New test looming for local students

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Fed up with the inefficiency of California’s Stanford

9 test, district officials will introduce an additional standardized test

in Newport-Mesa this year that, they say, will better track the progress

of students.

The test, which will be piloted at five schools by 2,000 students, is

an hour long and will be taken twice a year.

It allows parents to receive results in a mere two weeks, said Peggy

Anatol, director of assessment and secondary curriculum for the district.

“It’s a standardized test developed with our teachers and a company in

Oregon [North West Evaluation Assn.],” Anatol said. “It tests reading,

math and language and is given twice a year to help measure growth.”

All students at Rea, Victoria and Wilson elementary schools will take

the Comprehensive Objectives for Reaching Excellence, or CORE test this

year, as will select classes at Mariners Elementary School and TeWinkle

Middle School.

Next year, all students in second through eighth grades in

Newport-Mesa will be taking the test.

While making students take two more standardized tests a year may seem

cumbersome, school officials don’t expect it to be viewed as such once

parents understand what it will mean in the long run.

“I don’t think it will be viewed as a burden by anyone -- not when

they realize it will make instruction more valuable,” said Ken Killian,

principal at Rea. “It’s a pretty good investment.”

While parents are still mostly in the dark about the new test, some

said the idea does have its merits.

“There’s so much pressure on that one test, [the Stanford 9], that

taking this may help prepare them so that they will do better on that,”

said Jill Money, past president of the Harbor Council PTA. “Also when you

take [the Stanford 9], you take it in April you don’t get your results

until the end of June. So, if there was something where you could get

more immediate results that would good.”

Unlike the Stanford 9, which is given once a year in the spring, the

CORE test will be given in the fall and then again in the spring. This

will allow teachers, parents and administrators to gauge what a child has

learned during the school year.

“By a student taking the test in the beginning of the sixth grade and

then in the spring be tested again, we will have a much better picture of

what they learned while in the sixth grade,” Killian said.

This information can be used to help each individual student and to

improve upon instruction, Killian said.

In each grade level there will also be different levels of tests so

each student’s progress can be more closely monitored, Anatol said.

Another huge advantage to this new test, she added, is the two-week

return on test scores, compared to the four-month turnaround on Stanford

9 scores, which are released in the summer.

Down the road, teachers will also be given a child’s score from the

previous year with their roster.

All these aspects of the new test will allow teachers to tailor the

curriculum to the needs of the students.

“I am absolutely thrilled,” said school board member Martha Fluor.

“It’s a recognized testing program that allows almost immediate feedback

to teachers at the time of the test so they can more clearly identify the

strengths and weaknesses of a child in class, so they can gear their

curriculum and determine skill levels.”