After a long and hard fight between the Nebraska Department of Education and the Nebraska legislature, LB1157 passed. LB1157 establishes a new testing system for the state. This bill represents a significant change in how Nebraska will assess both students and schools. Its impact on teaching and learning will be large.
The current system is based on a district created classroom assessment system. Its tests are written by teachers trained by the Nebraska Department of Education. NDE teaches educators how to write valid instruments and insures quality through district inspections. During these visits, they review the test instruments and question teachers on the test-creation processes.
These exams are given throughout the year in the classroom, and the results are uploaded electronically to the state. The percentage of students who pass these tests are calculated and published for each district.
One advantage of this system is that it is linked to classroom instruction. Another advantage is that teachers learn a great deal about creating effective assessments. They also gain a good understanding of the state standards these instruments measure.
Critics of this system do not like the fact that it does not allow for precise district to district comparisons. Such comparisons are difficult as each district delivers a different test. Some also do not like the paper work that is required to write, administer, record, and report the results.
The testing system established in LB1157 represents a more traditional testing approach. Every district in the state will give the same test. Students will take them on bubble sheets which will be mailed into one test scoring agency. Whether this is an improvement over the prior system is largely a matter of perspective.
Many educators feel it is a step backwards as it separates testing from the teaching process. The more standardized approach will create a separation between instruction and assessment. This is especially true as teachers will not receive the test results until well after the tests are given. Basically, the purpose of testing goes from assessment to make on going instructional decisions to testing to evaluate student proficiency.
Whether the new testing system will be a positive or a negative is unknown. More than likely it will be a bit of both. There are a couple of factors that will determine the positive to negative balance.
One is the focus of the tests. On the one hand they could be narrowly geared toward minimum competencies. Conversely, they could include a more all-encompassing combination of minimum and higher level proficiencies.
This decision will be critical. Instruction to help students do well on these tests will largely reflect the test content and emphasis. For example, a predominantly basic skill-oriented test will lead teachers to stress lower-level skills. Whereas a test that also evaluates students’ ability to problem solve, apply their learning, and think creatively will lead to classroom instruction aimed at more rigorous expectations.
Secondly, if the tests are used to rank and rate school districts, it will create a very negative competitive atmosphere in the state. Such comparisons, as this column has consistently maintained, are also basically unfair unless student demographics are taken into account.
Retiring Commissioner Doug Christensen put it very well. If the state is determined to rate and rank schools, it can be done in a much easier way. He said to calculate the average square footage of homes in each district and arrange them from top to bottom based on this average. This will give you a similar result to ordering districts on the result of one state test.
Any school-to-school comparison that does not account for demographic differences is meaningless and misleading.
So Nebraska education is taking a dramatically different course in the form of new state-mandated tests. Hopefully, these tests will be utilized to improve student learning and not to determine a state test-taking champion.
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