BREA LA HABRA : Test Too Subjective, Board Members Say

La Habra City School Board members last week criticized the new statewide performance assessment test, CLAS (California Learning Assessment System), calling it too subjective.

Board President Nancy S. Zinberg said the test asks for thoughts and ideas rather than posing direct questions that can be answered with one correct response. The CLAS test is “grossly unfair,” she said. “I really object to participating in it.”

Zinberg added that teachers need years to prepare their students in order to know how to take the time-consuming test. “I think (CLAS) is outrageous,” she said.

Board member Antonio Valle Jr. directed district employees to find out what other districts think about CLAS and “take a stand.”

The CLAS test, board members agreed, is too different from the traditional CAP (California Assessment Program) test, which was last administered in 1990. Both tests are part of statewide testing programs run by the state of California.

The CAP test was electronically scored, while the CLAS test asks students to work out problems either individually or in groups and provide most answers in essays. It is scored by individual graders.

The CLAS test was administered for the first time last year to fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders, and results are expected to be released in mid-March.

It encourages group work, critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making and places a high priority on writing, said Julie Chan, the county Department of Education’s English-language arts coordinator.

“I have no objection to getting children to think and to write,” Zinberg said. “But I think (the CLAS test scoring procedure) is so subjective.”

Chan said the CLAS test is not “purely subjective” because one or two trained teachers will score each test.

And the results, Chan said, will help teachers teach more effectively because their students’ scores will reflect what they know and what they need to work on. Districts are given scores by school and grade, not for each student.

The results can be used to compare the effectiveness of teaching across the state, and between districts and particular schools.

“We know that the speed of light is faster than the speed of sound,” Chan said. “By the same token, we know the standards set for this test are high and, given time, students will be working at that level.”

In the meantime, school districts throughout the county are concerned that the first CLAS test scores will be so low that people will blame public education.

At a meeting earlier this month, trustees of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District said they agreed with the concept but raised questions about the test’s objectivity.

“This is going to be a disaster,” board member Frank Davies said. “It’s really rotten. I’m amazed that the state has done this.”

But board member Todd Spitzer said students will benefit from the new test. “I don’t care whether or not the scores are high,” he said. “The good thing about (CLAS) is that you can’t teach the right answer.”