Student Accountability

 

Student Accountability

Updated March 30, 2009

What will Delaware's new student testing program will look like?

Out for bid amongst testing vendors are the following specifications for what has been renamed the Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System, or DCAS. The current student testing program, the DSTP, will continue to be administered through Fall of 2010.

These notes are from a Power Point developed by State Dept. of Education staff.

Key Features:

Projected timelines
Next Steps for End-of-Course Assements

Grades 3-8 Summative: online adaptive
Mathematics and Reading - grades 3-8
Science and Social Studies - one elementary grade, one middle school grade, yet to be determined
Computer-adaptive (within grade level)
Option to take up to three times/year - available September to May
Immediate scores with diagnostic reports (variety of item types, all using automated scoring)

High School: end-of-course (EOC) exams
Administered online
To be phased in pending budget and resources

  • Phase I - Mathematics, English Language Arts and science (contents required by NCLB)
  • Phase II - Higher level courses and Social Studies
  • Phase III - other courses such as business/technical, foreign language, etc

Two parts: Part A - Online, immediately scored, variety of item types using automated scoring, to be used for accountability; Part B - Small number of extended response items, locally scored, using State scoring rubrics and guidelines

Practice tests available online and in print
Fast retake option
May count as portion of student's grade, yet to be determined
English End-of-Course will including Writing assessment

Writing
Summative assessment at three grades - one elementary, one middle, and one high school; Online to be phased in beginning with high school and middle school; will utilize electronic scoring and producing immediate scores; scorign engine based on hand-scored essays using Delaware's scoring rubric; and new scording rubric to 9include multiple traits
Formative assessment at grades 3 to 11: three practice assessments per grade level; immediate scores and diagnostic feedback.

Benchmark Assessments
Web-based and fully adaptive (above and below grade level)
Immediate scores with diagnostic information
Capability to be used as a measure of student growth
Can be given at least three times each school year
Predicts performance on state summative assessment
Reading and Mathematics, other content areas added as feasible

Projected Timelines
New contract to go into effect around July 1, 2009 (contract negotiations based on FY10 budget will determine initial scope of new assessment system)
New assessment system and items to be piloted during the 90/10 school year
New assessment system to be operational in the 10/11 school year
NOTE: Current Student Testing Program, the DSTP, will continue to be administered through Fall 2010.

Next steps for end-of-course (EOC) assessments
Joint work of Curriculum and Assessment Dept. of DoE to develop "course level expectations" -

1. Identify specific grade 9 and grade 10 courses in Mathematics, English, Science and Social Studies to serve as basis for course specifications
2. Check course catalogs for typical courses offered as traditional and integrated math, English, science...
3. Review research from other states on EOC assessments
4. Develop mapping process for standards and grade level expectations to ideal course content
5. Draft proposal for review.

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June 13, 2006.. A revised student testing program was developed during 06-07 and submitted to the state's budget writers for funds to implement it. Due to the $9.2 million projected shortfall in revenue for next year, the new testing system is not being funded. The current DSTP (Delaware Student Testing Program) is due to continue until 2011.
Renamed the Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System (DCAS), there were even bids from testing development companies at the Dept. of Education when the Joint Finance Committee pulled the plug. As a result, the current DSTP will continue through the 2010 testing cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions about student testing and acccountability

When did the state tests begin to really count for students, i.e. for retention?
In 2002.

How about for graduation?
2004. Except that Governor Minner suspended the three-tier diploma system before the end of the school year. She issued an Executive Order which directed the Dept. of Education to appoint a national panel of experts to study and make recommendations about the effects - positive and negative - of such a system. The experts said that the type of diploma system a state adopts is a policy/education matter. They did say several times that basing a differentiated diploma system on one test is not a good idea. Since then, Gov. Minner has once again suspended the three-tier system in favor of a two-tiered system. Students who recieve 4's and 5's on their state tests will be entitled to a Distinguished Diploma. All others will receive the normal high school diploma.

A bill passed, however, in 2005 which continues the single diploma effective in 2007. However, to receive it, a student must either meet the standards on 10th grade DSTA tests or meet other standards-based measures.

What about testing for Special Education students?
The law says:
"Each local school district, through the individual student's Individualized Education Program Team or 504 Team, shall determine what assessment the student will take, as well as the student's matriculation or promotion status and necessary remedial activities if the student's performance on the assessment is below standard, and if the statewide assessment is administered, what accommodations and/or modifications will be utilized. However, no student shall be denied the opportunity to take the state assessments."

When will summer school be mandatory for low-achieving students?
Mandatory summer school began in the summer of 2002.

Will multiple indicators be used for student promotion and retention decisions?
Yes and no. Other indicators will only be used AFTER a student has taken the state test twice. Then the district's Academic Review Committee can look at other indicators to determine if the student has indeed mastered the standards.

There are five levels at which a student may score on the state tests:
Well Below the Standard
Below the Standard
Meets the Standard
Proficient Student Performance (plaque, certificate, endorsement of student transcript), and
Superior Student Performance (possible college scholarship, plaque, certificate, endorsement of student transcript).

READING
A student who scores Below the Standard (or Level 2) on the grade 3, 5 or 8 state Reading test will either attend summer school (beginning next year, not this summer) and retake the test before going on to the next grade - OR - be promoted and complete an Individual Improvement Plan; and take the test again. If Meets the Standard is still not reached after this second attempt at the test, an Academic Review Committee may use other evidence of the student's performance to determine if he/she has met the standards. Parents and guardians have the right to appeal the contents of an Individual Improvement Plan to the district's Academic Review Committee. In either case, if the second test results are still not satisfcatory, the student is retained. A student may only be retained for two years. A student who scores Well Below the Standard (Level I) must attend summer school and pass the test. Promotion with an Improvement Plan is not an option. If the test is not passed, an Academic Review Committee may look at other indicators to decide if he/she does meet the reading standard. Again, such a student can only be held back for two years. The good news here comes from the recently passed bill which allows additional indicators besides the state test to be used to evaluate a student who retakes the DSTP but still scores below Level 3 - but only after summer school or an Improvement Plan is completed.

MATHEMATICS
The same consequences will apply to eighth grade students whose results are Below or Well Below the Standard in the Mathematics Test.

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS
The state shall identify and certify alternative reading and mathematics assessments for those students who are unable to take the state assessment as it is currently administered. Each district - through the individual student's Individualized Education Program Team or 504 Team - is to determine what assessment the student will take, as well as the student's graduation and/or promotion status.

ANNUAL ASSESSMENTS
The state is also to conduct ANNUAL testing in reading, writing and mathematics in grades K through 10 in those grades currently not tested. A process called "work sampling" will be used in grades K-2. These assessments began in 2001-2002.

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