New test evaluates Hawai'i public school students

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

About 55,000 public school students this month will take a Hawai'i-based standardized test, the first of its kind and a key component in the state's school reform movement.

Some children in grades 3, 5, 8 and 10 have started taking a test that will provide a baseline score to judge how well Hawai'i students and campuses are performing in reading, writing and math. Two of the seven sections come from the Stanford Achievement Test, a nationwide barometer of academic performance, to measure Hawai'i students against the rest of the country. Hawai'i students traditionally have struggled when compared with Mainland students.

Campuses across Hawai'i will take the new test throughout April, although a few schools have received waivers to take the test in May because of conflicts with their calendars.

Students were supposed to take the Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards II Statewide Assessment last year, but it was delayed by the statewide teachers' strike that lasted most of last April.

The Department of Education for years has been moving to create a model of standards and accountability. School board members have approved the content standards that outline what each public school student should learn in each grade level, while the new test will measure how well that is happening. Next, the DOE will determine how to hold schools accountable for meeting minimum academic standards.

"This is the very first look that we're going to have of how our students are doing with the standards," said Michael Heim, director of planning and evaluation at the DOE. "This was a big piece that had been lacking until now. ... We have standards. We can talk about standards-based curriculum and instruction. Now we can finally talk about standards-based testing."

School board member Denise Matsumoto said she has stayed on the board since 1988 in part because of her interest in developing a system of standards.

"This is something I've wanted to see since the early '90s," Matsumoto said. "All children need to be proficient in math and reading. This will give us the information we need to see how schools have improved and how some schools need to keep working in certain areas."

The tests will also give the schools two sets of data, she said. While the Stanford Achievement Test compares Hawai'i to the rest of the nation by seeing how well students perform on questions that fall above, below and directly on their grade level, the Hawai'i-designed test will see specifically how well students are doing on what they should have learned so far in school.

Ronald Heck, professor of educational administration at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, said locally based tests have at least one advantage over the national ones.

"National tests don't always align with the curriculum," Heck said. "They tell you where people lie in terms of a distribution, but it doesn't tell you where you are in teaching your curriculum. At least this is in a format where schools can take the results apart easier and match them up to their curriculum."

Patricia Ishimaru, DOE test in-service specialist, said the Hawai'i test is more rigorous than the national test because it contains mostly open-ended questions instead of multiple choice answers. Even the math problems require students to show their work or explain how they arrived at an answer.

Parents may be surprised to see the difficulty level, but Ishimaru said it reflects the latest testing research from across the country and a recognition that students need to have a higher level of knowledge now than ever before.

"Writing is the highest form of comprehension," Ishimaru said. "You're generating the answers out of your own knowledge and experience. It's what you really do as an adult on the job. No one gives you a choice of a, b, c or d at work."

Sandy Ahu, principal at Nanakuli Elementary School, said her students will take the test starting next week. Nanakuli will only test in the mornings, when students are the most alert and rested, and the testing will last for seven to eight days, she said.

"Notices have gone out to all of the parents. We're trying to make sure they have a good breakfast and a good night's sleep," Ahu said.

DOE testing experts, university professors and representatives from Harcourt Educational Measurement, publishers of the Stanford Achievement Test, designed the Hawai'i test. It was tested on students in the spring of 2000. Each question has been reviewed twice by panels of 100 education experts.

The first set of results will be available in August. Then school officials will have a panel of educators determine "cut scores" of whether students and schools fall well below, approach, meet or exceed proficiency, Heim said.

Jim Popham, an emeritus professor from the University of California, Los Angeles, advised the DOE on the design of the Hawai'i test. But Popham said he is concerned that the state's content and performance standards could be too broad to test, and too vague to provide teachers with a clear picture of what skills they need to teach students.

"I think the content standards are going to require another really serious look," he said.

Then test experts have a bigger task to tackle: With the new requirements of President Bush's recently passed No Child Left Behind Act, federal law requires testing of all students in grades 3-8 by the 2005-2006 school year.

About half of the states have some type of locally-designed test, although Popham said all states now are scrambling to meet the new grade-level requirements.

DOE officials have started work on a Hawai'i-based test that will cover grades 4, 6 and 7 to fill in the gaps.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.

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