Legislature(2009 - 2010)FAHRENKAMP 203
01/29/2010 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB221 | |
| SB109 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 109 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| = | SB 221 | ||
SB 109-REPEAL SECONDARY SCHOOL EXIT EXAM
8:11:31 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER announced consideration of SB 109.
8:12:51 AM
TOM OBERMEYER, staff to Senator Davis, said SB 109 is an Act
repealing the secondary student competency exam and related
requirements and providing for an effective date. The exam is
also called the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam (HSGQE)
or exit exam. This exam was initiated in 2001 and effective in
2004 following the trend for more assessment in the "No Child
Left Behind Act" (NCLB). It was never clear that Alaska's high
school graduation exam would improve performance or measure
whether students are better prepared for college, much less
determine conclusively whether students are receiving diplomas
but lacking basic skills. This particular exam has become a
high-stakes hurdle, the only one of the assessments now used in
Alaska that can prevent students from receiving diplomas. It has
made it very difficult for some students, excluded many others,
and exacerbated a court finding in 2007 that the state was
violating students' constitutional rights to an education
without providing proper assistance and direction. He referred
the members to their materials on the Moore vs State case. He
added that he believes Les Morse of the Department of Social and
Health Services has provided the committee with information
indicating they are taking remedial action to address those
court matters.
MR. OBERMEYER mentioned that Miss Dounay, an expert from the
Education Commission of the States (ECS), is on line. She has
observed that more and more states are going to end-of-course
exams and other methods of bringing kids up-to-date instead of
using exit exams. The HSGQE is a very expensive exam; it is
currently on a seven-year, one-year-renewable contract for $48
million dollars, which runs into 2015.
MR. OBERMEYER noted that the fiscal note in members' packets is
from March 2009 and has not been updated; it indicates that the
state would save about $1.5 million per year by discontinuing
the use of this exam.
8:16:14 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked if Mr. Obermeyer would prefer he ask the
Department of Health and Social Services about those numbers.
MR. OBERMEYER agreed that he would.
CO-CHAIR MEYER commented that there is also a cost to individual
schools for administering the exam.
CO-CHAIR MEYER opened public testimony.
8:17:04 AM
TERESA HOLT, Governor's Council on Disabilities and Special
Education (GCDSE), Anchorage, Alaska, said the council works on
issues that effect change in the system for people who have
disabilities. Their primary focus is on system issues around
people who have developmental disabilities, including early
intervention services and education of individuals with
developmental disabilities.
GCDSE has a broad stakeholder group. Two-thirds of the committee
is made up of individuals with disabilities and parents of
persons with disabilities; it also includes Art Arnold, Director
of the Office of Special Education in the Alaska Department of
Education, a member of the Alaska State Board of Education,
university professors, a university student, a representative
from the Department of Corrections, advocates, and someone who
works with disabled persons seeking employment. It supports
removal of the requirement to pass the exit exam to receive a
diploma, both in this bill and in HB 205.
There are two reasons for their support; the first has to do
with opportunity and the second with accountability. When
students graduate without a diploma, their opportunities for
success in their post-high-school life are severely limited. It
is difficult to get into the military; it is difficult to get
into a university or vocational school; and it is difficult to
get employment that provides a living wage. The unemployment
rate in Alaska for individuals with disabilities is 26 percent.
Resources follow accountability, she stated, and that can be
seen with the exit exam. More resources in schools are dedicated
to those eleventh and twelfth graders who haven't passed the
exam, but GCDSE feels it is too late. By eleventh grade those
students have most likely been failing for several years.
Educators should know from testing in the third grade and up
which students need help in reading, writing, or math. To put
all of the schools' resources at the end of the system seems a
bit inefficient.
MS. HOLT challenged the committee to find a way to put that
accountability at the beginning of the system. Alaska needs some
kind of accountability early in the system, in order to prevent
students from failing year after year. Students have a lot fewer
gaps to fill at beginning of their school careers than they do
by eleventh grade.
8:21:49 AM
MS. HOLT communicated that one of her own children was not quite
ready to read in kindergarten despite all of her efforts as a
parent. He was still behind in first grade and in second grade
was placed in special education. When he had not caught up by
the fifth grade, they pulled him out of special education and
put him in a reading clinic. In one summer he was up to grade-
level, so she knows it is possible. The resources have to be
allocated differently; instead of asking teachers to work
harder, which is what the exit exam does, the state needs to
provide resources and different types of instruction in the
beginning, to reach students who aren't performing at their
grade-level.
She said she had worked with many families that have disabled
kids and has seen a child in eleventh grade actually learn to
read in two years, but it took 6 hours per day of one-on-one
tutoring. That isn't realistic in a public school. GCDSE has the
opportunity each year to sponsor students with disabilities to
work in their office for a day, to see what they do and to
observe individuals with disabilities being successful. One
young man they sponsored did everything a person could ask to
earn a scholarship; he volunteered at the Boys' And Girls' Club;
he took all of the regular education classes, even though he has
a significant learning disability. He earned a scholarship but
is going to lose it because he can't pass the exit exam.
8:24:29 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER agreed that the state does a real disservice to
kids in that situation, who have worked hard for twelve years
and end up with a certificate rather than a diploma.
8:25:02 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS thanked Ms. Holt for her testimony and asked if
the Governor's Council has arrived at any recommendations they
would be willing to put forth. He said he also believes they
need to be testing to determine where kids are as they go along
and whether remediation is needed, rather than waiting and
pouring resources in at the end, when the efforts are less
likely to be successful.
MS. HOLT said, from talking with various members of the
Governor's Council, she has come to believe that there is no one
system that is going to work across all communities. She
conjectured that they might have to start with a basic
curriculum and, if that isn't working for an individual student,
do an assessment of that child's needs and use the information
to create a data-driven program for that individual. Experts
around the nation who have tried to implement this type of data-
driven instruction, say that each school really needs to choose
a system that will work for it. One state provides the schools
with guidelines and resources but holds each school accountable
to increase students' reading skills. She said she thinks that
is similar to what Les Morse is working on in his pilot program.
She closed by saying that Alaska shouldn't have to create
anything new; there are a lot of resources out there to choose
from.
8:28:02 AM
DEBORAH KITELINGER, Governor's Council on Disabilities and
Special Education, North Pole, Alaska, said she is the mother of
nine children, two of whom have learning disabilities. Her
eldest is 19 and has gone through the exit exam process; it took
him six tries and an additional year of high school to pass it.
When he graduated, he had 30 credits and a GPA of 3.24. He had
the grades; he had the credits; but he had difficulty passing
the writing and math portions of the exam due to dyslexia. He
has more than a basic skill-set to go out into the workplace. He
has held three jobs since he was 16 years old and all of his
employers have told her they are very pleased with his
performance. It is amazing to her that had he been less
determined, he would never have gotten his diploma. Her 10-year
old has cognitive impairments that make it unlikely he will ever
pass the exit exam, and she fears the impact of his failure may
be devastating. It is not just her children she is concerned
about however; many kids give up before they make it past this
hurdle. She is on-board with testing, but believes the test
should not be tied to getting a diploma. She would rather see
them adopt something like the WorkKeys.
8:32:25 AM
JULIE BROYLES, Governor's Council on Disabilities and Special
Education, Anchorage, Alaska, said she is the product of Alaska
public schools and universities and the mother of three
children; the oldest has Down syndrome. She was speaking to the
committee however, as a high school special education teacher
who teaches students with learning disabilities, autism spectrum
disorder, cognitive impairments, emotional disorders and visual
impairments such as ADD and ADHD [attention deficit disorder and
attention deficit hyperactive disorder]. These students qualify
for special education services because they are at least two
grade-levels below their peers in one or more academic areas.
She gave an account of a tenth-grade student in her high school
special education reading class who was reading at the fifth
grade level. He could read the newspapers, most of which are
written at the fifth-grade level; he could read a job
application; he could apply for a job by filling out a job
application. His testing record indicated that he was far below
proficient on every benchmark throughout his school career to
that point, but what those tests didn't show is that he was
progressing all of those years. He was simply not able to
progress at the same level as his non-disabled peers. For every
test, the student was provided with testing accommodations such
as taking the test in a separate location with minimal
distractions, having the instructions read to him, being allowed
to take frequent breaks and cetera. When the student did not
pass the reading tests he was placed in an additional reading
class. When he fails to pass next year he might be offered
another reading class, one that is designed strictly to help him
pass the HSGQE. It goes against everything she knows of good
teaching practices, teaching with the sole intention of passing
a test. When the student fails again he might be offered a
modified exit exam. A modified test means the person
administering the test reads the directions and questions on the
reading test to the student. He might pass, but he will not have
gained four or five years of reading levels.
MS. BROYLES also spoke about a twelfth grader with an average
cognitive ability and severe dyslexia, who cannot pass the
writing test. He has been receiving special education services
since first grade; in high school he takes mostly general
education classes. He is hard-working and turns in every
assignment, but his Standards Based Assessment (SBA) scores have
always been far below the proficient range. He passed the math
test on his first try, but failed the HSGQE reading and writing
tests. In his junior year he took a HSGQE writing class to
practice writing the kind of responses that are most likely to
earn enough points for a passing grade. She applied for a
modified HSGQE that allowed him to use a word processor with
spell check and grammar check during the test. If he were to
fail again she would apply for the modified HSGQE with voice
recognition software as well. This student not only lost
valuable instruction time to the testing days, he missed out on
opportunities to take classes that might be more relevant to his
interests and possible career options. Testing students at what
is often the end of their academic careers, especially for
students with disabilities, does not improve their learning or
increase the likelihood that they will stay in school and pursue
a postsecondary education. On behalf of her students, she asked
the committee to support the repeal of the exit exam
requirement.
8:39:45 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked Ms. Broyles where she teaches special
education.
MS. BROYLES replied that she teaches in Anchorage.
8:40:01 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked if Ms. Broyles believes the state has the
wherewithal in place now to increase the abilities of those
disabled kids to their maximum potential, but that it is not
placing the right emphasis on it or starting early enough.
MS. BROYLES responded no, not as long as it is spending so much
money, time and energy on this test. She analogized that she
wouldn't want someone to build her a house and wait until the
week before inspection to determine whether the foundation is
strong enough to support the structure.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked if she believes the state would be better
off if it redirected those resources.
MS. BROYLES answered "Yes."
8:41:17 AM
SENATOR STEVENS asked if she could support end-of-course exams
instead of the high-stakes exit exam.
MS BROYLES said it is more valuable for teachers to know how
kids are doing at the moment in order to guide their
instruction. As a parent, early assessments to determine her
children's strengths and how those align to various careers
would help her to guide their course work.
8:42:30 AM
LAUREL VORACHEK, Executive Director, Assessment and Evaluation,
Anchorage School District, said the school district supports SB
109. They are struggling with managing and integrating all of
the mandated assessments into their instruction. If they cannot
be integrated into instruction, they have no meaning for the
student, the family or the educational process. Some of these
exams currently include the HSGQE, the re-tested HSGQE, the
Terra Nova, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the
English Language Proficiency Assessment, and Revised
Developmental Profile. All of these are state or federally
mandated assessments.
In response to the committee's comments regarding the need for
interventions and assessments early on, she said the Anchorage
School District has its own assessments that it feels are
absolutely necessary to measure progress toward mastery of
standards and individual student progress on curriculum-based
measures. These are by far the most important assessment
measures because they can occur during instruction, giving
educators the ability to adjust instruction based on the data.
They are working on how to set up that system district-wide, but
it is difficult to manage that in addition to everything else
that is required. The SBAs and HSGQE are not instructionally
sensitive enough to really intervene at various points during
the year; they need more than the one data point the SBA's
currently give them. The WIN Curriculum and WorkKeys Assessment
have been added for next year so there is significant cost to
the state in managing additional assessments, especially if
districts integrate them into their instruction.
MS. VORACHEK said her response to why the legislature should
repeal the HSGQE is that it is outside of the NCLB requirement,
and is an essential, basic skills test. On one end, it often has
an unintended consequence that educators have observed
repeatedly, which is that many students and parents set their
sights only toward passing the HSGQE and not toward being
college and work-ready. Once students have passed all three
parts, it can become a stumbling block to encouraging higher-
level course work. On the other end, students who have learning
difficulties have to focus their entire high school career on
passing that exit exam and really do not have the opportunity to
participate in some of the work-force development courses
available.
The High School Graduation Qualifying Exam has absolutely no
meaning beyond the state of Alaska and provides no information
on college or work-readiness.
MS. VORACHECK said that next year they will be required to
administer the WorkKeys for all eleventh graders. This came
about from the work of the previous Commissioner of Labor.
Unlike the HSGQE, the WorkKeys assessment is recognized
nationwide, uses a common language between educators and
employers, and provides information to students on their college
and work-readiness which can motivate them to continue taking
courses to improve their skills and fill the gaps in their
knowledge.
8:47:26 AM
WorkKeys allows students to see how their skills compare to the
skills necessary to enter the work force. One of the critical
elements of education is making it meaningful and real for
students. WorkKeys has the ability to do that. It provides
valuable information for course planning and students can earn
certificates through WorkKeys that are recognized in several
industries throughout the country.
MS. VORACHEK said people frequently ask what the HSGQE measures
as compared to the WorkKeys. ACT Incorporated's profilers have
profiled every job in the country and identified that the top
three skills necessary for work readiness are: locating
information, reading for information, and applied mathematics.
Locating information is an absolutely critical skill in 85
percent of the jobs they profiled, in 81 percent it is reading
for information, and in 75 percent it is applied mathematics.
Writing is critical in only 17 percent of jobs; if an employer
wants information about a student's writing ability however, it
can be found in the tenth grade SBA scores.
If the state's goal is to ensure that students have the
essential skills for entry-level jobs, which was the intent
behind the HSGQE legislation, WorkKeys provides that. Another
advantage of using WorkKeys is that it also provides some
indicators of college readiness. ACT has done a statistical
concordance that shows the comparability of the ACT® test and
WorkKeys and has found that a level 5 in applied mathematics on
WorkKeys indicates a student is on track to meet the readiness
benchmarks in reading and mathematics on the ACT®.
She said the Anchorage School District would like the committee
to look at the impact and cost of all mandated assessments as
they consider SB 109 and perhaps consider a differentiated
diploma system. If the legislature is going to mandate an
assessment, she asked that it be one that provides useful
information for course planning and provides a connection
educators can use to motivate students to pursue higher-level
course work. In summary, she reiterated that Anchorage School
District supports SB 109 to repeal the High School Qualifying
Exit Exam and thanked the Education Committee for the
opportunity to testify.
8:51:15 AM
ALANA GREER, Homer, Alaska, said she is the parent of a
learning-disabled high school student. For the young people she
knows, it seems the HSGQE is either a no-brainer they pass as
sophomores, or a punitive thing that completely disheartens them
and turns them off from education.
She said the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team
meetings she has attended since implementation of the High
School Qualifying Exit Exam have been distracted from giving her
son skills that will actually help him in his life; they focused
instead on how to give him the accommodations he would need to
pass this test. Her son is taking welding now and doing great on
his jobs; he hasn't missed a day of school and isn't a
troublemaker. He wants to get on with his life. He isn't going
to stay in school until he's 21 and needs to plan, but he took
the test in the fall and didn't have the results until December.
That was a problem.
They were fortunate that he did pass the test and will get to
graduate with his friends and peers. When he goes to get a
janitorial job at the hospital, they will know what his diploma
is; it's not a certificate of attendance that doesn't mean
anything to anybody.
MS. GREER said there is another problem in her community
regarding the test. It has to do with the "old-believer"
community, another high-risk population for high school
graduation. This is a closed society of people who emigrated
from Russia and are committed to keeping their old traditions
alive. The young girls marry early and it has been a struggle to
get them through to graduation. Strides are being made, but this
year the test falls on a holy day and those children won't be
able to attend. She was told that they have contacted the ACLU
about it. This is just one more reason to repeal the test.
8:56:38 AM
SENATOR STEVENS asked if she is supportive of some sort of
differentiated diploma system.
MS. GREER replied "No." She doesn't think a differentiated
diploma will mean anything different out in the real world than
a certificate of attendance or a high school diploma. She
believes Alaska already has a strong system in place. When she
graduated and when her parent's graduated, a diploma meant
something. She speculated that maybe there are some problems
with the system; maybe there has been grade inflation; maybe
teachers are burnt out or principals aren't spending the time to
walk through classrooms and see what is going on. They had a
system in place when she was in high school though, and it
seemed to work. She doesn't quite understand why the state feels
it is necessary to keep testing and testing.
MS. GREER said she isn't excited about the WorkKeys for
learning-disabled kids; WorkKeys is building a market niche and
should be very excited about the money it will make for them. A
kid who wants to go to beauty school to be a nail technician
doesn't need to take the WorkKeys. A kid who wants to weld might
need it, but that decision should be made by the kids with their
school counselors and teachers; it should not be up to the
state. Kids decide if they want to go to college and take the
SAT and the ACT®; let them decide if they want to take the
WorkKeys, she said; give them some control over their own lives.
8:59:39 AM
ERIC WADE, LINKS Matsu Parent Resource Center, Palmer, Alaska,
said LINKS provides training opportunities and advocacy support
for parents of children with disabilities. He is testifying in
favor of SB 109; the exit exam has been controversial since its
passage and its effectiveness is doubtful. LINKS believes it is
time for this testing requirement to be removed.
MR. WADE said his particular concern regarding the exit exam is
that the drop-out rate among Alaska's students has increased
since its implementation and has not rebounded to pre-exam
levels. Many students drop out in the ninth and tenth grade.
These are generally students who reach high school already
significantly behind. For some, it is due to their home life;
for some it is because of a disability; perhaps some just didn't
try very hard. Regardless of the reasons, the exit exam looms in
front of them and, either because they realize they won't pass,
or because they fail it in tenth grade, they drop out of school.
Before implementation of the exam, some of these students would
have hung in there, continued to learn and eventually graduated.
They would have gone to work and learned many of the skills
essential to their positions on the job. As an aside, he
supposed that many of the people listening today probably
learned how to prepare and give presentations on the job. He has
spoken to many carpenters who told him that they really learned
fractions and geometry on the job. He ventured that most of the
people attending the hearing know someone who fits that
description; they may not have been the best high school
students, but did get a diploma and are functioning quite well
in our society. Many students today however, can't get those
jobs because they don't have a diploma. The playing field has
changed since the exit exam. He said LINKS supports solutions
that improve academic achievement and ways to assess that
achievement, but the high-stakes exam is too costly to students
and families. They do not support a differential diploma system.
He encouraged the legislature to remove the exit exam.
9:03:14 AM
JANET LONG, Anchorage Alaska, thanked Chair Davis for sponsoring
SB 109. She is the parent of a child with a mild learning
disability, a special education teacher and transition
coordinator for students with special needs. She is concerned
not only for the children with disabilities who have to face
this test, but for the many kids at higher levels who say they
don't have to take certain courses because they've already
passed the exam.
She asserted that the state's money would be more wisely spent
on early intervention instead of supporting remediation and re-
testing. She thanked Governor Parnell for supporting removal of
this exam. She particularly liked his memo to the Governor's
Council on Disabilities and Special Education about the $1.3
million savings possible in re-testing costs alone. Huge amounts
of instructional time are being lost to efforts to ensure that
students will pass this exam. She agreed with Ms. Vorachek that
testing can be done more expediently in Homer or in Anchorage
using district assessments.
MS. LONG said her research indicates that there are 26 states
that test and a greater number of states and territories that do
not. She was also concerned that Alaska does not have
reciprocity with the states that do test; she doesn't understand
that. Having such a transient population in Alaska makes it very
difficult for many of those students.
In conclusion, she thanked Senator Davis again for her work and
thanked Senator Bundy for helping to tighten up teaching and
accountability for staff and students. She said she thinks
Alaska is moving in a good direction. She supports repealing the
HSGQE requirement, but if the state decides to continue with the
existing test, she would support a move to differentiated
diplomas.
9:10:08 AM
JENNIFER DOUNAY ZINTH, Education Commission of the States,
Denver, Colorado, joined the meeting via teleconference. She
said she would like to respond to some of the previous
testimony, then entertain questions from the committee and
provide some comments, followed by a national overview.
She provided copies of a presentation she prepared for a
legislative committee in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is one of the last
states to have exit exam policy on the books which has not yet
gone into effect; the first class subject to their exit exam
requirement will be the class of 2012. They established a task
force to look at their high school testing policy and national
trends in terms of both exit exams and end-of-course exams.
Oklahoma's legislation calls for their end-of-course exams to
become exit exams effective in 2012.
For clarification, she said, the Education Commission of the
States is a non-partisan organization. She said she will not
speak for or against Alaska's high school exam but will provide
a perspective on what other states are doing and identify
potential avenues for the state to consider.
Referring to previous testimony that tenth and eleventh grade is
too late to begin dealing with gaps in students' learning and
that they were probably struggling for years before, Ms. Dounay
absolutely agreed. She asked if Alaska has done any analyses to
consider alignment between the tenth grade graduation qualifying
exam and earlier assessments, as some other states have
identified misalignments from grade-level to grade-level.
9:12:54 AM
She opined that one avenue Alaska might want to consider - and
one that is a growing trend in other states - is a transition to
end-of-course exams. Some states have made them mandatory for
high school graduation. If a student chooses to take Algebra I
or Algebra II, then there is an end-of-course exam the student
should be able to pass upon completing the course. A positive
thing about end-of-course exams is that students all know that
what is being taught on a day-to-day basis is what will be on
the test at the end of the year. In addition, some states are
making diagnostic tools available to teachers to identify where
students are struggling during the school year so educators can
address those long before they get to the end of the school
year.
MS. DOUNAY continued that there are many states with end-of-
course exams and on-line tools to help teachers align their
instruction with the year-end expectations. It is one thing to
put a standard out there; but it is extremely helpful to provide
some model classroom activities that are aligned to the standard
to assist teachers in meeting it.
Regardless of whether Alaska keeps the HSGQE, it is good for the
state to consider some areas of state policy that ECS has done
research on. One is adolescent literacy. Among states in
general, there is a huge focus on literacy in grades K-3; but
once students get past third grade there seems to be an unspoken
assumption that all of them know how to read. That is certainly
not the case. A growing number of states have adopted policies
to make sure that teachers who are certified for grades 4
through 12 have the skills they need to help students along in
literacy and that there are out-of-classroom supports for those
students. Another is remediation at the high school level: What
sort of triggers are in place to identify students who are
struggling in English, math or other subjects? Do the districts
receive funding for providing remediation? Are students required
to attend, or is it optional? Is the remediation program
evaluated by the state or by someone else?
9:16:14 AM
MS. DOUNAY said ECS is seeing a lot of activity in formative
assessments during the school year. States often use these
assessments in the early years to make sure kids are on track in
reading and math; but for whatever reason, they seem to fall
away after students enter middle school or high school. A
growing number of states are adopting policies to ensure that
there are tools in place to help teachers identify student needs
and that they have the resources to address those needs during
the school year.
She asked if the committee members have any particular questions
about what other states are doing.
9:17:04 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked if the trend is to do away with high school
exit exams or for more states to require high school exit exams.
MS. DOUNAY replied that the trend now is for states to require
exit exams. With the graduating class of 2010, there are 25
states that already have a requirement in place including
Arkansas and Oklahoma, where the requirement goes into effect
with the graduating class of 2012. Pennsylvania and Oregon
recently adopted policies to require an exit exam, but the
Pennsylvania policy adopted by the state board still has to
undergo legislative approval, and in Oregon implementation has
been delayed due to budgetary concerns.
9:18:23 AM
She underscored that end-of-course exams, regardless of whether
or not they serve as exit exams, are more instructionally
sensitive than is the HSGQE. She also emphasized the importance
of keeping relevance in the high school curriculum so students
realize that what they are learning in the classroom has meaning
for what they are going to do after high school; certainly a
Career and Technical Education (CTE) is one way to ensure that
relevance. She added that High School testing need not be
mutually exclusive from Career and Technical Education; there
are examples toward the end of her presentation to illustrate
that.
9:27:58 AM
MS. DOUNAY advised that Virginia requires that all students to
complete six end-of-course exams: two in English, one each in
math, science and social studies and one in an elective subject.
The state board is required by legislation to approve
assessments they believe have the same level of content in CTE
areas. For example, if a student takes a drafting certification
course and the level of math required to obtain certification is
equal to the level of math that would be in an Algebra or
Geometry end-of-course exam, the state board is allowed to
approve that as a substitute for the traditional Algebra or
Geometry end-of-course exam. The state created a separate
division within the Department of Education to assist districts
in integrating the content standards into CTE course offerings
so that these are not held to watered-down standards. As one of
the previous speakers mentioned, Virginia does have very good
high school standards.
She confirmed that there are more states looking at
differentiated diploma systems, but said a few states have
actually moved away from differentiated diplomas and now require
all students to take a common core curriculum, believing that
putting students on different tracks was setting lower
expectations for certain students. Students might not have
realized that they were being held to lower expectations by
selecting one or another track. Still other states that
currently have a one-track system are exploring two or more
diploma tracks because they fear that holding all students to
the same expectation is not working for some students.
9:21:41 AM
MS. DOUNAY said any state that adopts an exit exam policy should
be clear about the purpose for the exit exam. If Alaska believes
the purpose of the competency exam is being met by some other
assessment, such as WorkKeys, then repealing the exit exam may
be a step in the right direction. By and large, any discussion
of high school level assessments needs to take the state to the
larger question of what it wants students to know and do once
they complete a diploma and whether they are being prepared
properly. Pass scores on high school level exams, regardless of
whether they are exit exams, should reflect these expectations.
If students are getting out of school and finding that they have
to take remedial courses when they enter college; or if
employers are saying that the graduates they hire aren't
prepared for what the employer needs them to do when they enter
the work force, then the high school level curriculum, as well
as the assessments need to be re-evaluated.
MS. DOUNAY indicated that slide 15 of her presentation shows why
other states have implemented exams. One of the most important
bullets on that slide is the third one "sets same statewide
expectation for all students." She reflected that sometimes the
grade students get in a class is not reflective of how much they
learned. The exit exam states what the student is expected to
achieve and establishes the common statewide measure for
demonstration of that level of achievement.
Speaking briefly to what the research says regarding the impact
on students of exit exams, she admitted that the research is
truly mixed. Some studies indicate that, although there may be a
higher initial failure rate among students with disabilities,
after such students take the exit exam two or more times, they
tend to pass it at nearly the same rate as regular education
students. Other studies say achievement as measured by the
National Assessment on Educational Progress or some other
measure, is lower in states that have exit exams. So there is no
one conclusion in terms of whether student achievement is better
or worse if there is an exit exam.
Finally, speaking to a few trends, Ms. Dounay reiterated that
states are not dropping exit exams but are largely transitioning
from traditional exit exams to end-of-course exams and seeking
to better align their high school assessments with post-high
school expectations. In Texas, which is one of the states moving
away from an exit exam to end-of-course exams scattered through
grades nine through eleven, students who get specific items
correct on the reading or math end-of-course exams have met a
benchmark for college placement and are not required to sit for
the college placement exam should they enter a four-year public
institution in the state of Texas. Other states are taking
slightly different avenues to embed some sort of college-ready
measure into high school exit exams.
9:26:07 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked where Ms. Dounay is calling from.
MS. DOUNAY answered "Denver."
9:26:24 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS said he is interested in the "why" of exit exams
and what the critics say, which seems to be much like the
testimony they heard today. He pointed out that the result "set
same statewide expectation for all students" sounds good, but
not all students are the same, and that is the meat of the
problem. He asked if Ms. Dounay has information on what other
states have done to modify their exit exams to create some
incentive for parents and students.
9:27:58 AM
MS. DOUNAY asked Co-Chair Thomas if by "modify" he means other
ways for a student to demonstrate proficiency if he fails the
first time, rather than taking the traditional exit exam again.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS clarified that he wants to know what other
states are doing earlier, when they recognize that students are
struggling.
MS. DOUNAY responded that Virginia is a very good example. They
have adopted a program integrating pre-algebra and algebra
concepts into the middle school curriculum. They are also
providing professional development and recertification programs
for teachers if their preparation was not as algebra-driven as a
K-8 certification. They've seen significant success with this
program. She offered to provide a link to a site with more
information on this eighth-grade algebra program.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS said he would appreciate that. He commented that
the amount of effort a student expends is worth a lot in the
end, particularly to employers, and asked if anyone has taken
that into consideration to somewhat flatten the curve.
9:30:32 AM
MS. DOUNAY said in some states, if a student fails the exam on
the first try, the alternate avenue is evaluation of course
grades. ECS identified seven states that allow students to
substitute course work or end-of-course exam results for areas
in which they failed on the high school exit exam. A student who
got an A in math, for instance, might be able to use the course
grade as a substitute. In a different seven states, an
alternative is evaluation of classroom evidence. If a student
can show that his homework assignments and other projects
completed in class meet the standard the state is expecting for
passage of that section of the exit exam, the student can
substitute that evidence. Yet another seven states allow other
criteria such as remediation. If a student fails the English
section but regularly attends a remedial program and
demonstrates his commitment, then that may substitute for a
passing score. Some other states may accept a letter of
recommendation or attendance records as a substitute.
9:32:23 AM
MARK MITCHELL, a science teacher in King Cove, Alaska, testified
from his eighth grade classroom. He has been teaching for 20
years, 10 of them in rural Alaska, and believes that the high
school graduation exam is a necessary evil, although he admitted
that it causes a lot of stress to families and communities. He
said the main difference he has seen between before and after
the test is that the high school diploma is now taken as proof
of literacy, and it wasn't before. He stated that he is not in
favor of test.
In closing, he said the HSGQE has served as a positive influence
but it could be much better than it is and requested that if the
committee repeals the test, they replace it with something
meaningful.
9:35:07 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER agreed that if they eliminate the exit exam they
do need to replace it with some sort of assessment.
9:35:43 AM
DAVID KOHLER, Department Chair, Special Education Services,
Service High School, Anchorage, Alaska, said he has been in the
field of special education for 32 years. He has also worked as a
school psychologist, teacher and administrator. He said he is
the person who has to implement the HSGQE and make daily
decisions regarding individual students' education. He agreed
that there needs to be an accountability system that includes
students with special needs, to ensure those students get their
equal share of resources; however, doing this at the high school
level is simply too late. A great deal of research has
established that addressing academic difficulties early is the
best route to future academic success. It is very difficult to
close the education gap by the time students get to high school,
and doing so is often in direct opposition to an individual
student's needs and motivation. Too often, he said, he has to
make a decision between classes designed to help a student pass
the HSGQE and classes designed to prepare him for life outside
of high school. He noted that Service High School requires
students to get 22.5 credits in very specific areas in order to
get a diploma.
9:38:37 AM
MR. KOHLER stated that students who have not passed the exam as
tenth graders are usually those who don't fit the traditional
educational model. Loading them up with more reading, writing
and math classes often increases the chance that they will drop
out. He also pointed out that, if students don't pass the HSGQE
as tenth graders, there are classes available in the eleventh
and twelfth grades to support them. Those classes start in
August. The test is administered during the first week in
October, but students do not get the results of the exam until
December. So from the first week in October until December, they
are taking a class designed to help them pass the exam without
knowing whether they have already passed. These are often the
students who are less motivated than others and have had less
success in high school; they are spending time in a class
without knowing whether or not they need the information they
are being taught.
9:40:12 AM
Finally, he said that in making a decision about this, the
committee needs to consider their individual philosophies about
education and what a diploma actually means. The question is
whether a diploma indicates a certain level of proficiency in
reading, writing or math, or if it means preparation for life
outside of high school. He reiterated that while he agrees an
accountability system is necessary, one that focuses more on the
real-life needs of students would be more appropriate.
9:40:52 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER said he is familiar with Mr. Kohler's special
needs program at Service High School and thanked him for all he
does.
9:41:16 AM
SENATOR STEVENS referred to Jennifer Dounay's discussion of
alignment between the grades, in which she implied that in some
states there is a lower bar set in the earlier grades, which
jumps up in high school making it much harder for students to
prepare. He asked Mr. Kohler if that has been his experience.
9:41:46 AM
MR. KOHLER said he has no statistics on that and is not very
familiar with the content of the Standards Based Assessments for
the lower levels, but it seems from his own experience that
there is a pretty strong correlation between the students'
performances on the SBAs and on the HSGQE, which would indicate
that the skills are progressing.
9:42:40 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER closed public testimony. He called on Eddie Jeans
to speak for the administration.
9:43:36 AM
EDDIE JEANS, Director of School Finance, Alaska Department of
Education and Early Development, Juneau, Alaska said he has
delivered the state Board of Education's position on this issue
to both of the Co-Chairs' offices. The state board had a lengthy
discussion about this issue at their meeting in January and
voiced many of the same concerns he has heard today. They
decided they would prefer to keep the exam in place as it is
today until such time as an alternative is presented to replace
it. The reason they took this position is that the HSGQE is a
very key part of the state's accountability system. It is the
high-stakes "hammer." As part of that system, there is an
expectation at each grade-level; these are aligned to the state
standards, which are aligned to the Standards Based Assessment.
They start assessing children in third grade, so by the time
they reach high school and the high school qualifying exam, it
should not be a surprise to anyone that the child will or will
not pass. He asserted that end-of-course exams would present the
same type of roadblock as does the HSGQE. If students don't pass
the end-of-course exams they will not get a diploma.
MR. JEANS agreed that WorkKeys is an excellent tool to provide
information about students' abilities in reading, writing and
mathematics, but maintained that it is just informational and
the existing Standards Based Assessments provide the same
information. At this point the state board would like to keep
the exit exam. It holds students and parents accountable; it
holds the districts accountable; it also holds the state of
Alaska accountable. That was made very clear in the Moore vs
State case. Because of that accountability, the department was
able to get the support of the legislature to intervene in low-
performing districts. He also pointed out that there has been an
increase in the number of graduates since 2005.
9:48:08 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER said he disagrees with Mr. Jeans regarding the
high school exit exam versus the WorkKeys. It was his
understanding that if a student fails one part of the HSGQE he
will not get a diploma. If a student goes to school all twelve
years, gets a diploma and then takes the WorkKeys, an employer
will know, for instance, that the student is not good at math.
He asked for Mr. Jeans' thoughts on that.
MR. JEANS agreed with the chairman's analysis but said the
question is whether the goal is to have an accountability system
or to inform parents and children. He contended that the
WorkKeys is an excellent source of information but does not
provide any guarantee that a student has some basic skills. That
is what the high-stakes test does; it guarantees that students
have basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics. It is not
a tenth-grade test; it is not a test to determine whether
students are ready to go into college; it is a test to measure
basic skills and to ensure employers that students can read,
write, and do some basic math. It is the only hammer in the
system to make sure students have met the state's goals.
9:50:15 AM
SENATOR DAVIS responded that the exit exam is "the hammer"
because it precludes Alaska's students from graduating from high
school with a diploma. It is the only thing on the books that
allows that to happen. The Department of Education is already
planning to implement the WorkKeys; it has only delayed
implementation for another year. She said she has read the
statement given by the Board of Education after their meeting,
which states that they want to keep the exam in place until they
find out what is going to happen regarding the national
standards. This particular bill was brought before the
legislature because the state Board of Education sent a memo to
the Commissioner of Education several years ago saying the HSGQE
wasn't working and needed to be modified or done away with. No
one else took any action; they couldn't decide what to do. SB
109 just repeals it effective July 2012. The best thing the
legislature can do is to do away with this test; the state is
doing a disservice to its children. Passing the exit exam does
not guarantee employers that students are skilled for those
jobs; it does not. If students don't pass this test, they can't
go into the service; they can't get into most universities; many
options are closed to them. There are no alternatives to it
except for those pertaining to accommodations for special
education students; the state needs alternatives.
She reiterated that the Board of Education itself said this
isn't working and now, with a different group of people on the
board, they are saying they want to keep it because it is the
only thing in place to hold students accountable. She disagreed
strongly. She reminded the assemblage that the Association of
Alaska School Boards is in favor of repealing this requirement
and many of the superintendants have come forth to express their
support. Every organization except the Board of Education wants
it to be removed and the board wants to keep it "until when?"
she asked.
9:54:07 AM
MR. JEANS replied that they want to keep it in place until a new
accountability measure has been identified to replace it. The
high-stakes nature of the high school qualifying exam is the
glue that holds the whole system together. Without it, the state
might as well go back to "seat time" whereby, if students spend
12 years in school they automatically get a diploma. The HSGQE
is the final piece and it's all progressive, he insisted.
Schools measure students' abilities in grades 3 through 8.
Districts should be taking that information and helping students
learn to read, write, and compute so at the end of their
educational careers they will be able to pass the high school
qualifying exam.
SENATOR DAVIS acceded that they should be able to pass; but
Alaska has thousands of students who are not passing and never
will. She said the state will continue to test kids in grades 3
through 8; SB 109 does not do away with those assessments. But
she was amazed that he would refer to this exam as the "glue
that holds the system together!" When the legislature
implemented the exit exam, they thought they were doing the
right thing and it did do some good; but it has not done what
they intended it to do. She added that No Child Left Behind was
not in place at that time, and NCLB will continue to provide
some accountability.
9:56:29 AM
MR. JEANS insisted that removing the exit exam weakens the
accountability system.
SENATOR DAVIS asked who else agrees with his position; she has
heard no other testimony to support it.
9:57:19 AM
MR. JEANS said he believes the state board's position reflects
that.
SENATOR DAVIS countered that she has read their position and it
is not that strongly worded.
9:57:39 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER said it appears the committee needs to continue
this discussion with the administration.
9:57:52 AM
SENATOR STEVENS asked Mr. Jeans about a comment made in
testimony that drop-out rates have increased since
implementation of exam. He said he would like to see some
specifics on that. He was also surprised to hear testimony that
the governor wants to remove the exam and asked Mr. Jeans if
that is true.
Another issue the committee just spent time dealing with in a
prior bill is the fact that so few kids are finishing college;
one of the major responsibilities of the task force will be to
find out why. Now they are talking about maybe going to end-of-
course exams instead of exit exams and it seems to him they are
essentially the same thing. He asked if Mr. Jeans could comment
on that sometime in the near future.
9:59:23 AM
MR. JEANS said he will follow-up with the governor regarding the
comment on his position. He referred the committee to Eric
McCormick on the question of drop-out rates. As for remediation,
he is really looking forward to the task force this summer; that
is something they need to talk about and he thinks it feeds
right into the governor's proposed scholarship program. That
program hopes to increase the expectations of students in high
school so they are better prepared and more successful at the
university level. Nevertheless, he does not see the state moving
toward an exit exam that measures college readiness.
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked Mr. Jeans to join them Monday to discuss
this further. [SB 109 was held in committee.]
10:01:24 AM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Co-Chair Meyer adjourned the meeting at 10:01 p.m.
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