FYI:California end STAR testing

[Arcadia]

Brown signs bill ending current standardized tests Updated 1:53 pm, Wednesday, October 2, 2013

" A bill ending the standardized tests that California public school students have taken in reading, math and social science since 1999 received Gov. Jerry Brown's signature on Wednesday, despite a threat by the U.S. secretary of education to withhold federal funds if the state moved forward with the plan

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Assembly Bill 484 replaces the pencil-and-paper, multiple-choice STAR tests with new language and math tests taken on computers

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The new tests are still under development, so schools will be required to give them on a practice basis in grades 3-8 and 11 this spring, with students taking either the math or language sections, but not both.

No individual student scores, school performance reports or statewide results — measurements that parents use to gauge their children's advancement and politicians and business leaders use to compare schools — would be generated from the rollout.

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Under the plan approved by Brown, only the science portion of the test would be given to fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders next spring before being dropped altogether a year later"

 

From California's Dept. of Education website

"Part of the assessment system, developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter), also will be computer adaptive, so that a student's prior responses affect the difficulty of subsequent questions, allowing a far more precise measurement of student skills and knowledge than the former tests."

 

[Crimson Wife]

I'm going to be exercising my legal right to opt my kids out this year since I have no interest in them being guinea pigs for the new tests. My oldest will be taking the SAT through Northwestern's NUMATS talent search.

[Nart]

Curious as to why you would opt out? No scores will be reported anywhere. It seems like good practice for the following year when the scores will count instead of kids taking it "cold".

[kiwik]

Why replace one standardised test with another? It is still a standardised test with all the problems of standardised testing.

[Arcadia]

Why replace one standardised test with another? It is still a standardised test with all the problems of standardised testing.

It is a requirement for federal funding. I'm not sure whether that started with NCLB (no child left behind) or before that.  

[Nart]

STAR testing was based on California standards. The new smarter balance test is based on common core standards.

[Tsuga]

Oh god I hate adaptive testing. It's terrible for a certain kind of test taker--estimators / revisors. You have to strategize to get yourself locked into a higher plane on the test and then stay in by guesstimating quickly. And though they insist you can't tell when you're being "knocked off" the more advanced questions, you totally can, at least you can if you're bright enough to do well on the tests.

 

That said they're just preparing the children better for the college board tests, from the SATs to the GRE, which are all adaptive.

 

I went back to school after 15 years off and taking the GRE was pure hell. No logic section either! It had the most predictive power of all the test sections with respect to performance, but they took it off.