Putting New Statewide Exam to the Test : Education: The Pupil Assessment System will evaluate schools’ and individual students’ performances.

Classroom tests, pop quizzes and report cards are all among gauges of school aptitude that students have come to dread. Soon they’ll have another bane to add to that list--a new statewide testing system geared more toward assessing progress of individuals rather than institutions.

State education officials say the proposed program, tentatively called the Pupil Assessment System (PAS), will revolutionize standardized testing. PAS will not only tell how well schools are doing, but it will also provide report card-like evaluation on how well individual students are learning.

Unlike the now-defunct, multiple-choice California Assessment Program (CAP) tests, which provided scores only for schools as a whole, PAS is designed to detail individual students’ strengths and weaknesses, giving teachers and parents an improved tool to assess academic aptitude. Already, Orange County school officials are clamoring to participate in the five-year pilot program that will test the effectiveness of the exams.

“Testing is no longer going to be students filling out a blip here and a blip there,” said county schools Supt. John F. Dean. “The tests are going to better advise teachers, parents and even students on how well they are doing.”

On Nov. 23, Maureen DiMarco, state secretary for child development and education, introduced the new test, the first statewide exams since former Gov. George Deukmejian refused to continue funding to administer CAP tests. It arrives at a time when the state is undergoing a huge educational overhaul that has included massive textbook changes and new guidelines on curricula.

PAS will have its first test run in several yet-to-be-selected schools this spring. Students in the fourth, fifth, eighth and 10th grades will be tested in reading, writing, mathematics, history and science.

Eager to assess student progress in the large and complex Santa Ana Unified School District, officials there have asked the state officials to allow its students to participate in the pilot program, Assistant Supt. Joseph D. Tafoya said.

“In the . . . CAP tests, we really couldn’t tell how we were doing,” Tafoya said. “There was just some general data where you could tell there were some relative weaknesses. But it was always a little bit nebulous. We couldn’t tell if 50% of our kids did not do well or whether a handful of students dragged us down.”

The problem, educators said, was that CAP exams were multiple choice, which has been the accepted form of testing for the last 50 years, said Dale Carlson, director of assessment for the state Department of Education.

“Many of us grew up on grading based on the curve. That was part of life,” Carlson said. “Scores were based on how hard the test was instead of how well students can do. It was hard to get accountability from those test scores.”

As a result, the much-maligned CAP exam was dismissed as ineffective by many educators who contended that teachers could “teach to the test”--that is, train students to answer specific questions rather than encouraging them to think out a problem.

PAS, however, is based on performance level in individual subjects and can determine whether a student understands the information. While the test will include some multiple-choice questions, the bulk of the exam will focus on critical thinking rather than memorization, Carlson said.

The result educators hope for is that schools can zero in on areas that show deficiencies among a large number of students and that individual students will be encouraged to work harder because the test will provide personal scores.

“My kids come home and tell me that some students (marked) the wrong answers on the (CAP) tests because they know their names won’t be on the scores,” said Sheila Benecke, president of the Orange County Parent-Teacher Assn. “Perhaps an individual score with a child’s name on it will help motivate them to do their best.”

She added that the PAS scores can also help teachers and parents determine weaknesses and strengths among students.

“A test isn’t good if it doesn’t evaluate the entire educational program,” Benecke said. “Teachers can get the test results and evaluate where their students are at. Then they can design the curriculum to help their students.”

While most are enthusiastic, school officials also caution that there are some drawbacks to PAS.

For one thing, the test will be expensive--it will cost the state $32.5 million a year, compared to $9.6 million for CAP.

Teachers will also have to be trained to score the tests. Currently, state officials are trying to perfect a standard guide for PAS evaluators that would ensure that students across the state would be scored the same way.

“The scores would be true whether you’re a student in Eureka or El Centro,” said Jim Miller, a test consultant for the state Department of Education.

For example, in writing, fourth-grade students must demonstrate that they can write a beginning, middle and end to an essay. But some school officials are anxious on how to best tally tests that could be prone to subjective interpretation.

“The idea to see what students are taught is valid,” said Nancy Fyson, a data analyst for the Garden Grove Unified School District. “But there should be some caution on everyone’s part. We’re wondering how these tests will be scored.”

PAC may also prove to be cumbersome to score if the tests are too wide-ranging, said Mike Condiff, principal of Brea Junior High School.

“With the old CAP system, you used to be able to throw all the answer sheets in a machine, and it would crank out all the results,” Condiff said. “The new tests would require that students write in many of the subject areas, and that would take a long time to score. There’s going to be a logistic problem. How you score a zillion kids each year?”

State officials say the tests will be scored regionally by teachers.

Dean, the county schools superintendent, also questioned whether the tests would conflict with teachers who are already overburdened with crowded classrooms.

“My only concern is that it adds another dimension to the already busy calendar of a teacher,” Dean said. “It is fortunate that this will be enacted in a five-year timetable. Teachers have to be prepared for the new responsibilities.”

Even if properly prepared, Fyson said, concerns remain about whether the test has the potential to judge students or schools unfairly, particularly if the districts have diverse populations. Critics of standardized examinations say CAP was unfair because affluent school districts tended to score higher.

“We don’t want kids or schools to be judged unfairly,” Fyson said. “That needs to be kept in mind. Any time you try to compare districts or schools with a varying population in demographics or language, it’s going to be difficult to do that in a fair manner.”

Math Assessment for Elementary-Level Students

The following are open-ended sample questions from the new Pupil Assessment System tests. Students can respond with several solutions to the problem. Questions are designed to show how well students can think, solve and communicate.

1. A visitor from outer space has just arrived. It is confused about our number system. It asks you, “Is 5 + 29 equal to 529?” Answer the visitor’s question and explain your answer.

2. The cycle for the traffic light on Main Street is green for 55 seconds, yellow for five seconds and red for 30 seconds. What is the probability of having to stop at the traffic light? Explain your reasoning and include consideration of how drivers react to yellow lights.

3. Your cousin is just beginning to learn more about numbers. She doesn’t understand what “4 x 3 equals 12” means. How would you explain this to her? You may use pictures or graphs.

Source: state Department of Education.