IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

California Standardized Testing Scores May Not Meet Expectations

The curriculum is new, the tests are new, the technology is new, and there are kids who haven’t spent a lot of time typing on a keyboard or manipulating a mouse.

(TNS) -- As standardized testing season comes to a close, California education officials expressed relief at the lack of catastrophic technical glitches in the first year of assessments based on the new Common Core standards, but fear they won’t get off so easily when it comes to the test scores.

Indeed, they are already cautioning that the results will not be rosy.

That’s because the exams are not only being administered on computers for the first time, they are also based on the new standards, which emphasize critical thinking rather than rote learning. While the new tests still include multiple-choice questions, they also require students to fill in blanks and write long-form answers to explain their thinking.

The curriculum is new, the tests are new, the technology is new, and there are kids who haven’t spent a lot of time typing on a keyboard or manipulating a mouse.

In other words, it’s possible if not likely that scores will not meet parent and community expectations, state and local education officials said.

“Since we’ve set a higher bar and we’re using a brand-new instrument, this year’s test scores will very likely be lower than scores in previous years,” said Gentle Blythe, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Unified School District. “We are prepared for the possibility that many, if not most, students will need to make significant progress to achieve proficiency in the new Common Core standards.”

While the state required schools to do practice runs of the tests last year, the results were not released.

Tempering expectations

Keric Ashley, deputy superintendent of the state Department of Education’s District, School and Innovation Branch, is urging district officials to communicate with parents, cautioning them to temper expectations because this is a “base year,” meaning the results will set a new bar and shouldn’t be compared with scores from years past.

“We’ve been through this before,” Ashley said. “First-year scores were low, and over time they steadily grew. We anticipate the same thing will happen here.”

That applies to statewide or district scores as well as individual student scores, he said.

“It’s going to take continuous communication,” Ashley said. “For some, they won’t get the message and they may be surprised at the scores they see, especially compared to the grades their child is getting.

“Their child has not suddenly learned less.”

Still, the scores could stir up a backlash against Common Core, something other states have experienced but California has largely avoided.

Critics of Common Core have described the new standards as too easy, too hard, too liberal and tied to President Obama, or too confusing, pointing to purported math assignments shared over social media that require a complicated process to add, say, 7 + 7.

Supporters say the new standards only provide a list of what students should learn in each grade. The curriculum, including math problems, is up to individual districts, schools and teachers.

“There are some legitimate concerns — any change is going to be rocky,” said Ted Lempert, founder and executive director of Children Now, an Oakland nonprofit that advocates for children’s health and education with a focus on Common Core and the associated tests. “That’s separate from political pushback.”

Still, state and local officials were worried that major technical problems during testing could make things politically worse in California, giving critics leverage to push back against Common Core.

Yet despite concerns that some schools weren’t quite ready to test kids using keyboards rather than No. 2 pencils, massive failures didn’t come about. A software update, according to state officials, prevented students from logging onto the test for a day in early May.

Steady progress

There were occasional computer crashes and times when the Wi-Fi went down, but with just weeks of school left for most districts, nearly all have at least started testing. As of last week, about half the state’s 3.2 million students in grades 3 through 8 and 11 who have to take the test were finished with the math and English exams, according to the state Department of Education.

“Generally, we’ve been really pleased in terms of the implementation,” said Lempert, a Common Core advocate. “We were expecting a lot more bumps.”

In San Francisco, testing season is over. District officials said they had to juggle the fact that not all students completed the exams within a 10-day window required by the state, which meant they had to ask for waivers to extend the allotted time.

But those problems are relatively minor compared with other states. Nevada, Montana and North Dakota, for example, have struggled to administer the exams, with officials suspending testing after their servers failed to accommodate the number of students logging on to take the tests, crashing the system, preventing students from logging on — and leading to threats of lawsuits.

With testing nearly done and test scores on their way, Lempert’s organization, hoping to avoid political fallout, pulled together 500 education and youth organizations from across the state to express support for Common Core, including the California Chamber of Commerce, PTAs and community groups.

“The scores are going to be different,” Lempert said. Yet: “There’s a really good reason that things were changed. ... Everyone agreed the old standards were out of date.”

It will just take some time getting used to them as well as the new tests, he said.

The unappealing alternative?

“Abandon it and go back to bubble tests.”

©2015 the San Francisco Chronicle, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC