The Lay of the Land

1
The Lay of the Land

• Some Other Ways States Let Students Meet High
  School Exit Standards
• Keith Gayler
• Center on Education Policy

2
Protective measures, not new assessments

• All 25 states with exit exams allow 2 to 11
  opportunities to retest
• 13 states provide certificates of achievement,
  attainment, or attendance

3
Three Main Optional Paths to a Regular Diploma

• Substitute Assessments
• Waivers and Appeals Processes
• State Developed Assessments

4
Substitute Assessments

• 5 states (Florida, Idaho, North Carolina, New
  York and Virginia)
• Examples SAT, ACT, PSAT, AP, TOEFL, and IB
• Criteria for student eligibility
• Different state guidelines for what is an
  acceptable test

5
Florida--FCAT

• 10th grade reading and mathematics
• First graduating class to withhold diplomas2003
• Intense political pressure in spring 2003
• Last minute temporary adoption of SAT and ACT as
  substitute tests
• Used by 125 students out of roughly 15,000 in
  class of 2003 who had not passed the exam

6
Virginia--SOLs

• End of course exams
• First graduating class to withhold diplomas2004
• Detailed criteria for eligible substitute tests
• Used by 0.08 of students in 2004

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Virginia Substitute Test Criteria

• The test must
• Be standardized and graded independently
• Be knowledge-based
• Be administered on a multi-state or international
  basis
• Measure content that incorporates or exceeds SOL
  course content

8
3 Sets of SAT Cut Scores

• State Math Verbal
• FL 410 370
• ID 400 200
• NC 450 480

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Pros and Cons

• Relatively inexpensive in terms of development
  costs
• Validity problems
• Not necessarily aligned to state standard
• May undermine support for state test
• Setting appropriate cut-off score can be difficult

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A Rarely Used Option

• Florida125 students in 2003
• New York0.1 of students
• Virginia0.08 of students

11
Waivers and Appeals

• Waivers and appeals excuse students on a case by
  case basis from having to pass or take exit exams
• Most common option--11 states
• Also fairly rarely used
• Wide range of stringency for the policies

12
Some Typical Requirements

• Having taken the test and failed from one to
  three times
• Completing remediation
• Specific GPAs and attendance rate
• Documentation or portfolio evidence
• Extenuating circumstances (illness, late move
  into a state)

13
Georgias Waiver Policy

• Requires a recommendation from the superintendent
  and submission of a waiver packet containing
  documentation of reasons for the waivers
• All students are potentially eligible, but
  receiving a passing vote typically requires
  documentation of a limitation that would account
  for failing the test

14
Ohios Waiver Policy

• In last semester of school
• Has taken remediation
• 2.5 GPA or higher
• Passed 4 of 5 sections of the test
• Missed the cut score by 10 points or less
• 97 attendance record
• Has letters from teachers in the subjects he/she
  did not pass

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Pros and Cons

• Perceived as fair for the most part but some may
  try to use it as a free pass
• Can be a large administrative and cost burden
• Even with many criteria, relies on subjective
  decisions on evidence
• Have to decide on local versus state adjudication

16
State Developed Assessments

• Rarely used--Mississippi and New Jersey currently
  have systems in place. Washington State is in
  process.
• State has control over content and alignment.
• However, they can be expensive and difficult to
  develop.

17
Mississippi--SATP

• End of course tests like Maryland.
• If a student fails a Subject Area Test twice, he
  or she can appeal for a Substitute Evaluation.
• In 2003, only 2 students were given the
  evaluation.

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Mississippis Substitute Evaluation

• 7 to 8 month assessment process beginning in the
  fall and ending in May
• A representative and deliberate sample of student
  work/information is collected
• MDE approves and trains a team of external
  evaluators to score the students work and make
  judgments about student mastery of the
  competencies for the subject area being assessed

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More Than an Appeals Process

• There are very detailed requirements for the
  kinds, level of detail, standards covered, and
  number of pieces of student work to be provided.
• Documentation of what was taught prior to the
  piece of work being submitted, where the work was
  done, who helped, reading samples for exercises.
• Clear rating system and scoring rubrics developed
  just for this process.
• 3-4 raters used for the determination process.

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Pros and Cons

• Less subjective than most appeals processes with
  outside raters and clear scoring guidelines and
  evidence requirements.
• Links clearly to state standards.
• Provides more flexibility than an actual test and
  doesnt look like a test.
• So burdensome that it is rarely used and not much
  protection.

21
New Jersey--HSPA

• Tests in language arts literacy and mathematics.
• Students who score partially proficient in one of
  the content areas and are expected to complete
  all other state and local graduation requirements
  are eligible for the Special Review Assessment.
  They must continue to take the regular exit exam.
• In 2003, roughly 15 of graduating students
  passed the SRA to graduate.

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SRA

• Untimed
• Scored locally
• Successfully complete a number of Performance
  Assessment Tasksone to six part open-ended
  question
• ELAone persuasive reading PAT, one narrative
  reading PAT, and two writing PATs.
• Math2 PATs from each of the 4 mathematics
  clusters.
• Can be exempted from some PATs depending on HSPA
  score.
• PAT can be spread out over several days.

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Pros and Cons

• State developed items rather than more subjective
  portfolio
• Only tests students weak areas
• Allows for targeted remediation
• Very limited number of items/spotty coverage of
  standards
• Local scoring raises concerns about objectivity
• Open to too many students/overused
• Losing political support
• Very time and cost intensive

24
Washington--WASL

• Diplomas to be withheld starting with the class
  of 2008
• Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL)
  tests in ELA and Math
• OSPI was required by the state legislature to
  develop options for implementing objective
  alternate assessments, which may include an
  appeals process, for students to demonstrate
  achievement of the state academic standards

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WASL Grade Point Average

• Would use grades from a specified set of courses
  that are aligned to the knowledge and skills
  needed to meet the WASL standard.
• Districts would have to analyze course content.
• The state would determine the passing GPA based
  on student transcripts and WASL scores in the
  district.
• The target GPA would change every year to deal
  with grade point inflation and would be adjusted
  for outlier schools.

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Pros and Cons

• Based on several years/classes worth of work
• Adaptive to changes in grading
• A great deal of work to analyze course content
  and come up with an index, which is then
  different across districts and schools
• Exit exams were a response to loss meaning in
  course grades

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WASL Course and Course Test

• Design a course to contain content essential to
  meeting the standards on the WASL.
• Student would receive course credit.
• End of course test or several topical exams to
  reflect major domain areas.

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Pros and Cons

• Addresses opportunity to learn concerns
• Could utilize more problem types and test closer
  to when content was taught
• If done online, students could take tests when
  ready
• Expensive in terms of time and test construction

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Adapt the Culminating Project

• A culminating project will be a graduation
  requirement of all students entering 9th grade in
  2004.
• The culminating project requirements would have
  to be altered to be highly specified. Easy to
  require certain skills show but hard to require
  certain sets of standards to be covered.
• Allows more judgment in the process.
• Let the state use a requirement already in place.

30
Juried Assessment of Student Work

• Resource intensive
• Initial discussions make it sound very similar to
  Mississippis alternate assessment as outlined
  above

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Appeals Process

• In addition to above options, a very limited in
  scope appeals process.
• Case-by-case for special circumstances like late
  transfers, illness, or test administration or
  scoring irregularities.
• State appeals board would meet 2 to 4 times a
  year and review appeals individually.