Legislature(2023 - 2024)BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
02/15/2023 03:30 PM Senate EDUCATION
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Overview: Statewide Assessment and Fy 2022 Assessment Results | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 15, 2023
3:31 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Löki Tobin, Chair
Senator Gary Stevens, Vice Chair
Senator Jesse Bjorkman
Senator Jesse Kiehl
Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
OVERVIEW STATEWIDE ASSESSMENT AND FY 2022 ASSESSMENT RESULTS
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
KELLY MANNING, Deputy Director
Innovation and Education Excellence
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-presented the Statewide Assessment and FY
2022 Assessment Results Overview.
ELIZABETH GRENINGER, Assessment Team Administrator
Innovation and Education Excellence
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-presented the Statewide Assessment and FY
2022 Assessment Results Overview.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:31:34 PM
CHAIR LÖKI TOBIN called the Senate Education Standing Committee
meeting to order at 3:31 p.m. Present at the call to order were
Senators Stevens, Gray-Jackson, Kiehl, Bjorkman, and Chair
Tobin.
^OVERVIEW: STATEWIDE ASSESSMENT and FY 2022 ASSESSMENT RESULTS
OVERVIEW: STATEWIDE ASSESSMENT
and FY 2022 ASSESSMENT RESULTS
3:32:13 PM
CHAIR TOBIN announced the consideration of an overview on
statewide assessment and FY 2022 assessment results.
3:33:22 PM
KELLY MANNING, Deputy Director, Innovation and Education
Excellence, Department of Education and Early Development
(DEED), Juneau, Alaska, said she and her colleagues would
present an overview of the statewide assessment system and
include the assessments required at the state level. They would
also discuss Alaska's new innovative assessment system and
report on the 2022 assessment results.
3:34:14 PM
MS. MANNING turned to slide 2 and spoke to the department's
mission, vision, and purpose as follows:
[Original punctuation provided.]
Mission - An excellent education for every student
every day.
Vision - All students will succeed in their education
and work, shape worthwhile and satisfying lives for
themselves, exemplify the best values of society, and
be effective in improving the character and quality of
the world about them. - Alaska Statute 14.03.015
Purpose - DEED exists to provide information,
resources, and leadership to support an excellent
education for every student every day.
3:35:11 PM
MS. MANNING turned to slide 3, Strategic Priorities: Alaska's
Education Challenge and spoke to the five shared priorities:
[Original punctuation provided.]
1. Support all students to read at grade level by the
end of third grade
2. Increase career, technical, and culturally relevant
education to meet student and workforce needs
3. Close the achievement gap by ensuring equitable
educational rigor and resources
4. Prepare, attract, and retain effective education
professionals
5. Improve the safety and well-being of students
through school partnerships with families,
communities, and tribes
3:36:27 PM
MS. MANNING moved to slide 4, Purpose of Assessment, and
discussed the three tiers of the assessment pyramid:
[Original punctuation provided.]
Summative
System-wide evaluation
Ranking, comparing
Interim
Periodically
"Are they on track?"
Formative
Frequent
"In the moment"
Educator and student feedback.
3:38:50 PM
MS. MANNING turned to slide 5, Statewide Assessments, and spoke
about the Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK STAR) and
Alaska Science Assessment exams the state administers as
required by statute.
3:40:02 PM
SENATOR TOBIN asked about the implementation of AK STAR
following the pandemic.
MS. MANNING answered that the rollout of AK STAR was last
spring, making this the second year of the development process.
Feedback from testing coordinators demonstrated to the
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) that school
districts understand the testing requirements and reasons for
changes. Furthermore, school districts are pleased by the
alignment of the interim and year-end state summative
assessments.
3:42:08 PM
SENATOR KIEHL asked how much time schools set aside for
administering the assessments and whether schools administered
any test more than once a year.
MS. MANNING replied that the school districts administer the AK
STAR and Alaska Science assessments annually in the spring. The
estimated time for the evaluation is 3-4 hours. MAP Growth is
part of the AK STAR system, and it is administered fall and
winter with a lined score in the AK STAR assessment in spring.
She stated she would provide the committee with a time estimate
for MAP Growth.
3:43:23 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN stated AK STAR tests take several school day
mornings to administer. He asked if there were three parts to
the AK STAR test.
MS. MANNING replied that AK STAR assesses math and English
language arts.
SENATOR BJORKMAN asked if schools test reading and writing at
different times.
MS. MANNING replied yes.
3:44:15 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN concluded that schools typically administer the
AK STAR assessment in the morning over several days. Students
who were absent during the evaluation are removed from class
later to complete the exam. Also, because the assessment is not
time restricted, some students continue the examination into the
afternoon and even the next day. He stated that school schedules
are disrupted for up to two weeks when doing the assessment.
3:45:06 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN asked what the training requirements are for
administering the assessment.
3:45:15 PM
MS. MANNING deferred the question.
3:45:36 PM
ELIZABETH GRENINGER, Assessment Team Administrator, Innovation
and Education Excellence, Department of Education and Early
Development (DEED), Juneau, Alaska, clarified that AK STAR is
estimated to take three hours, and this year the test is
adaptive; students go through the test at their own pace in
unbroken sections and school districts structure scheduling to
fit their needs.
MS. GRENINGER said training requirements are in place, and the
state provides the necessary training resources and materials to
districts. District testing coordinators train building
coordinators and administrators. District coordinators can
prepare building testing coordinators and testing administrators
in various ways, such as through e-learning modules. All test
administrators must sign a test security agreement. The amount
of time the training takes is district dependent.
3:49:28 PM
CHAIR TOBIN asked if the state had administered the AK STAR
assessment in the past and if it would implement it differently
in the future.
3:49:41 PM
MS. MANNING responded that when Alaska started developing the AK
STAR system, it was a relatively new concept nationally because
it aligned an interim and summative assessment with an
assessment in spring. To create the system, the department had
to administer the summative and spring interim assessments
separately. Over the summer, the department did alignment
studies to categorically connect data from the two assessment
types. The test vendor and technical advisory committee were
also involved. This year's administration of the test is how the
department will continue administering it.
3:51:38 PM
MS. MANNING advanced to slides 6 - 7 and spoke about the
following statewide assessments administered by the state:
Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM)
ACCESS for ELLs, Alternate ACCESS, and Kindergarten ACCESS
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
Alaska Developmental Profile (ADP)
3:54:59 PM
CHAIR TOBIN asked what the time requirement is for each test.
3:54:54 PM
MS. GRENINGER replied:
Test TIME
DLM 3-4 hours
ACCESS She will get back to the committee.
NAEP Approximately 2 hours
ADP Varies based on teacher observation protocols.
mCLASS/DIBELS 30 minutes
3:55:47 PM
SENATOR STEVENS asked how many students take the NAEP assessment
and what the department does with the results.
3:56:02 PM
MS. GRENINGER replied that the department administers NAEP to a
sample of students. In 2022, the department administered it to
grades 4 - 8 in approximately 200 schools in math and reading.
The sample size for Alaska was between 1,600 - 1,800 students
per content area. The population was the base for determining
sample size.
3:56:34 PM
SENATOR STEVENS asked how the NAEP test assists DEED.
MS. GRENINGER replied that NAEP is the only test in Alaska's
statewide assessment system that provides a comparison to the
nation and other states. DEED then uses the information when
making policy and programming decisions.
3:58:18 PM
SENATOR KIEHL asked how the NAEP sample is selected, modeled,
and analyzed.
3:58:35 PM
MS. GRENINGER replied that the department selects students
through a random stratified sample, first at the school level
and then at the student level. The sampling follows federal
requirements that include factors such as school and community
type and demographics. The sampling of students is random.
3:59:27 PM
SENATOR KIEHL asked how NAEP adjusts the model to account for
absenteeism.
3:59:50 PM
MS. GRENINGER said schools assess the students that are present
and plan make-up days for absent students. DEED relies on
district and school administrators to help them obtain the
needed sample. In 2022 Alaska's participation rate was between
82 - 89 percent.
4:00:55 PM
SENATOR KIEHL asked the department to provide the committee with
the demographics of the 11 - 18 percent of students who do not
participate in the assessment.
MS. MANNING said she would see whether DEED had that
information. DEED does have the demographics of students who did
participate.
4:01:33 PM
MS. MANNING turned to slide 8 and said mCLASS with DIBELS 8th
Edition is an early literacy screener. It is a new statewide
screening assessment required by the Reads ACT. It informs
teachers of reading resource needs and instruction for
individual students. It takes K - 3rd-grade teachers
approximately 30 minutes to administer.
4:02:52 PM
MS. GRENINGER advanced to slide 9 and said AK STAR is an
assessment system designed for and by Alaskan educators over
several years. DEED implemented it in 2022 and continues to work
on merging summative and interim assessments into one system. AK
STAR includes a summative assessment to measure student
achievement concerning grade level expectations and aligns it
with the Alaska Academic Content Standards, specifically in math
and English language arts in grades 3-9. AK STAR also includes
an interim assessment that measures student growth with national
norms. The AK STAR assessment brings the interim and summative
assessments together in the spring.
4:04:23 PM
MS. GRENINGER turned to slide 10 and said the graphic provides
more details about the AK STAR assessment and its connected
approach. She said connecting the two assessments creates a
holistic system that better informs teaching and learning. A
goal in creating the system was to benefit the teaching and
learning process by having real-time information about students
available to teachers, students, and parents. The system is also
growth-oriented. A growth-oriented approach allows students to
celebrate their progress, although they may need to improve
their proficiency. AK STAR achieves its growth-oriented
component through the interim assessment. Like the MAP
assessment, AK STAR has an adaptive component inherent in its
design and offers students a unique experience. A student's
performance as they take the test is the bases for the items
they will see as they work through the assessment. The connected
approach is also more efficient because it reduces testing
events by merging the two pieces into one evaluation. In the
past, MAP Growth and the summative assessment were independent.
Through the AK STAR experience, the department can produce
scores for the summative and growth components in one testing
experience.
4:06:40 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN thanked the department for integrating the
assessments and making them more useful. He opined that the
previous stand-alone assessments were not useful because
integrating them with other student assessments was difficult.
He asked if there was anything different about the AK STAR test
that students need to know before taking it.
4:08:00 PM
MS. GRENINGER replied that the department strived to achieve a
streamlined focus for the two assessments. The department is
working with the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), the
creator of MAP Growth, to design AK STAR. Although the tests use
different platforms, many of MAP Growth's features are included
in AK STAR to familiarize students with the experience. DEED
employed universal design principles to ensure the tools and
resources available to students in AK STAR were familiar. MAP
Growth and AK STAR use a wide variety of item types. The
department has created a series of student readiness tools, such
as practice tests, to share the item types and universal tools
and how they operate. The materials are available to parents,
students, and teachers to prepare students for testing.
4:10:52 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN asked if the department did what it could to
create a resemblance between the two tests.
4:11:09 PM
MS. MANNING replied that it did. She reiterated that the AK STAR
is still in development, and the department will continue to
align the two assessments as much as possible.
SENATOR BJORKMAN exclaimed that is great because training
students to take tests takes time, especially when the
assessments are electronic.
4:11:57 PM
SENATOR STEVENS asked Ms. Manning to be more specific about how
the department reduced testing.
MS. GRENINGER replied that the department analyzed MATH Growth
and AK STAR last year. She stated she would provide the
committee with exact numbers. The fall and winter MAP Growth
assessments took approximately 1 - 1.5 hours per assessment.
Integrating MAP Growth into AK STAR adds some time to AK STAR
but not 1 - 1.5 hours. The estimate of three hours to complete
AK STAR encompasses both assessment systems.
4:13:54 PM
MS. MANNING said districts would have one less testing window,
saving time and creating efficiency.
4:14:44 PM
SENATOR KIEHL asked whether the state requires practice tests
and student training.
4:15:08 PM
MS. GRENINGER said student readiness activities are voluntary.
The state provides districts with training, resources, and
guidance. The information can be found on the department's
website. The state has held a readiness day for AK STAR and the
Alaska Science assessment for the past two years. DEED
encourages districts to evaluate their technology and expose
students to the tutorials and practice tests. Feedback shows
that the use of these resources is helpful to students.
4:16:56 PM
SENATOR KIEHL requested that DEED share the names of the
districts that do not make time for training and practice. He
stated he would also like to know the districts that do not hold
the two optional MAPS assessments.
CHAIR TOBIN asked DEED to submit the information to her office
for distribution.
SENATOR STEVENS asked if districts only test students attending
brick-and-mortar schools.
MS. MANNING replied that assessments are made available to all
students. However, parents can opt their children out of
testing. Opting out occurs more with students in correspondence
schools. Parents of correspondence students opt out of MAP
Growth assessments less because it helps them with decision-
making, and students can take it remotely. She stated that the
presentation has data that breaks down assessment participation.
4:18:53 PM
MS. GRENINGER moved to slide 11 and said the federal and state
target for student assessment participation is 95 percent, which
Alaska schools fall short of as follows:
Student Participation in Spring 2022 Assessments
AK STAR AK STAR ALASKA
ELA MATH SCIENCE
All Alaska Schools 79.7 percent 79.5 percent 75.2 percent
Non-correspondence
schools 92.8 percent 92.5 percent 88.5 percent
Correspondence
schools 14.9 percent 14.9 percent 12.5 percent
MS. GRENINGER stated that the department must report assessment
participation to the federal government. It is essential to note
that not all students are represented in the tested population,
which makes it important to understand the limitations of the
results. DEED continues to work with districts to increase
participation.
4:21:21 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN stated that when the federal government passed
the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), there was much discussion
in Alaska about participation, ratings, and impacts. He asked
how participation in the AK STAR assessment impacts school
districts' ratings according to Alaska's ESSA model and what are
the federal impacts.
4:21:59 PM
MS. GRENINGER said she did not work directly with the
accountability system and deferred the question.
4:22:13 PM
MS. MANNING stated she is also not involved with the
accountability system but would provide the committee with
information regarding the participation rate and how it factors
into accountability.
4:22:31 PM
MS. GRENINGER stated that the right side of slide 11 provides a
snapshot of Alaska's NAEP results from spring 2022. It shows
that Alaska's performance trails in both grade levels and
subjects compared to the national public performance. Students
in grades 4 and 8 are roughly 25 percent proficient in reading,
fewer than half were proficient on the math assessment. She said
DEED used the landscape of performance of the various
assessments to make decisions about students, districts, and
programming.
4:24:09 PM
CHAIR TOBIN noted that more information about NAEP and other
assessments is available on DEED's website.
4:24:24 PM
MS. GRENINGER stated that the assessment brief on slide 11 is
found on DEED's website and was widely distributed last fall.
4:24:43 PM
MS. GRENINGER turned to slide 12 and said knowing the
achievement title definitions will assist in understanding
upcoming assessment information. She provided the state's
definitions for the four achievement levels as follows:
[Original punctuation provided.]
Proficient
Advanced (A) Student meets the standards and demonstrates
mastery of the knowledge and skills on a
range of complex grade level content.
Proficient (P) Student meets the standards and demonstrates
mastery of the knowledge and skills of most
grade level content.
Non-Proficient
Approaching Proficient (AP) Student partially meets the
standards and may have gaps
in knowledge and skills but
is approaching mastery of some
grade level content.
Needs Support (NS) Student may partially meet the
standards but need support to
master the knowledge and skills of
current grade level content.
She stated that the department changed the non-proficient title
definitions to be student-centered and assets-focused. The new
definitions acknowledged students' progress on a continuum of
learning and were presented to stakeholders and approved by the
Alaska State Board of Education in the spring of 2022.
4:26:33 PM
MS. GRENINGER moved to slide 13, AK STAR English language arts
Achievement Level Percentages, and said the pie graph represents
all of Alaska's students in grades K - 9 by their achievement
levels. The chart shows that 70 percent of Alaska's students
have not reached English language arts (ELA) proficiency. She
described ways the data could provide a better understanding of
student performance.
4:28:08 PM
MS. GRENINGER turned to slide 14 and said the graph breaks down
students' performance on the ELA assessment across grades K - 9.
Students in grades 5 - 6 tended to have the highest achievement
levels relative to other grades. Students in grade 7
demonstrated the greatest need for support at 55 percent. Each
grade had at least 60 percent of students scoring in the non-
proficient achievement category. Seventy-nine and a half percent
of students in the third grade need to meet grade-level
expectations.
4:28:58 PM
SENATOR KIEHL said he finds slides 14 and 15 fascinating because
they show massive shifts in the proportion of proficient
students from grade to grade, and there are no general trend
lines. He asked how the department explains the fluctuations,
such as the doubling of the proportion of proficient students in
grade 4 or a 35 percent drop in the number of students who need
support in grade 5.
4:30:07 PM
MS. MANNING replied that typically the state would look for
trends, but no statewide data was available during COVID, making
it challenging to ascertain trend indicators. Data from the
pandemic is challenging because there are no trends to look back
at, and instruction was highly varied. She said that to address
the issue, the department would take data from the second
administration of the Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK
STAR) and do validation studies of cut scores. The department
will compare its findings to last year's analysis. In this way,
the state will have two years of data to examine for trends this
summer. The department can respond to trend data as further
assessments and analysis occur.
4:31:41 PM
SENATOR KIEHL asked the department if a couple of
administrations validated the assessment.
4:31:57 PM
MS. MANNING said DEED did an entire administration of the new
assessment last spring. When new assessments are developed, a
sampling of students might be tested. However, for the AK STAR,
there needed to be more historical data to compare a sample
against, and the department needed an assessment of all students
for the alignment to MAP Growth. The items the department uses
for AK STAR come from a pool other states use. DEED did various
alignments of standards, which it continues to validate.
4:33:18 PM
MS. GRENINGER said the additional process last summer was a
standards setting, a precursor to the validation work that will
happen in the spring. Standards setting occurs any time there is
a new assessment. The department did it for both AK STAR and the
Alaska Science Assessment. It is a rigorous process that defines
the scores students receive by following psychometric properties
and the engagement of stakeholders, which she described in
further detail. Once the cut scores were set, the department
reviewed the information and presented it to its technical
advisory committee for advice on meeting state and federal
expectations.
4:35:47 PM
MS. GRENGINGER said the state board of education approved the
cut scores. However, because of the innovative nature of
Alaska's assessment system, DEED would do an extra validation
study this year. The validation study will allow the department
to reflect on the second year of results through a process
similar to cut scores and make adjustments if necessary.
4:36:56 PM
CHAIR TOBIN said she would like the department's presentation to
be more granular next year by providing details that affect
scores, such as class size. She stated that the additional
information would help the legislature better determine how they
can help students.
4:37:39 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN asked when the math, science, and English
language arts standards last changed.
4:37:56 PM
MS. MANNING replied that the English language arts and math
standards had not been updated since 2012.
4:38:12 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN asked when the science standards were last
updated.
MS. MANNING stated her belief that science standards were
updated in 2018.
4:38:26 PM
CHAIR TOBIN asked the department to provide the data to the
committee.
4:38:45 PM
MS. GRENINGER turned to slide 15 and said the pie chart
represents AK STAR mathematics achievement level percentages for
3rd - 9th-grade students. The chart shows that 77 percent of
Alaska's students are non-proficient.
4:39:22 PM
MS. GRENINGER moved to slide 16 and said the bar graph shows a
pie chart breakdown by grade level. All grades had upwards of 65
percent of students in the non-proficient category. Students in
5th grade achieved 34 percent proficiency, the highest level of
all grades. Students in grade 8 demonstrated the greatest need
for support at 75 percent. Eighty-seven percent of students in
8th grade did not meet grade-level expectations.
4:40:07 PM
MS. GRENINGER moved to slide 17, Alaska Science Assessment
Achievement Level Percentages, and stated that districts
administered the test in the 5th, 8th, and 10th grades. Sixty-
two percent of students were determined to be non-proficient.
4:40:39 PM
MS. GRENINGER turned to slide 18 and said the pie chart
breakdown shows 5th grade with the highest level of proficiency
at forty-two percent. Students in 8th grade demonstrated the
greatest need for support at 44.7 percent. Across all three
grade levels, approximately 55 percent of students are in the
non-proficient category. Sixty-five percent of students in 8th
grade are non-proficient.
4:41:22 PM
CHAIR TOBIN stated that she is curious about the synergy between
music and math, and art and science. She asked if there is a way
to correlate the attrition of these programs to the contribution
of lower achievement scores.
4:42:19 PM
MS. MANNING advanced to slide 19 and spoke about how Alaska is
responding to the 2022 assessment results and using them to
support Alaska's Education Challenge:
[Original punctuation provided.]
• Interpretive resources
• Standards alignment
• Data-driven decisions
• Accelerated learning
4:44:57 PM
MS. MANNING turned to slide 20 and presented the department
contact information.
4:46:04 PM
SENATOR BJORKMAN thanked the department for aligning assessments
and making the summative test more beneficial for students,
teachers, and parents. He commented that the state has come a
long way with its student testing.
CHAIR TOBIN thanked the presenters.
4:48:03 PM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Chair Tobin adjourned the Senate Education Standing Committee
meeting at 4:48 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| DEED Assessment Overview 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
|
| DEED Senate Education Committee Follow-up Responses 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
|
| DEED 10 Year Position Count History 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
|
| DEED Vacancies with Explanation 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
|
| DEED Pencil Chart BSA FY99-FY24 Zero Y-axis with CPI 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
|
| DEED Pencil Chart BSA FY99-FY24 No Adjustments 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
|
| AASB Charts FY11 Instructional vs Non instructional expenses.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
SB 52 |
| AASB FY11 Instructional & non-instructional Expenditures 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
SB 52 |
| AASB Charts FY21 Instructional vs Non instructional expenses 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
SB 52 |
| AASB FY21 Instructional & non-instructional Expenditures 02.14.2023.pdf |
SEDC 2/15/2023 3:30:00 PM |
SB 52 |