Sean C. Morgan
Students and teachers know test results immediately this year with the click of a mouse, and Sweet Home High School officials are hoping it will help improve scores overall for the year.
“We’re doing the on-line testing of multiple choice tests in math, reading and science,” Principal Pat Stineff said.
The first testing started last week, and students who do meet the standard on the tests will be allowed another opportunity to take it again before the end of the year.
The advantage they have this year over the past is that they know immediately whether they passed and what their score was, which means they have the opportunity to work on the testing areas if they fail. It also reduces the paperwork involved.
This week, students begin taking the written portion of the state assessments in writing and math problem solving.
Last year’s scores in math and reading were down from the previous year. In reading, 45 percent of students taking the test met or exceeded the standard in 2001-02, decreasing to 37 percent in 2002-03. Math decreased from 42 percent to 39 percent.
Prior to that, “we’d gotten better,” Stineff said. “It could just be a bubble.”
Stineff is “pretty excited about” the computerized testing.
It means less paper work, and her office is not buried in boxes of tests.
“I think it is (an advantage),” Stineff said. “Most kids are really very computer literate, and maybe happier with a computer in front of them than a paper and pencil.”
They are comfortable around computers, Stineff said. She is hoping that comfort level will improve their testing.
“This can give us instantaneous results as to whether they passed or not,” Stineff said, so students can retest quickly without waiting or do it after a couple of weeks of school work and they can read material to help them the second time around.
“It’s got the potential to help,” science teacher Billy Snow said. One of his was the first class to test this year. “I think it’s novel to the kids. That’s going to help in itself.”
It’s also less stressful than a paper-and-pencil test, Snow said.
“There’s some things I’d like to do different,” Snow said. Right now, students cannot go back once they answer a question.
Sometimes, when testing, a student may realize based on a later question that he answered another wrong and go back to change it. The computerized testing system does not offer that opportunity right now.
“I sat in on the one class that has tested so far,” Stineff said. Some thought the test would be too tough and they wouldn’t be able to pass it. “The ones yelling the loudest passed.”
“The nice thing is you know right away,” Snow said. “You know exactly how you did.”
Some students were not doing well in their classes, but they passed the test, Stineff said. She hopes the instant results will give those students the confidence they need to do well in the classes afterward.
Of the 22 that had taken the test so far, Snow said, 11 had passed.
“I’m excited about finding out if this really does help our test scores and extremely thrilled we didn’t have the boxes that littered my office in the past,” Stineff said.
The high school is relying on other efforts to improve scores this year too.
Five early release days are aimed at teaching teachers to teach reading in their areas, and “we’ve talked about where we’re low, so teachers can put more emphasis in these areas,” Stineff said. The teachers can reinforce specific areas, algebraic equations in math for example.