CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the state superintendent’s Commission on Assessment want to do away with the state’s current Smarter Balanced exam and explore other standardized tests.
The commission, formed by state School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano, met Tuesday to hear presentations from representatives with SAT and ACT, so the group can develop a list of attributes for each testing format.
Blaine Hess, Jackson County school superintendent, is one of many members on the commission that is made up of education experts, lawmakers and higher education representatives. He said areas they’re looking at include what grade level the test services, how long it takes to get the results back and how high students rate each exam.
“I think everybody has a lot of confidence in either test that they’re very good measures of how students perform in schools,” Hess said of what the general consensus was following the meeting in Charleston.
At times, he said ACT testing seemed to be the front-runner of the commission’s discussion, but no formal recommendation was made to Martirano.
“Now we have to get that on nuts and bolts of each of those tests to see which one best meets the overall need of the state or whether there is something else out there that we need to do some investigation on,” Hess said.
The commission began meeting last month to determine what they want students to learn, how they want to assess them and how to determine whether schools are successful.
“It’s a time where all those three areas of standards assessments and accountability have to be brought together in a master plan,” he said.
Another topic of concern is the time frame of when students should be tested during the school year. Currently, students are tested toward the end of the year. Hess said that issue is still being discussed, but no action took place Tuesday.
Any recommendation the commission suggests will have to be brought before Martirano who would then present it to the state Board of Education.
“We want to find an assessment that our students see value in, that our public understands the validity and has confidence in the testing assessments that we have in place,” said Hess.