In this blog I will be discussing high stakes testing by comparing the requirements in Clark County School District (CCSD) and Hawaii Department of Education. I am comparing these two schools as I am currently in CCSD but am possibly looking to teach in Hawaii sometime in next few years.
Clark County School District (CCSD) Required High School Graduation Requirements
In the Clark County School District there are high stakes testing in order to graduate and earn a high school diploma. Over the years CCSD has consistently changed their requirements and high stakes testing and are now trying to roll in a new high stakes testing to replace high school proficiencies. There are different requirements for whichever school year you are to graduate. Currently there is a requirement for students to participate in a total of four End of course Exams, which include two in Math and two in English Language Arts (Graduation). According to CCSD, "End of Course Exams will be an operational field test, meaning students will take the tests, but do not have to earn a passing score, however, they pass the correlating class."
The end of course exams are given as introduction to the class of 2018 but they are not required to pass the test, only their participation is required. The class of 2019 and so on will be required to pass these tests in order to graduate.
In order to assess whether or not a student has passed they must be either in level 2, 3, or 4.
I substitute for the school district and I tried to find some information about whether teachers were teaching towards the End of course Exams and the teachers that I asked said that it is so new that they have not changed their instruction yet for it. Many teachers also expressed their concerns that the district keeps trying new high stakes testing that it confuses many teachers into what their requirements are. No rewards are bonuses are given to any teachers or students. The End of course Exams are not used to evaluate teacher performance but instead are used to check student proficiency and determine graduation.
Hawaii Department of Education Testing Requirements
The state of Hawaii's public school district also gives End of course Exams. The only test that the students are required to take is the Biology 1 EOC in order to measure high-school proficiency in Science. According to the Hawaii Department of Education EOC exams in Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and U.S history are optional.
Each exam is 50 questions that are assigned to the content standards. There is no time limit for the exams. The exams are taken and scored online. Students are able to get a scoring report right after the exam is completed. The students are allowed to take the test up to 3 times during the given testing windows.
Teachers are not evaluated based off of the testing scores. Teachers are required to teach based on the content standards. Since the test is based on the various content standards the test is designed so that the students will only be tested on what was taught in the classroom.
There is also a mandatory science assessment test that are only given in the grades 4, 8, and 11 in order to measure science proficiency as part of Hawaii's Strive HI Performance system. The Strive HI Performance system took over the No Child Left Behind Act in the state of Hawaii.
References
End of Course (EOC) Exams Parent Guide . (2016, December). Retrieved from http://swcta.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Parent-Guide-EOC.pdf
Graduation Requirements. (n.d.). Retrieved January 12, 2018, from http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/TeachingAndLearning/StudentLearning/GraduationRequirements/Pages/Requirements.aspx
Graduation Requirements. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ccsd.net/students/grad-requirements.php
Other Assessments. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/TeachingAndLearning/Testing/OA/Pages/home.aspx
Strive HI Performance System. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/VisionForSuccess/AdvancingEducation/StriveHIPerformanceSystem/Pages/home.aspx
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