Sneak Peek at Standardized Test Results

By Marianne Deal Stephens

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction has released a sneak peek at the 2015 Washington State Smarter Balanced test scores. The Smarter Balanced tests are based on the Common Core Learning Standards that Washington formally adopted in 2011 for English Language Arts and Mathematics. The Preliminary Smarter Balanced Scores provide a glimpse of the results of the controversial new standardized tests. 

The results reflect about 90% of scores, and OSPI states that “Washington students … are generally scoring higher than last year’s field tests indicated they would”. In preliminary English Language Arts results, Washington students' scores were from 14 to 21 percentage points higher than the 2014 field tests, which function as the prediction model.

ELA Charts. Credit: OSPI July 2015

Preliminary Mathematics results are 13-18 percentage points above the predicted results for all grades except 11th grade, which is 4 points below the field test level.

Math charts. Credit: OSPI July 2015

OSPI cautions that results vary by district, grade level, and content area. Disaggregated district results will be available in August. The current set of results does not factor in students who opted out and refused to take the tests. Proficiency rates “will be lower when refusals are included.” 

These preliminary results indicate the proportion of students who earned levels 3 or 4 on the test. Smarter Balanced results are described on a four-level scale with levels 3 and 4 meeting standard. See Smarter Balanced Achievement Level Descriptors. 

Much of the controversy about the tests centers on the anticipated proportion of students achieving standard. The projections for both English Language Arts and Mathematics estimated that more than 50% of students would score at levels 1 or 2, not meeting standard.

These “cutoff levels” gain praise from some and criticism from others. “States Grapple With Common Test-Score Cutoffs” Education Week discusses the higher bar of the new achievement levels, and describes how the work by Smarter Balanced and PARCC (the firm behind the other major Common Core-based tests) “to set a higher level for mastery on their tests is praised in some quarters as a welcome boost in expectations. But in others, it’s decried as a setup for student and school failure.”

On standardized tests, students in the Shoreline School District generally score above state averages. When setting targets for the new Smarter Balanced tests, the District used relative performance rather than absolute numbers. For example, on the 2013-14 Reading MSP, Shoreline School District 4th graders performed 12.8 percentage points higher than state average. The district aims to maintain that trend and other grade level and subject area trends.

SSD.4th Grade Reading Trend charts.
Credit OSPI Washington State Report Card

 

 

Near the end of August, Shoreline residents will be able to compare local with state results. Though the new Smarter Balanced tests were fully implemented in the spring of 2015, their use as a graduation requirement is being phased in. See Tests Required for Graduation for the particulars, which vary by class year.