New Report Card Expected to Help Parents Interpret Standardized Tests

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction unveiled on Friday a newly designed report card for state standardized test scores that is expected to help parents interpret their children’s academic strengths and weaknesses.

“[The previous report card] was too complicated, difficult to interpret and not easy to understand,” said Supt. Jack O’Connell during a telephone press conference from Sacramento. “You really had to be a psychometrician to extract information from this. Now it’s clear and easy to understand.”

The new Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Student Report removes dense facts such as testing formats and scoring procedures. It details only the child’s results on both the California Standards Test and the California Achievement Test/Sixth Edition Survey, or CAT/6. At two pages, it is half the length of the previous one.

Both tests are given annually to students in grades 2 to 11. The Standards Test measures students’ abilities in key subjects such as math, science, social studies and language arts while the CAT/6 is a basic-skills exam that allows parents to compare their children’s scores with a national sample.

The report’s color-coded system highlights a student’s progress in each subject -- red for performance below the basic level; yellow, basic; and green, proficient. It also presents students’ scores in relation to proficient students in the state and nationwide and provides a website for the child’s suggested reading list. For the first time, report card translation guides in six languages, including Spanish and Korean, will be available through school districts.

The previous report card included the total number of questions for each test section and the percent correct for individual segments; such material has been eliminated. The old card confused parents who simply wanted to know if their child was doing well.

“Every year we get our student test score results and sometimes it’s difficult to know what the report means,” said Nikki Cooke, a parent of a sixth grader at Camellia Basic Elementary School in Sacramento who spoke at the press conference. “This tool will enhance my child’s education and bring in parents to participate more.”

The new report was a joint effort among the Department of Education, testing contractor Educational Testing Service and the Grow Network, which specializes in creating graphically appealing information about student achievement. ETS, under a state contract, is receiving about $2 million this year to create and distribute the report cards, including the redesign costs.

Parents of more than 4.8 million students will begin receiving their new report card in the mail in about three weeks, but the exact delivery date depends on the school district, O’Connell said.

“The moment [that report] hits parents’ hands is the single most important moment in the testing system,” said State Board of Education member Suzanne Tacheny. “It’s worth the investment to make sure that it’s useful and meaningful. And if it doesn’t serve that purpose, everything else we’ve done in the testing system is useless.”