The Echo

Presentation to parents undecided
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100618/NEWS03/6180339By NICHOLE DOBO •
The News Journal • June 18, 2010

This school year's trial run of Delaware's new computer-based assessment went well, officials said Thursday at the monthly state Board of Education meeting.

The Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System measures Delaware public school standards in reading, math, social studies and science. Besides determining how much grade-level knowledge students know in these subjects, the test gives educators real-time feedback on what areas students are excelling or struggling in to inform instruction.

"That's really a key feature of this," said Sylvia Gillpatrick, an education associate in the state Department of Education.

Parents and educators will get a better measure of student academic progress because the tests are given multiple times throughout the school year, and online tools are meant to help educators navigate the data and access tools to help improve student learning.

State assessments are used to determine if students are meeting achievement goals under the federal No Child Left Behind law, which holds schools and districts accountable for their progress.

The state's Board of Education viewed a sample test Thursday. State officials have not decided yet how they will present the new test results to parents.

Parents will continue to get notices at the end of the school year, but it's not decided if they can have online access, or if paper reports will be sent home earlier in the year. Each comes with a potential drawback: It is costly to print out papers to send home with students and not all parents have Internet access.

Nearly 200,000 preliminary tests were taken this school year by Delaware students. There were some initial worries about Internet speeds, but the average load time between when a student answers and when another question pops up is less than a tenth of a second, Cohen said. Students take the test using a browser that does not allow the child to go elsewhere online or otherwise compromise the security of the test, he said.

The online tests were developed with assistance from the American Institutes for Research, a non-profit behavioral and social science research organization. Educators in the state worked with the group to vet test questions to ensure the exam measures knowledge of the state's standards, said Jon Cohen, director of assessment for the Washington D.C.-based group.

The group won a $24.6 million, five-year contract in December to develop the assessment. The assessment replaces the Delaware Student Testing Program, which was used for the last time this school year.