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Why Can’t We Get Our Results from Statewide Testing Faster?Turnaround time for state assessment results is affected by many factors associated with assessment program design and purpose. To meet federal requirements, most programs are at least partially customized to address the content standards of specific states. And in many states, each year’s tests are different, meaning a lot of statistical work has to be done annually to make sure test results from different years can be reported on the same scale. That work requires test data for most, if not all, schools in a state. In addition, individual school and student reports usually have to include state results—another reason why all of the test answer documents from every school in a state have to be received and scored before reports can be generated. Once all of a state’s materials are returned, a great deal of “clean-up” work has to take place to make sure all students are accounted for and that their data is associated with the right school, grade, and school program. Many school personnel and parents are frustrated by the length of time that elapses between testing and receipt of results, especially in comparison with the shorter time it takes to get results from the off-the-shelf tests traditionally used by schools and districts. The statistical groundwork for off-the-shelf tests is accomplished well before the tests are marketed―not each year, as is the case with NCLB testing. Results for the tests could be turned around in weeks, if not days, since the test publisher could score assessments one school at a time, rather than waiting until receiving testing materials from an entire state. With large-scale, standards-based testing, it doesn’t matter how early in the testing window (the time frame a state designates during which all students are tested) a particular group of students takes the assessment. Materials won’t be returned to the testing company until all testing in the school is complete, including make-ups for students who were absent during the general test administration period. Hence, the time that elapses between when the first students were tested and the results are returned could be many weeks. Because of the volume of testing and range of clients, test publishers establish a 52-week master calendar establishing windows for each contract to achieve all aspects of test development, administration, scoring, analysis, and reporting. While the schedules are designed to allow flexibility in the event of various contingencies, it is nevertheless good business practice to adhere to these plans and schedules as much as possible. It is also more efficient; if we jumped back and forth from one state’s schools to another state’s schools in scoring, analysis, and reporting, turnaround time would likely be longer! The good news is that turnaround time for large-scale test results has been reduced significantly in recent years, changing from several months to a matter of weeks. Improvements in automated systems, better means for tracking test materials, and schools’ and districts’ growing sophistication at dealing with testing all have led to these improvements. The industry will continue to find ways to make the process more efficient―and to put results in the hands of educators, legislators, and parents as quickly as possible. Stuart Kahl
Copyright 2005 by Measured Progress. All rights reserved. |
