Acting on the assumption that there is strength in numbers, four New England states are working together to develop a series of grade-level standards and tests to meet the requirements of the new federal education law.
Rhode Island has decided to join forces with Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire to create assessments in English language arts and math for grades three through eight. The tests must be in place no later than the 2005-06 school year.
"This is really breaking new ground," said Mary Ann Snider, director of assessment for the Rhode Island Department of Education. "I don't know anywhere in the country where states have collaborated on this level of magnitude."
The U.S. Department of Education gave its seal of approval to the joint effort last week by awarding $1.78 million to the four New England states to work on these assessments.
President Bush has made annual testing a centerpiece of his education agenda, saying that such testing provides schools with an important diagnostic tool. States may design tests of their own choosing, but they must be aligned with the states' individual academic standards.
The tests must break down the results by gender, race, ethnic group, migrant status, disability, English proficiency, disability and income for each district.
The six New England states began meeting more than a year ago to talk about the challenges of the No Child Left Behind law. That conversation quickly evolved into a more specific discussion about how states can collaborate on creating grade-specific standards and tests.
Massachusetts dropped out because its testing system was further along than the other states; Connecticut has adopted a wait-and-see posture.
The collaboration has already attracted what Snider described as a powerful panel of technical experts in the assessment field, including people from Boston College and the University of Indiana.
"They became very intrigued by our partnership," she said yesterday. "Here is a panel of people who will push the envelope to satisfy the new testing requirements."
There are practical as well as pedagogical reasons for the states to combine resources. Test development is expensive unless jurisdictions buy off-the-shelf tests from big companies such as Harcourt Educational Measurement. Although the new law doesn't prohibit states from doing so, it does say that each test must measure what the child is supposed to be learning in, say, grade 4 English.
"Because we are such a small state and test development is such an expensive proposition, it makes sense for us to link up with as many states as we can," said Bud Meyers, Maine's deputy education commissioner.
Working together also gives smaller states more educational clout with the companies that develop the tests. Big states such as California and Texas are in a much better position to negotiate cost-saving agreements with testing companies, he said.
"We really have a lot in common with Rhode Island in the way we approach testing," Meyers said. "We give the same tests."
The collaboration holds even greater promise for teachers from one state to be able to critique the work of students from another one.
"Technology would allow us to break down the barrior of distance that separates states," Snider said. "Just as a teacher here can sit down with someone in the next classroom, those kinds of conversations could happen electronically."
This work would be possible because, as Snider said, "We have a common language and a common vision."
Rhode Island currently tests students in grades 4, 8 and 10 using the New Standards Reference Exams, which measure how students are doing against an absolute standard. Many states, however, use a different kind of assessment that gauges student achievement against other groups of students.
The federal law says that schools must adopt tests that measure student performance against an absolute standard.
States have their work cut out for them. Only 17 states have developed English language arts tests in grades three to eight, and only 16 have done so in math.
The law's strong emphasis on annual testing has infuriated teachers across the country, who say that students already lose too much time to tests that may have little to do with what is being taught in the classroom.
Rhode Island was sensitive to that criticism when it began meeting with its New England colleagues 18 months ago, Snider said.
That's why the consortium hopes to develop tests that teachers can weave into their curriculum.
"Teachers don't mind testing if it makes sense and they get information back," Snider said. "Their frustration is that they have to shut down their class to give the tests. We're doing our best to eliminate that."
The first goal is to develop a set of grade-level expectations or standards for English and math. What should a fourth grader know about math by the end of the school year? What English skills should he have mastered?
Currently, Rhode Island has standards that cover a band of grades: kindergarten through grade four, grades five through eight and so forth. But the new law requires that these standards be grade-specific.
The next step calls for states to develop a test blueprint, Snider said. What kinds of questions should be on the test? How many items should be included? Under what conditions would the test be taken? How would the tests be graded and by whom?
The New England states will begin working on this piece of the pie this summer.
Meanwhile, Snider called this collaboration "a dream come true" for assessment types such as her.
"What began as an overwhelming amount of testing has now evolved into an exciting project to benefit teachers and kids."
