Year Off Might Do CAP Test Some Good : Education: Deukmejian budget cut could help in the long run if the exam’s flaws can be corrected, educators decide.

When Gov. George Deukmejian cut funding for the California Assessment Program tests this past summer, many educators decried it as an unfair blow to school districts that were trying to accurately assess students’ progress.

Now, many of those same educators are saying that the budget cut could be a blessing in disguise.

For years, even supporters of CAP tests complained that some of the exams merely tested students’ ability to memorize rather than their ability to logically work out problems. The exams were written in such a way that teachers could “teach to the test,” or simply prime students on problems most likely to appear on the test, critics said.

But with the 12th-grade CAP test that was scheduled to be administered in December already a victim of the budget cut and with funds frozen by Deukmejian unlikely to be released in time to reinstate tests for third-, sixth- and eighth-graders by next spring, educators are hopeful that state Department of Education officials will use the time they would have spent administering the tests to come up with a new and improved exam.

“We’ve been anticipating a different kind of CAP test, one that’s more in line with changes in curriculum,” said Peter A. Hartman, superintendent of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. “Hopefully, this will give the state a chance to improve the CAP test. . . . I would personally prefer a test that gave individual student data as opposed to district data.”

Currently, CAP scores rely on a “matrix sample” system in which students are tested on a small group of questions culled from a larger list of more than 1,000 questions. The results are meant to provide a statistical analysis of how students do on all of the questions.

But the problem, administrators said, is that the tests mask individual reponses, making it impossible to determine a student’s strengths and weaknesses in particular subjects.

“We can’t do an item analysis on which students have scored on a particular item,” said Norman Guith, superintendent of the Orange Unified School District. “It’s not a very helpful planning tool for us. We’ll be able to get along without it.”

Another problem with CAP tests, Guith said, is that “the state (curriculum) framework has changed, but the test hasn’t.”

“We (districts) all changed according to the state framework, and we aligned ourselves with the model curriculum standards, and all of a sudden they come in with the old test and test for something we’re not teaching,” said Guith, a longtime CAP test critic. “It’s not a current test, which makes it invalid.”

William Eller, assistant superintendent for instructional operations at the Capistrano Unified School District, said he and other educators are hoping to see CAP reading, math, social studies and science tests redeveloped to become more like the CAP writing test, which evolved from a multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank test to one in which students are required to write sentences and paragraphs. The improved CAP writing test, Eller said, better tests a student’s ability to think rather than memorize.

“Life experience doesn’t have anything to do with basic (memorization) skills,” Eller said. “Life skills have to do with the ability to integrate knowledge from a lot of different sources. The CAP writing assessment test provides an opportunity to take on a problem and write about it, and, subjectively and objectively, a neutral panel can determine if you went through the right process to come to a logical conclusion.”

While many educators agreed that a year’s hiatus in CAP tests could be beneficial in the long term, they also expressed concern about the short-term effects of a year without them.

James Cox, a consultant to the Orange County Department of Education, said that since CAP scores are ordinarily not reported to school districts until well into the school year after they were administered, a hiatus of one calendar year will mean a gap of two school years in compiling test results. That break would create severe statistical anomalies and hinder efforts to study trends at the district level, he said.

In addition, school districts that use CAP scores to determine whether curriculum changes are necessary could also suffer, Cox said.

“For those who look at CAP as an impetus for curriculum reform, it could really hurt,” Cox said. “There are an awful lot of school districts out there whose innovative actions are made as a result of (CAP) test scores. . . The absence of CAP could prevent them from continuing to move ahead.”

Although some educators are attempting to assess the effect of a year without CAP, state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig contends that their analyses may be moot.

If CAP tests are to be reinstated in time for the usual spring test date for third, sixth and eighth grades, the incoming Legislature would have to pass a bill to release the frozen $11 million and get it to the governor’s desk almost immediately after the start of the new legislative session.

Although most school districts are acting on the assumption that the Legislature won’t act that fast, Honig said he is confident that the new gubernatorial administration will demand immediate action.

“They would have to get something going in January,” Honig said. “I think they’re going to do it. I just can’t envision them not having accountability for those grades.”