Herricks Board Gives Update on New Testing Method

Herricks Superintendent John Bierwirth gave an update at the Dec. 9 meeting of the Herricks Board of Education at the Middle School on the partnership with Portland, OR-based Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) for an adaptive evaluation exam administered to district students.

Herricks piloted the program in Spring 2010 along with five other districts and made a proposal to the state during the summer “which we continue to pursue,” Bierwirth said, for districts that wish to be allowed to use the program in lieu of the New York State tests.

“I’m astounded that they’re talking about spending million of dollars on a (grade) three through eight interim test in New York State and eliminating Regents exams or charging for Regents exams stunts," Bierwirth said. "Doing this would give better results in one day with one hour of testing for each student... the cost to the State would be zero and the cost to school districts would be half of what we’re spending now.”

New York is part of a consortium of approximately 30 states who have committed to a consortium test in 2014-15 and spend a reported $38 million over the next three years.

The exam is administered online and is “fully adaptive,” meaning that a student can move up or down and questions become easier or more difficult based on the answers given.

“If they can answer more difficult questions, the computer keeps throwing more and more difficult questions to them ,” Bierwirth said, “until they reach the point where they are essentially getting 50 percent right, 50 percent wrong because the program assumes that that is a student’s working level.  If they can get 75 percent or better of an easier question, the assumption is that they have essentially mastered that skill.”

Students who took the exam last year reportedly all reacted the same way, saying that while the exam was tough, they all thought they did well.

“They all got about the same number right or wrong, “Bierwirth said. “So their experience was essentially the same.”

A copy of the teacher’s report with a fictional example of a class was available at the meeting. Scores on the exam do not come back on a grade level, but in the form of a “writ score” - shown in one continuous scale with equal intervals. This scale based on national and international norms. Subjects such as mathematics are broken down into six different sub areas “so you have a very clear idea of where your students fall,” Bierwirth said. Clicking on a spreadsheet cell in the report provides a further breakdown for individual students about which skills and concepts to enhance, develop and introduce.

“You as a teacher have a very clear idea, at least at that moment in time, what a student was able to do, what they’re working on and what they need to work on next,” Bierwirth said. “You’re giving a student very specific things that they can work on as opposed to saying you need to work harder in math.”

The reports can also help group students and provide a clear picture for parents as well as the test is conducted over time, growth measurements are charted for teachers to show progress. The school district has rights for up to four administrations of the test each year. A link to the report is available on the Herricks website.

The test does not have a “top” or “bottom” since as per the adjustment, students receive questions as per their ability. “They can literally - even if they’re in the third grade - they can go up to what would be the equivalent of an average tenth grader,” Bierwirth said. The test is approved by the Federal government, and is currently used in Utah to fulfill requirements of the No Child Left Behind act.

Another advantage is that the test can be paused, students can walk away and come back due to the enormous amount of questions in the database which make cheating “impossible” according to Bierwirth.

“One of the dirty secrets in New York State is the massive amounts of cheating going on on grade three through eight tests right now in districts across the state,” he said. “The state knows about it but can’t do anything about it, or they’re choosing not to do anything about it. Literally you cannot cheat on this test... because they’re all getting different questions.”

Bierwirth added that the state consortium New York belongs to might be moving toward a computer based adaptive test. “If that’s the case then we’re 10 steps ahead of the rest of the State instead of going off on a tangent.”