STAR test dumped: Brown ignores federal threats, signs bill allowing new exams [California]

[alp227]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

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.

Assembly Bill 484 replaces the pencil-and-paper, multiple-choice STAR tests with new language and math tests taken on computers. The new assessments, called Measurement of Academic Progress and Performance, were designed with other states to follow a set of national curriculum standards known as Common Core.

"I've said from the beginning, California needs tests that measure how ready our students are for the challenges of a changing world," said California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, who championed the rapid shift away from the STAR tests. "Today, we have taken a huge step in that direction by creating an assessment system focused on improving teaching and learning and by sending a clear signal about our commitment to this urgent work."

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.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_24224410/

[gadjitfreek]

1. The MAP test is a joke.

I am required to give them to my chemistry students in the fall and spring to assess their growth...and test has little or nothing to do with what I teach.

[madfloridian]

2. That's another of Bill Gates' babies.

One of way too many.

[Igel]

4. Then the reply is simple.

Either your teaching or the test isn't aligned to the standards.

We had a couple of teachers who said that if it wasn't explicit in the standards, they weren't going to teach it. They wanted to make it as simple as possible Then the test hit and they found out that not only were they teaching at too low a level, a lot of the "not explicit" in the standards was very clearly implied. Oops.

It may be that the state ed agency's interpretation of the state standards diverge from your district's or your own interpretations. If so, then the state ed agency's interpretation wins.

This also happened in some cases in my district. The district and the teachers both watched the kids need to be pulled out of classes, tutored, taught the material the state clearly indicated needed to be taught. Because they failed the standardized test. Miserably. (That's the teachers and district that failed the test; the students didn't have a chance.)

[Starry Messenger]

3. Torlakson is one of my favorite votes.