NECAP tests on way out

By CAMERON KITTLE

The New England Common Assessment Program is on its way out in New Hampshire.

The state Department of Education is planning to implement a new standardized test system to measure reading and math proficiency starting in 2013-14, said Paul Leather, deputy commissioner of education.

The state will discontinue using the NECAP for reading and math after one more round of testing in October, and then roll out the Smarter Balanced Assessment the next school year. Leather described the new test as a stronger assessment with no increased cost.

"It will make the data more useful at the classroom and school level, in planning and adjusting the curriculum and instruction," Leather said.

The state has been using the NECAP since 2005. It is a collaborative assessment, developed with the state departments of education in Vermont and Rhode Island. The NECAP tests students in math and reading and the results are used to determine if schools meet Adequate Yearly Progress goals, which are federally mandated by the No Child Left Behind law.

Leather said the new test will be online and adaptive, which means it will change based on how the student performs. If a student answers a question correctly, the test presents a harder question next; if the student answers a question incorrectly, the next question is a bit easier.

This model is present in several other testing environments, including the Graduate Record Examinations and the Graduate Management Admission Test, which are both administered to graduate school applicants.

The results of the Smarter Balanced Assessment will also be available faster, Leather said, which should help teachers and administrators.

Whether statewide assessments will be possible by the time the new test is set to roll out is in question.

There is support among some in the state Legislature to pull out of No Child Left Behind. The House passed a bill last week that would withdraw New Hampshire from participation going forward.

Mark Joyce, executive director of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association, doesn't think the bill will pass. Joyce spoke out against the legislation because it would cost the state $60 million in federal funding for public education.

"The pure reason for opposing it is the consequence that we'll lose that money," Joyce said. "It's been coming to schools for almost 50 years."

If the bill passes, Joyce said he's not sure what would happen to the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

"I don't know what the funding levels would be to support something like that," he said. "I'd like to see an improvement over the current system, and the (Smarter Balanced Assessment) seems like the right direction to go."

If implemented as planned, the Smarter Balanced Assessment will allow schools to find out if students are performing below or above their grade levels. It will cover language arts and math. New Hampshire would continue using the NECAP for science testing, though science results are not used for accountability purposes.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment would be administered in the spring, as opposed to the NECAP, which is administered in the fall.

Nashua Assistant Superintendent Brian Cochrane said the time change could have both positive and negative effects on students and teachers.

"There's a notion that spring testing can sometimes bring a 'cram-it' mentality," he said. "With fall testing, you can't cram for it and it pushes teachers to teach for high-order thinking and retention over a longer term. But all in all, it makes more sense from school-based personnel to switch to a spring assessment."

The Smarter Balanced test will "ratchet up" expectations in reading and writing, Cochrane said, but New Hampshire is still fortunate in that regard.

"We've had pretty robust and challenging assessments, and we also had writing in all of our assessments, while a lot of states went multiple-choice only," he said. "That is one real strength of what we've been doing. It's less change for us." (next page »)