State Schools Superintendent Patti Harrington on Wednesday presented her ideas to a legislative committee, saying she'd like to replace exams such as Criterion-Referenced Tests, the Directed Writing Assessment, Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test with adaptive, online tests. Several lawmakers urged her to further develop the plan.
"There are some real possibilities here," said Rep. LaWanna Shurtliff, D-Ogden.
In place of standardized tests, Harrington and an alliance of state education leaders would like to see students take adaptive, online tests at least three times a year. Adaptive tests are exams that change in difficulty as students take them, so questions could get progressively easier or harder depending on a student's ability. The idea is to measure each student's progress and areas of need. Teachers also would be able to get results more quickly, and the tests could be given in hour-long sessions, Harrington said.
Students would also be required to take the ACT as well as college and career readiness tests in eighth and 10th grades. That part of the plan would cost about $1.8 million, which is about how much it costs now to generate the UBSCT, the state's high school exit exam, Harrington said. Her office has not yet calculated the costs of administering the adaptive, online tests instead of the others, she said.
A Blue Ribbon Panel of educators and state leaders will also study ways to streamline school testing, with plans to make preliminary recommendations Nov. 13 during the Governor's Education Summit. Harrington will direct that panel, which will work on many of the same issues she and the K-16 Alliance have already outlined.
Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, expressed surprise that Harrington would want to revamp the state's testing system after she helped build it.
"I feel like I've just watched 'The Bridge on the River Kwai.' We worked to build this magnificent bridge across the River Kwai and now you're the one setting the dynamite charges," Stephenson said.
Harrington said the adaptive tests could possibly become part of the U-PASS system, which the state uses to gauge schools' progress.
She acknowledged, however, the plan to use adaptive tests faces one major challenge.
Up to this point, she said, the federal government has refused to let states use such tests to measure schools' progress in meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind. Utah currently satisfies NCLB requirements by using Criterion-Referenced Tests, but those are among the tests Harrington would like to see go.
But she emphasized the plan to replace standardized tests in Utah is still in the early stages.
She likely will present a more final version of the plan to the Legislature's education committee in the future with the hopes of getting such a plan considered during the 2009 legislative session.
She said by then she thinks the federal government will be more open to adaptive testing.
lschencker@sltrib.com
