Asked why the cut scores were so low, Jim Wright, testing director for the Ohio Department of Education, said those levels were approved by the multi-state PARCC Governing Board last week based on preliminary test reviews, and reflect the more difficult level of the Common Core-based tests.
“Any test can become harder or easier depending on where you set the (grading) standards,” Wright said.
Ohio’s scores
On Ohio’s past tests, before Common Core, students had to get anywhere from 32 percent to 58 percent of math and English questions right to be proficient. But many state education officials said those were easier tests, and that claim is borne out in preliminary PARCC test results released Monday by ODE.
Despite having to get fewer questions right, only about 64 to 69 percent of grade 3-8 students would meet the math and English proficiency bar proposed Monday, which in Ohio requires a PARCC test score of 3, 4 or 5.
Ohio’s preliminary test data is based only on students who took last year’s tests online, as the one-third of tests that were taken on paper are still being scored.
Chris Woolard, senior executive director of accountability for ODE, said Ohio’s 64-to-69 percent proficiency rate is well below the 75-to-80 percent of students who traditionally have been deemed proficient on state tests. But Wright said that 64 percent number is still better than state officials expected.
Wright said ODE hopes to raise student cut scores eventually, but likely will wait until it has three years of data, so it can base that decision on whether the existing cut scores are accurately predicting those students’ future performance.
“I think our kids will rise to the occasion; we just have to give them that opportunity,” said state school board President Tom Gunlock. “We changed the standards, and as with anything, there’s going to be a time when you need to adapt and overcome, as they say in the Marines. I’m confident that we’ll be fine over time. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
One of the reasons Ohio joined a multi-state testing group was to be able to compare results to other states to see where Ohio was excelling or struggling. This is the only year such a comparison will be possible, as Ohio has already eliminated the PARCC tests, moving to a state-specific test (still under development) for 2016 and beyond.
Grading schools, districts
The same pattern of easier grading on the first year of harder tests was also proposed for Ohio schools and districts. In recent years, a school had to have at least 75 percent of students graded as proficient on a given test to meet that indicator or standard on the state report card. Last year, that requirement rose to 80 percent.
But for the 2014-15 Common Core tests, rather than set a uniform standard, Woolard said ODE was recommending a new system tied to statewide results. For example, 67 percent of sixth-graders statewide scored proficient or better on the online sixth-grade math test. So ODE is recommending that each school must have at least 67 percent proficiency to meet the state standard on that test.
The state board’s accountability committee approved that model Monday, setting up a vote by the full state board on Tuesday. But the process was confusing enough that after Monday’s committee vote, state Sen. Peggy Lehner and state Superintendent Richard Ross asked for clarification to make sure everyone knew exactly what the committee had approved.
Ohio only used the multi-state PARCC tests for one year, and will be creating new state-specific tests for the coming year. But those tests still will be based on the more challenging Common Core standards, and Lehner, chair of the state Senate’s Education Committee, said she expects next year’s scores to be low as well.
Most students, schools and teachers have “safe harbor” from negative consequences on state tests taken both last year and the coming year.
The question remains whether state officials will be able to determine whether student performance improved or declined from 2014’s OAA tests, to 2015’s PARCC tests, to spring 2016’s still-in-development tests — all with different scoring systems.
“It’s hard, and I don’t know that we can say with any certainty at this point,” said Lehner, R-Kettering. “But you have to start somewhere, and this is part of the reason why I’ve supported this safe harbor. It gives us two years to get it right before it has implications. At some point you have to rely on people who do this for a living, and that’s largely what we’re doing.”
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