Credit: Alison Yin for EdSource
Credit: Alison Yin for EdSourceThe U.S. Department of Education has once again rejected California’s bid to begin phasing in tests this spring based on new science standards, in lieu of current tests based on standards in place since 1998.
In a letter sent Tuesday to state education leaders, Ann Whalen, a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education John King Jr., said that California would have to continue to administer the old tests. She said the pilot tests based on the Next Generation Science Standards adopted by California in 2013 would not “measure the full depth and breadth of the state’s academic content in science.”
It is not clear what will happen after Jan. 20 when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, and whether his administration will also insist that California administer the old tests.
In a joint statement, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and State Board of Education President Michael Kirst said that they were “deeply disappointed” in the federal government’s denial of the waiver request.
“We reject their insistence that we double-test,” they said. “We believe the denial of this request harms our students, who will be forced to study science based on state standards adopted in 1998 that are outmoded and not designed for the 21st century.”
“California plans to move full speed ahead implementing our new, computer- adaptive science assessment pilot in 2017 based on our new Next Generation Science Standards,” they said. “The standards, our new online test, and our new science curriculum framework, which guides teachers, are all part of an exciting renaissance in science education in California designed to equip our students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the 21st century economy and college.”
Peter Tira, a California Department of Education spokesman, said his agency would appeal the decision. The state can request a hearing, which must be held by the end of December.
Earlier in the year, the state submitted a request for a federal waiver from administering the pen-and-paper, multiple-choice California Standards Tests in science, which 5th-, 8th- and 10th-graders took for the last time last year. Instead, the state sought permission to administer a pilot version of the new online tests this spring, with a longer field test the following spring.
However, in September, the U.S. Department of Education turned down California’s waiver request, saying the state had not demonstrated that piloting the new tests would advance student achievement or do a better job of reporting on how well students were doing in science. The state then filed an appeal to the denial of its waiver request.
Tuesday’s letter spelled out why the U.S. Department of Education was not at all persuaded by California’s appeal.
It asserts that the No Child Left Behind law, which technically is still in place during the current school year, and its replacement, the Every Student Succeeds Act, require states to administer science tests to 5th- and 8th-graders, and once in high school, and to publish the results of those tests.
If it did not administer those tests, Whalen wrote, the California Department of Education “would not be able to determine whether student achievement in science is improving, or be able to maintain, or enhance, the level of transparency in reporting results to parents and the public.”
As a result, Whalen argued, California would “be out of compliance with a number of the requirements” of both the No Child Left Behind law and the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Jessica Sawko, executive director of the California Science Teachers Association, expressed frustration over the U.S. Department of Education’s denial of California’s request for a science testing waiver.
“California’s old science test is not reflective of the type of science teaching and learning as called for by the California Next Generation Science Standards, and continued administration of that assessment slows transition and implementation of our state standards,” Sawko said.
The letter from the federal government did not spell out what, if any, penalties California would face if it insisted on not administering the old California Standards Tests. Earlier this fall, California education officials implied that they would move ahead with administering the new pilot test, regardless of what the Washington insisted it should do.
President-elect Trump and others in the GOP have threatened to reverse a slew of President Barack Obama’s executive actions, especially those issued in the last months of his administration. The letter from Whalen is not an executive action, but Betsy DeVos, tapped by Trump to be his next secretary of education, may not be bound by the letter.
However, it also seems unlikely that reconsidering the opinion expressed by Whalen, let alone reversing it, will be a top priority of the new secretary.
Staff writer Pat Maio contributed to this report.
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Comments (8)
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Jonathan Raymond 6 years ago6 years ago
"Out of compliance....". Here's hoping the next administration will put children's and teacher's interests first. Read More
“Out of compliance….”. Here’s hoping the next administration will put children’s and teacher’s interests first.
Andrea Brown 6 years ago6 years ago
This is a federal "crime" what we do to students. We continue to test them on standardards no longer being addressed in classrooms and only because the politicians say we should. It has nothing to do with what is good for students, but rather doing what we have always done just because. We need to do what is good for students and what will drive instruction and instruction will be the primary … Read More
This is a federal “crime” what we do to students. We continue to test them on standardards no longer being addressed in classrooms and only because the politicians say we should. It has nothing to do with what is good for students, but rather doing what we have always done just because. We need to do what is good for students and what will drive instruction and instruction will be the primary reason, not the test scores. We need to be able to move forward with NGSS and fully implement without ties to the old way. Politicians need to be in a classroom for 1 day and see what is good for students.
Bruce William Smith 6 years ago6 years ago
The new secretary should prioritize convincing Congress to reopen consideration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act with a view to repealing and replacing ESSA, which is obviously just No Child Left Behind warmed over, a centralizing federal initiative that recent international testing data reveal to have failed to achieve its objectives in spite of 15 years of trying.
Roseann torres 6 years ago6 years ago
Please tell me if I and other school board members should be acting together to request the Feds to allow the waiver request, so we don’t waste lot of time and resources in the lengthy appeal process.
Wayne Bishop 6 years ago6 years ago
Congratulations to the feds. The NGSS are just support for the same old facts-free, hands-on playtime in place of testable science that gets recycled every decade or so. Sight unseen, I assume that new standards-based assessments are as bad as the New Standards Reference Exams that preceded them.
Doug McRae 6 years ago6 years ago
Contrary to the Torlakson/Kirst statement, the federal denial of this waiver request does not require CA to double-test or to base use of the older test on content standards inconsistent with new NGSS content standards. See my comments on EdSource previous posts dated November 30 and October 13 for further information on acceptable statewide assessment design options that would permit both CA's desire to pilot and field test new NGSS test questions while also … Read More
Contrary to the Torlakson/Kirst statement, the federal denial of this waiver request does not require CA to double-test or to base use of the older test on content standards inconsistent with new NGSS content standards. See my comments on EdSource previous posts dated November 30 and October 13 for further information on acceptable statewide assessment design options that would permit both CA’s desire to pilot and field test new NGSS test questions while also satisfying federal assessment program reporting requirements for CA.
Replies
tom 6 years ago6 years ago
Thanks for commenting on this Doug. What do you make of Ann Whalen’s comments, 2nd paragraph, about the inadequacy of State pilot test? Seems like Federal overreach to me but not if the Feds are right and the State has done a lousy job of revising the test to align with the new NGSS. Please advise.
Doug McRae 6 years ago6 years ago
Tom -- I don't think one can conclude from Whelan's 2nd paragraph either that the state's pilot is inadequate or that CA has done a lousy job of aligning a new test to NGSS. Rather, the 2nd paragraph simply restates the circumstance that CA's Nov 30 appeal letter does not provide any change from the original request letter, focusing on properties that are typical for any test development pilot or field test exercises, namely not measuring … Read More
Tom — I don’t think one can conclude from Whelan’s 2nd paragraph either that the state’s pilot is inadequate or that CA has done a lousy job of aligning a new test to NGSS.
Rather, the 2nd paragraph simply restates the circumstance that CA’s Nov 30 appeal letter does not provide any change from the original request letter, focusing on properties that are typical for any test development pilot or field test exercises, namely not measuring depth and breadth, involving only a sampling of test questions, not having relevant achievement standards (i.e., cut scores) that allow scores to be calculated from fully cooked tests. In other words, the pilot and field tests proposed do not produce results (either individual student or aggregate data) that would satisfy federal ESSA reporting requirements. It concludes with the obvious that CA’s waiver request does not include any administration of older tests (not even reduced sets of test questions consistent with NGSS content standards) that would permit generation of science scores that meet ESSA reporting requirements.
The 2nd paragraph simply outlines details indicating that pilot and field tests cannot and do not meet federal reporting requirements. That recitation doesn’t say anything at all that would indicate CA’s NGSS test development pilot and field tests for the purpose of validating test questions for future alignment of a new test to NGSS, once those new tests are fully developed, are inadequate. It simply says the pilot and field tests do not meet ESSA science assessment reporting requirements.