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By Bill Roberts The Idaho Department of Education is joining 30 other states seeking a $160 million federal grant to update student assessments. A key goal of the group is to develop student assessments that would show students' critical thinking skills and measure their ability to perform, not just gauge their inventory of knowledge. The plan could affect the Idaho Student Achievement Test, a year-end assessment which is given in grade three through eight and 10, on which schools are judged in their ability to improve student achievement. It could also lead to development of assessments teachers would use through the year to measure student performance. Don Coberly, incoming Boise School District superintendent, said adding those elements to student assessments makes sense. The district already does end-of-course tests that are multiple choice. But in some courses, they do other kinds of measures, such as a spoken component for Spanish and a written component in social studies. This school year the state dropped the Direct Writing Assessment and the Direct Math Assessment, two exams which measure how well students write and do math problems, in part because it took months for the schools to get results back. State department officials would hope exams could be developed that would cut the turnaround time and give teachers more immediate feedback on how well their students are performing. The 31-state Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium could hear on the fate of its grant by September. "This is a great step forward for Idaho," said Tom Luna, state superintendent of public instruction. "By working with 30 other states, we will create improved assessment tools that Idaho educators can use in the classroom throughout the school year to guide instruction and inform decision-making at every level." |
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