the states and driven by the states with the support and partnership of the federal government. These tests will give us the tools to get better and smarter.”

Of the 45 coalition participants, 35 of them have adopted the common core standards this year. The other state that has adopted the standards, Wyoming, did not join one of these coalitions.

Each coalition has taken a different approach to assessing student learning. The 26 states in the Partnership Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) will test students' abilities to read complex texts, conduct research, speak, listen and work with digital media with its $170 million grant.

Instead of designing one high-stakes test at the end of the year, the Florida-led coalition will design a series of assessments that students in third through 11th grade will take throughout the year. That will allow teachers to see how their students are doing in real-time and adjust their teaching when necessary.

The 31 states in the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) also plan to give teachers a way to see how their students are doing throughout the year, but in a different fashion. With its $160 million grant, SBAC will keep the high-stakes test at the end of the year, but will also create optional formative tests that will show everyone whether students are on track throughout the year.

Rather than using pencil and paper to test students, the Washington-led consortium will use computer adaptive technology to test third- through eighth-graders and 11th-graders.

“Technology is a vital tool to tracking student progress in a way that helps teachers shape their instruction to meet the individual needs of all students,” said Joe Willhoft, assistant superintendent of assessment and student information in the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

       Source: U.S. Education Department, Common Core State Standards Initiative

Both groups will work with college and universities, experts and teachers to develop the standards for third- through 11th grade students. They'll also design the standards with English Language Learners and students with disabilities in mind. In most current tests, developers built in accomodations for these students at the end of the design process, said Joanne Weiss, Duncan's chief of staff. These new assessments, however, will build in accomodations at the beginning.

Students with disabilities are often capable, but behind in their studies because of their disabilities, said Mitchell Chester, commissioner of elementary and secondary education in Massachusetts, which joined PARCC. That's why the coalition wants to assess a range of competency at any grade level and provide feedback throughout the year.

In the 2013 to 2014 school year, the coalitions will test the assessments so they will be ready to use the next year. And these assessments will streamline the process that states, districts and schools go through in their assessment cycle, Duncan said.

"If states coalesce behind these, you could actually see significantly less testing in many places and less redundancy.”