One test produces another for the state

Last fall, at the start of a spanking new school year, Education Commissioner Sue Gendron announced Maine would dump its old statewide test for 11th-graders and substitute the SAT to meet standards under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. You wouldn’t believe the kind of complaints she got for this – you’re moving too fast, the SAT isn’t the right test for Maine learning standards, the feds won’t accept it, etc.

Such negativity is not conducive to a good learning environment apparently, because the commissioner thought too little about these comments, and now, as the school year drags to a close, she has a bit of a problem.

The SAT, as the state knew when schools prodded (show up and get a pizza!) 17,000 juniors into taking it on April 1, “does not meet all of the statutory and regulatory requirements” of NCLB, according to a recent letter from the federal Education Department to the commissioner. Chad Colby, from the federal department, says “Maine has been aware of the issue with their high school assessment since August 2005.” The state got ahead of itself, the SAT didn’t align with Maine’s learning standards and the feds never signed off on it.

Gendron asserts that this is temporary – a new alignment study will soon clear Maine and all will be well. I hope so, but that study would have to refute an earlier one paid for by the College Board, owner of the SAT, which found the test did not match up well with the state standards, known as Maine Learning Results.

“I’m baffled that the state is in this situation,” said Ted Coladarci, a professor of education at the University of Maine who has worked with the Education Department. “If you’re taking an off-the-shelf test” – the SAT – “you need to demonstrate its alignment and augment it to fill in any holes.”

Coladarci, along with Bangor Superintendent Robert Ervin, last fall predicted that unless Maine took those two steps and others when making the switch from the Maine Educational Assessment to the SAT “we cannot see how the latter can stand in for the former – unless the Learning Results and standards-based assessment are not longer central to Maine education policy,” they wrote on these pages.

Coincidentally, the Maine Learning Results are being rewritten – that was anticipated before the switch to the SAT – but now will also be measured against the SAT to make sure Maine’s standards match the test the state has chosen. If this seems backward to you … well, what are you, some kind of education expert?

Gendron told me she stuck with the April 1 testing this year despite noncompliance because the feds had led her to believe Maine’s SAT plan would be approved. In 2001, when Congress passed NCLB, state officials said they were assured by then-Secretary Rod Paige that its old system of testing in 4th, 8th and 11th grades with the Maine Educational Assessment would be sufficient to make certain no child was being left behind. But then the feds said not so, and now Maine children in all grades 3 to 8 are being tested, with perhaps more extensive tests to come. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad, just that Maine should be sure of what’s being promised.

The use of the SAT to assess the annual progress of Maine students began with an interesting though unproven idea, which was to give students an assessment test they would take seriously because it counted toward getting into college. But like so many good and well-intentioned ideas that might solve a problem, it created several others. This should have suggested caution, especially since no other state has chosen to use the SAT as Maine has.

Instead, to obtain possible greater seriousness in test-taking from students, Maine adopted a test designed to predict performance rather than reflect it, pushed ahead before the federal government gave its approval and is now defending its choice. We’ll see whether the Learning Results are adapted to fit the SAT, as well as how additional components of testing are added on – science is next – but it’s fair to ask how much forward motion all this movement has produced.

And then there is the challenge of persuading all those juniors to show up on a Saturday each year to take the test. Inducement creep is inevitable – soon two pizzas will barely get them to sit through the exam. Taking it seriously might cost even more.

Todd Benoit is the editorial page editor of the Bangor Daily News.