West Virginia's state schools superintendent says he favors end-of-course statewide standardized exams in high school instead of the current Smarter Balanced assessments.
Michael Martirano said he's "very enamored" with locally developing end-of-course exams, which would count toward students' grades, instead of using Smarter Balanced, a Common Core-aligned test that doesn't count toward grades. He made the statement while speaking to legislators last week about why a bill introduced to repeal Common Core standards and the tests specifically based off them is bad idea. He didn't say whether he'd like to replace the Smarter Balanced in non-high school grade levels.
Last month, however, members of the Commission on Assessment that Martirano formed to make testing recommendations to him appeared ready to recommend replacing Smarter Balanced in all grades with tests developed by ACT. They also seemed poised to recommend only requiring standardized testing once in high school, the minimum required by the federal government. West Virginia currently tests in three high school grades.
But Martirano, who kept early testing commission meetings closed to the public before relenting amid lawmakers' criticism and media attention, came in at the end of the group's last meeting and told the members - who include teacher union representatives, county school board members, county superintendents and others - that they should think of themselves as an "in perpetuity" group.
Martirano highlighted to the members that controversy is continuing among lawmakers over the state's standards, and said the state needs to consider whether tests align to the standards. The state Department of Education he leads still hasn't publicized what it says will be "final recommendations" from the 26-member commission. Department spokeswoman Kristin Anderson said the commission hasn't met since last month. It had been meeting since December.
The state superintendent has previously said he's concerned with data indicating West Virginia juniors didn't take Smarter Balanced - which the state uses to meet federal accountability requirements - very seriously last school year, the first year students took it statewide. Excluding two 30-minute classroom activities, 11th graders were projected to take on average a combined seven hours and 30 minutes to finish the math and English language arts parts of the test. But they only averaged three hours and 25 minutes.
As grade level increased, data showed the time spent on the test generally decreased, and the results also showed those who spent more time on the test scored higher. Ninth-graders had only about a 19 percent proficiency rate in math, 10th-graders had a 16 percent proficiency rate, and 11th-graders had a 20 percent proficiency rate.
Amid questioning about the state education department's future testing plans, Martirano told House Education Committee members last week that conversations are continuing and he's anticipating this school year's results on Smarter Balanced. But he also said he'd like to see a shift to end-of-course tests in high school, saying they could be aligned to the state's curriculum.
The Smarter Balanced tests, which 15 states plan to use this school year, allow for some state-to-state comparison, something end-of-course exams may not. West Virginia is replacing its Common Core-based math and English language arts standards next school year with standards that greatly resemble Common Core, many with identical language, examples and ordering.
Martirano told a reporter end-of-course exams could take several years to develop. When a reporter pointed out his testing commission's positive feelings toward the ACT tests, he said the information is being "taken under advisement." He also said he could change his mind on end-of-course exams, but said something must be done at the high school level.
Last week, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a think tank that ranked the Common Core standards better than those previously existing in West Virginia and the "vast majority of states," released a study of how well four tests measured the content and depth of what the Common Core standards require students to know by the end of fifth- and eighth-grade. Those tests included the ACT Aspire exams and the exams from Smarter Balanced and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), both of which were specifically designed to test Common Core.
The study - which included professors from the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Southern California and Yale University among its leaders - found Smarter Balanced and PARCC were best suited to the task, with ACT Aspire a "good match" for assessing depth of knowledge in English language arts/literacy and math but only "limited/uneven" matches in assessing the content in those subjects. A companion study of the high school level from the Human Resources Research Organization also concluded Smarter Balanced and PARCC were better aligned, and found ACT Aspire, which is billed as preparing students for the ACT college entrance test, was weaker in more areas that the Fordham report found.
Paul Weeks, senior vice president of client relations for ACT, has said the ACT and Common Core are well-™aligned. In an emailed statement, ACT defended its tests and noted they take significantly less time to administer.
"ACT Aspire is designed to measure the skills and knowledge most important in preparing students for college and career readiness," it said. "This is a significant philosophical and design difference between ACT Aspire and other next generation assessments. ACT has made the choices we have to align with college and career readiness standards, rather than specifically to the Common Core, and we intend to keep it that way."
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.