West Geauga Prepares for Next Round of Achievement Tests

January 14, 2016 by Submitted

On Jan. 14 and again in February, the Ohio Department of Education is expected to release student test data related to last year’s state-mandated student achievement tests.

Preliminary data that has already been received by schools has staff at West Geauga Schools examining and revising instructional practices in anticipation of this year’s upcoming tests.

Superintendent Rich Markwardt said last year’s soon-to-be-released student achievement scores will almost certainly be lower than typical for the district.

“West Geauga has traditionally fared quite well on student achievement tests, but last year’s preliminary scores indicate the potential for a significant drop,”?he said.

Several factors could influence that development.

“The 2015 tests represented a new test format and they were the first achievement tests that were administered electronically,” Markwardt said.

Additionally, the superintendent noted the effect that parent refusal had on student testing.

“We had a large number of students whose parents requested that they not be tested,” he said. “Of course, we complied with those requests, although the ODE makes no provision for such ‘opt outs’ and lowers our district’s Performance Index as a result.”

Noting that state-mandated assessments are not new, Markwardt is hopeful that the end of the unpopular PARCC tests and the corresponding reduction in testing time will result in far fewer parents choosing to keep their children from taking the state exams.

“Whether we like it or not, the State Report Card Performance Index is probably the most important ‘grade’ assigned to a district by the Ohio Department of Education,”?the superintendent said. “It is certainly a factor that home-buyers consider when selecting a district in which to raise and

educate their children.”

Currently, teachers and administrators are focusing their energy on preparing West G’s students for the upcoming 2016 state assessments. District instructional practices are being aligned more closely with Ohio’s new learning standards.

“‘What’ students are expected to know and ‘how’ they are assessed has changed,” Markwardt said. “The new state tests are more challenging than the old ones were. We have to do a better job of preparing our students to take the newer more difficult exams.”

Nancy Benincasa, district director of curriculum and instruction, said this can be accomplished by providing students with opportunities to practice answering the types of questions the new state assessments ask.

“Teachers are using the vocabulary and the types of problems that the state tests contain in classroom assignments and assessments,”?she said. “So, students become familiar with the types of questions asked before seeing them on the state exams.”

The use of technology by students is also being addressed in the district.

“We want our students to be comfortable with the technology used for the state tests because we want the scores to represent accurately what our students know. We want the technology piece to be a help and not a hindrance,” said Sean Whelan, director of technology.

Markwardt, Benincasa and Whelan all agree great instruction involves far more than teaching to a test.

“The state assessments measure just part of what composes good teaching,” Markwardt said.?”There are many more extremely important lessons that our classroom instructors and principals teach and demonstrate on a daily basis. We have great students in our schools and strong teachers in our classrooms. We need to be sure that our District Report Card underscores that message.”