NM Legislative Education Study Committee 092515, part 4

Editor's Note: This version is corrected for the correct acronym for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). This is a presentation from Friday's Legislative Education Study Committee meeting and the final one covered by the Beat.

By Mary Alice Murphy

The New Mexico Legislative Education Committee completed its visit to Silver City about mid-afternoon Friday after holding two days of meetings in the Commons area of the Western New Mexico University J. Cloyd Library.

The second presentation on Friday morning was on the topic, New Mexico Assessment Inventory: District Experiences. Two area districts €”Silver Consolidated Schools and Reserve Independent Schools €”reported their experiences with testing.

Committee Chairman Dennis Roch said the state required every school district to do an assessment inventory to ensure there was no duplication, triplication or more.

Silver Schools Superintendent Lon Streib introduced his assistant superintendents Gus Benakis, Trish Martinez, and Candy Milam, who as assessment supervisor later, spoke to the topic.

"We rushed to get this in because it was tied to funding," Reserve Independent Schools Superintendent Bill Green said. "It took people who were working on critical education, but you got quality work. Assessment is necessary and gathering data is important, but sometimes we go overboard. We will speak to what we are doing that is effective and what we are doing with it."

Milam said she is the assistant superintendent in charge of finance, federal programs and school assessments.

"I agree with Mr. Green," Milam said. "Time was one of the important elements and one of the barriers. The webinars were held Aug. 6 and 11. Those were terrible times for us, as it was the first week of school and teacher orientations. I've been trying to get hold of the webinars, because we were told they would be posted online. Now we learn they will be posted next week. I don't see the relevance of posting them now, since the due date was Sept. 11."

Milam showed slides of the steps required for the assessment inventory. The first was to reflect and plan. "This was supposed to involve the administration, teachers, counselors, parents and students. We had a difficult time on the relevance of the questions. Most of our assessments are mandated."

Step 2 was to conduct the assessment inventory. "We had issues with the first two steps because what we were asked to include are state mandated. The districts shouldn't have to assess the success of state-mandated tests."

Step 3 was to analyze and Step 4 included district recommendations. Step 5 was to evaluate.

"The barriers encountered were access to the webinars, the date to be completed and the relevance of some of the questions," Milam said.

For district practices, Milam said the Silver Consolidated Schools holds annual strategic meetings with the board, the principals, the directors and the central office administration. "We hold weekly meetings with the teachers, and monthly meetings with the staff and parents, and monthly with the administration and staff. Districts should have already been doing this. We spend four hours getting information, which does not count time in meetings discussing that information. We use data in determining the curriculum, and we do utilize our data. We have used Discovery for short-cycle results. It is a formative assessment. We choose to assess all our students K-11. The assessment for English and language arts, and math has been in place for four years. Users of the data are members of administration, staff and teachers."

"The test administration time is 45 minutes for math and 45 for language arts," she continued. "We do them three times a year and can get the scores immediately. It costs us $8 a student, using funding from operations, for more than $22,000. For PARCC, I can't give a cost. We were given a bill for paper and online for $24,000 before the test, but we haven't gotten the final bill. We have an issue with PARCC, because we were supposed to get the results in eight weeks. We're still waiting. We have no result, nothing to show for it. We spend a total of about $110,000 for assessments a year.

"We will present the results to the board, when we get feedback," Milam said. "I've been the district test coordinator for 14 years, and I feel assessments are an important part of learning. I believe in it. But last year was a real turning point. I found it to be one of my worst years. PARCC was at the root of it. The technological costs and the time required for the testing were tremendous. This year, we had more than 140 parents trying to opt out. One hundred twenty-seven students did opt out. I succeeded in convincing 15 or 20 students to take the test because it was connected to graduation. I'm afraid several schools will be penalized on their participation rate."

She said online is hard on third-graders, because they are expected to type out their responses, which causes anxiety. "And it took away from instructional time to teach second- and third-graders typing skills. With the Blackboard the first day, the system crashed. The ELCs had to quickly copy, so the students could take paper tests."

Committee Chairman Dennis Roch asked what the student population is at the schools.

"The whole district is 2,900-3,000 students," Milam said, "but we were testing about 1,300 students."

Reserve Independent Schools principal Cindy Shellhorn said their schools had the exact same issues. "We like Discovery testing because we get the results immediately. PARCC was a nightmare. We had our best and brightest students crying during the test. All our juniors and seniors take the SAT and PSAT tests. We have a lot of data and the kids know the importance of testing. Unlike Silver, we decided to do away with PARCC, pending NMPED approval. If we don't get the data sooner than eight months, it's not useful. Getting the results at the end of July, when school starts the first week of August, just isn't useful."

"We will stick with Discovery, EOC (end-of-course) testing and Star assessments, because we get immediate results," Shellhorn said. "We have nine seniors this year, because three did not make the cut."

She said the school sometimes does an IEP, an individualized education program. "For instance, we have a hard-working kid who will be successful, but he does not test well. He wants to be a mechanic."

Shellhorn said the district would test in October and November, but "we don't believe we will get the results back in three weeks. I think the PED wanted us to cut out short-cycle assessments, but that's where we get immediate results."

Streib said PARCC has been overvalued. "It takes the attention of teachers and students away for the first 30 weeks of school. They teach skewed toward the test. The state has interfered with our ability to evaluate students and teachers. We don't want PARCC tied to how teachers teach."

Roch noted that neither district listed the EOCs. Milam said it was an oversight, because there is no cost attached.

"One is new to us this year," Milam said. "Because of Leads to Reads, we are giving the DIBELS test, but we will not use the data. We cannot see the value of two to three hours per student."

Shellhorn noted that the EOCs were on the Reserve list.

Rep. Bill McCamley said it was definitely his fault that the panelists were in attendance. "I'm a guest on this committee. When I went door-to-door to campaign, testing was the most passionate topic, 3-to-1, from parents, teachers, students, so I brought a bill for discussion." He noted that Las Cruces schools were doing away with Discovery, but were keeping PARCC and EOCs in the spring.

Milam noted that the schools are mandated to do a short-cycle assessment, and Discovery was Silver Schools' choice. "We choose to test K-11 because it ties in with teacher evaluation. We felt this was fairest for our teachers."

Green noted that Reserve would be doing this to get results even if the state didn't require a short-cycle assessment. "PARCC doesn't meet it. Short-cycle is most important for us to keep on task, so we can make needed changes."

McCamley said 50 percent of teacher evaluation has to be standardized.

Green said PARCC can be the whole 50 percent or it can be 35 percent, with 15 percent short-cycle. Teacher observation is 25 percent and attendance is 10 percent.

McCamley asked for a timeframe for tests other than PARCC.

Green said Discovery is immediate and Shellhorn said the EOC is immediate, because the schools grade them.

"The worry I have is that parents are going to opt out," McCamley said. He said in talking to teachers they told him up to 70 days of instruction is going to testing. "In New York, 20 percent opted out of the tests. If the point of tests is to make the education system better, why is testing making more frustrated teachers, parents and students?"

Streib emphasized that it is best for the schools to get the information "as soon as we can in a year, so we can meet students' needs."

Shellhorn said: "We do it in the best interest of the students. We go over the EOC with each student individually, so teachers are aware of the issues with the students. Helping students is Job One, but Discovery testing also helps me work with the teacher to be more effective."

Milam said, when the students take the EOC, it's only in high school, so "we can identify the students in need of remediation to be able to pass the EOC for graduation."

McCamley asked if the panelists saw issues with motivation to take tests, if there was no reason to do well.

"We put in incentives and do things to get them excited about testing and to get parents on board," Milam said.

Benakis said he is involved with teacher evaluation and spoke to this committee about picking evaluations systems. "Teachers and students have understanding of and a comfort with Discovery. They are familiar with the language, if we stay with Discovery, which is our local decision to do."

"With PARCC, it was kind of like going to the doctor in March and being told: 'We'll get back to you with the results in October or November,'" Benakis said. "You can be dead by then. It's easy to get the kids excited about the short-cycle, because they know they will get the results immediately."

"I get your frustration level," McCamley said. "The point is there is too much testing. It's there because of a want to improve the education system, but if there's too much, the students will not care and the parents will opt out. I just know that other school districts have moved away from Discovery and are going to PARCC for teacher evaluation."

"I made the statement at a board meeting that we will not use PARCC for teacher evaluation," Benakis said. "What hangs over teachers is that this evaluation can pull their license. I'm proud of teachers who do a good job with this hanging over their heads. If you're going to get rid of a test, I would get rid of PARCC. Discovery they understand and it works well for data."

McCamley asked what motivation there is for a 4th-grader to take a test if it's for teacher evaluation."

"Elementary kids come in motivated," Green said. "By Junior High, there is burnout. There has always been testing that fit into the curriculum. With PARCC and SBA (Smarter Balanced Assessment), you have to teach to the test, which takes away from instructional time. The only way to have motivation is to tie it to graduation or to move to the next grade."

"We can make them take the test again until they are motivated," Shellhorn said.

"We have great teachers in our elementary schools to motivate the students," Milam said. "It's amazing what kids will do for a pizza party, an extra recess or a field trip. In Junior High, it's harder, but one reward is not to have to take one end-of-semester exam.

"The EOCs are assessed at the end of the semester," Milam answered. "We talk to teachers, we have limited testing and are in constant communication."

McCamley said some teachers said when their students had passed the EOC, they still had three weeks of school left, which the teachers felt was wasted.

"We, as a district, are going more toward project- and portfolio-based competency," Streib said. "After the EOC, the student still has due a project or portfolio, which is checked weekly."

Green noted the time after the EOC is still a graded period, so the student is motivated by the GPA (grade-point average).

McCamley said a teacher told him it took two weeks to format the computers before a test, so toward the end of school, the computer teacher had to teach computer skills without a computer.

"We prior planned for the number of computers to test," Streib said. "We took advantage of Sandia Labs, which recycle computers. We received three truckloads. We will be able to upgrade computers into the classrooms and still have them for tests."

Shellhorn said Reserve has more computer than kids. "Bandwidth is the problem. We have to test high school and elementary at separate times."

McCamley asked about special education.

Shellhorn said one-third of their instructional staff deals with special education students. "For a small school, we're better equipped. Teachers that fall into the D level of special education kids are not held to the same standards."

Streib said the IEP team is a decision made by the parents and the service providers. "We do not have one size fits all. We have transition plans that are honest and real, so we don't place someone in Algebra II, who is a third-grade-level math student, but has proper career plans. The ones that are capable of Algebra II are in smaller classes, and we condense the standards to the essentials. The testing for teacher evaluation is the same. We expect to see growth."

Vice Chairman John M. Sapien said he appreciated McCamley asking the questions and hearing from professionals. "It is what it is. If we left it to you guys, you would be looking at the same testing, but would you be giving the same testing?"

Green said his schools would use the SAT or ACT, with other testing as part of the curriculum. "We would save a lot of time. I guarantee there would be a change to PARCC. Simplify."

Shellhorn said it was a matter of needing fast results. "We are not against testing, but we need quick results."

"If we had educators come up with a plan, it would cut out a lot of assessment," Milam said.

"We have to pick something to meet state mandates, and you're closer to the students," Sapien said. "Lost in the nuance is that schools are giving tests they wouldn't give, if they didn't have the mandates."

"I think we are testing for the wrong reasons," Milam said. "The reasons should be what is best for the kids and their education."

"Assessments we would give would be done in the regular classroom," Streib said, "with feedback given the next day. To tie teacher evaluation to how a student does is somewhat valid, but if we could measure the growth of the student over the year that would be great."

Green suggested using short-cycle testing, such as Discovery, in all the districts and putting it into one system. "Why throw in the PARCC or SBA on top?"

"I went back to the old school where I taught," Sapien said. "I saw how the teachers are using DIBELS as a valuable assessment. If for Clovis, DIBELS is not right, that's OK. Yes, we could mandate Discovery, and yes, we need uniformity to a point. But I think teacher evaluation and assessment has gotten worse. I don't think we have a silver bullet until we hand it back to the professional educators. In my real world, as a senator from Corrales, I wonder what I would do, but I'm just a lowly senator."

Sen. Howie Morales said he has held similar discussions over the past three years. "It's the same story, no matter what part of the state we're in. I'm sorry PED is not here. Regardless of how far we are from Santa Fe, there should be a representative from the department. You are trying to do your best without responses from them. It shows the requirements that are here, but we need to get answers from PED. Silver Schools sent a resolution. Have you received a reply?"

"None to my knowledge," Streib said.

"Please let me know," Morales said. "What I see is we're breaking down the spirit of what public education is supposed to be. What we've done is hold the students ransom. If they don't do this, they will not graduate. A test will never be a motivation. I ask for assistance from the school districts to speak up."

Roch noted that the committee has invited PED to the meeting in October. "They said they couldn't be here, because they were compiling data."