Understanding the ABCs of Standardized Tests is Goal in S.D. Schools

In the past month, almost 50,000 students in the San Diego Unified School District sat down to what they have come to know as CTBS, the dreaded standardized achievement test known officially as the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills.

At the same time, tens of thousands of other district pupils tackled CAP, the California Achievement Test, which third-, sixth- and eighth-graders statewide take each spring as part of a massive evaluation of the state’s educational pulse.

Hardly a day goes by in the world of public schools without standardized tests being used to measure skills of a particular student, the academic performance of a school or district, or even the state’s overall achievement.

A school counselor will look closely at the CTBS reading score of a student categorized as limited English speaking before taking any steps to reclassify the pupil as bilingual, even though classroom marks may show outstanding performance. Placement in classes ranging from mathematics to a foreign language also depends in large part on CTBS scores.

Measuring Skills Training

The court order mandating integration and better instruction in city schools used CTBS scores to measure whether minority students were receiving better skills training.

In his ongoing battle with Gov. George Deukmejian over school funding, state schools Supt. Bill Honig has pointed to statewide increases in CAP scores as proof that additional monies have paid off in improved instruction. And the scores have been used to select individual schools for special state achievement awards.

By studying the results of both tests, a principal can look at the English and mathematics skills being taught and pick out areas where more instructional time or a different emphasis is needed.

But despite the widespread use of standardized tests, school officials believe that few parents or students understand exactly how they are given, what they measure and how they should and should not be used. And in part because of a new state law, officials in San Diego and elsewhere are gearing up to provide greater explanations of the tests to parents and others responsible for overseeing their children’s education.

The state law requires that all school districts giving standardized achievement tests that report out individual pupil scores tell parents in writing what the scores mean and to give parents the chance to talk further with school officials about their meaning.

‘Critical Information’

“These types of tests are a critical piece of information, but (understanding them) is very complicated,” said Stan di Orio, legislative assistant to Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the measure last year.

“We’ve had these horror stories about kids coming home with Bs or Cs and they can’t read so you have to wonder at what level they are performing at. These standardized tests are a way to (corroborate) what a report card is telling us.

“And since parental involvement is critical in a child’s education, then the parents have the right to know about the tests that are being used to assess their kids. The information should highlight the basic facts of the tests and give parents the chance to follow up.”

The test evaluation director for the San Diego City Schools has drawn up a one-page document that will be presented to about 50,000 parents beginning in July, with results of the CTBS taken last month by 95% of the district’s kindergarten-through-sixth-grade students.

Grant Behnke said that parents will receive the results in parent-teacher conferences rather than through the mail. “We heard loud and clear from teachers . . . that we should not just mail these out but give them in person so the parent has someone to ask questions to.”

Battery of Subtests

The CTBS is a battery of subtests that measures seven skills areas: reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, language expression, language mechanics, spelling, mathematics computation and mathematic concepts and applications. Written by McGraw Hill Publishing Co., the CTBS identifies strengths and weaknesses by academic objectives that are thought to be standard across the nation. Individual scores of students are combined to measure school and district performance in the academic areas.

Test results are reported with numbers referenced to what is called a national norm group, a sample of students selected nationwide that is said to be representative of the total population. A student at the 29th percentile on the reading test, for example, scored higher than 29 out of 100 pupils in the norm group given the test.

The district also issues displays for each subtest and at each grade level showing how many of its students scored above the 50th percentile, the national average, and whether the scores are higher or lower than those of the previous year.

In addition, the district puts together graphs and charts showing how schools did by specific skills measured within the various tests, such as punctuation, word meaning, comprehension of science passages, and geometry.

“It is helpful in assessing what we are doing in class,” said Mike Lorch, principal at Correia Junior High School. “For example, if we are down in vocabulary, then maybe we can emphasize that a little more.

‘Curriculum Guideposts’

“I think they are good as curriculum guideposts, as additional evidence to tell us how we are doing.”

But Lorch and others stress that the tests should be used carefully in evaluating an individual student. Robert Raines of the district’s evaluation office said that parents too often see the tests as the make-or-break measurement of their child’s future.

“It’s not,” Raines said. “It’s just a picture of a kid’s performance on one particular day, that could have been affected by the lack of sleep the night before, or a general dislike of taking tests, or a whole lot of other things.

“One of the reasons we no longer report scores as indicating a grade-level performance is that parents wanted to skip the kids a grade if their kids scored real high.

“The more people know about these tests, that they are only a sampling of performance on a particular day, the more cautious they should be (regarding evaluations of individual students).”

Behnke said that the test scores should be used in a positive sense. “We want the data to be used with multiple factors, such as teacher recommendations, classroom performance, especially when a decision of placement is involved,” Behnke said. He said that parents should understand that CTBS is used to identify areas in which a student must work harder, and not to conclude that children cannot succeed.

“If the score results in helping a kid get into a class, then use it that way,” Raines said. “If it is being used to keep a kid out, then you should look at other indicators as well.”

Used in Isolation

Nevertheless, many teachers throughout the district believe that the existence of a CTBS number too often is used in isolation by a counselor or teacher. For that reason, they support having parents understand more about the tests.

“I think it is very important to have parents understand what it means and doesn’t mean,” Lorch of Correia said.

“Yes, the CTBS can give you rough estimates about a student’s ability,” mathematics teacher Byron King of Bell Junior High School said. “But I don’t think it should ever be used as the sole criterion for a placement.” King and other teachers at Bell have found that many students with below-average CTBS math scores still do well in challenging math classes if given tutoring and motivational help.

Raines said that counselors must avoid simply running their finger down a list of CTBS scores and deciding a student’s placement in a course simply based on the test score.

“There are reasons why certain ethnic groups do not do as well on these tests,” he said, citing evidence of socioeconomic factors. “If a kid has his own room with a desk at home, and maybe a library, then that kid probably is going to do better” than the pupil who must use the dining room table as a study area and who shares a room with two or three brothers or sisters.

Stopped Using Formula

The district several years ago stopped using a formula that was meant to correlate a particular subtest to a particular letter grade that could then be expected in a particular subject. “It was too convenient for counselors to use (without factoring in other considerations),” Raines said.

In contrast to the CTBS, the state of California’s CAP program measures basic skills of groups rather than individuals to determine whether the math, English and social studies goals set by the state Department of Education are being met.

Each student during a CAP testing period takes only a small portion of the total CAP test, and may have more questions in one skill area than another. But across an entire school or district, enough students will take different portions of the test to allow for an accurate assessment of the school or area.

“The advantage is that CAP can be given within a single day whereas CTBS requires several days to accomplish,” Behnke said. “It gives broader coverage in minimal time and is a good double check on CTBS.”

At the school or district level, the CAP scores usually complement the CTBS results, Behnke said. “It’s unusual when they don’t,” he said, noting for example that district improvements in CTBS scores over the past several years have paralleled improvements in CAP achievement.

CAP scores are reported out as total numbers as well as by what are called school expectancy bands based on an area’s socioeconomic level.

For example, La Jolla High School may score much higher as a total number than Lincoln High School, which serves students from a poorer economic area. However, both schools are ranked as well on how they did compared with other schools in their same economic band. Both total scores and band ranking have been used by Honig in determining a school’s success in carrying out state-mandated curriculum reforms in basic subjects.

“CAP is intended to drive curriculum reform,” King of Bell Junior High said. “It’s a state-created test by people who have drawn up the California curriculum framework. CTBS is more a test of individuals.”