Testimony of the League of Women Voters of Maryland

Before the

Maryland State Board of Education

Public Hearings on the High School Assessment Program

September 19, 2007

Members of the Board, I am Gail Sunderman, and I am testifying here today on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Maryland. 

In 2005, members of the Maryland League conducted a study of the High School Assessments.  This study found that:

Disparate Impact:  Since tests tend to measure unequal backgrounds and opportunities, and not just individual effort, the consequences of high stakes tests, such as the High School Assessments (HSA), are more likely to affect some groups of students more than others.  Indeed, this is what is happening in Maryland where African American, Latino, and poor children and students with disabilities fail the exams at higher rates than those who are white and more affluent. 

Unintended consequences:  There is considerable evidence that exit exams are associated with higher dropout rates, lower graduation rates, and increased enrollments in GED programs.  For example, data from Massachusetts show dropout rates increased for the 2002-03 school year, the first year that students had to pass the state test to graduate.  Dropout rates were highest among African-American and Latino students, and the proportion of students dropping out with less than a 9^th grade education had increased.  There is no evidence that exit exams help prevent students from dropping out.  The effect of exit exams on student motivation suggests that high-stakes testing can actually undermine motivation, especially for students who are not doing well.    

Costs:  While the direct costs of high school exit exams—administrating the tests, scoring, and reporting the results—are apparent, they represent only a small percentage of the total costs associated with exit exams.  These include the costs of guaranteeing that the conditions are in place so that all students have a fair opportunity to pass them, such as access to high quality educational programs, well-qualified teachers, and quality curriculum and instructional materials throughout their educational career.  The Bridge to Excellence Act has furthered the goal of ensuring adequate funding for all of our students, but schools and districts serving our state’s most disadvantaged students are still not on par with their peers in more affluent districts. 

In recent weeks, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) has announced a number of potential changes to how the High School Assessments are administered and how the results will be used.  It is encouraging that MSDE is showing some flexibility and some of the changes are in a positive direction, but at this point we do not know how these ideas will work or when they will be implemented. Less then 12 months before the beginning of the 2008-09 school year, prospective seniors, their parents, teachers, and school administrators have no idea what will be required for graduation in 2009, what options will be available to them, or whether the requirements will be delayed for some groups of students.

LWVMD believes in high standards for all students and that reasonable steps should be taken to ensure accountability for student learning.  But, we have a number of concerns:  the disparate impact of requiring the HSAs for graduation, the use of the HSAs as a stand-alone requirement for graduation, and the lack of evidence that the HSAs have actually improved the education our students receive.  Therefore, we urge you to consider the following:

We know that, as a stand-alone requirement, the HSAs disproportionately affect African-American and Latino students, low-income students, and students with disabilities across all school systems.  We urge the Board to engage in a genuine dialogue with parents, students, and elected officials about the impact of denying thousands of students a high school diploma and develop a plan to address the needs of these students. 

In calculating projected graduation rates, MSDE has indicated that 10,000 of the 65,000 projected seniors in 2009 will leave the public education system prior to graduation.  It is unfortunate that MSDE has so casually dismissed these students.  The Board needs to develop ways to keep these students in school, prevent them from dropping out, and work with school systems to improve graduation rates and reduce dropout rates.

As long as the HSAs are a graduation requirement, the Board needs to ensure that all students have a fair opportunity to pass them.  This means access to curriculum and instruction aligned with the state standards, high quality teachers, and a high quality educational program that includes advanced placement courses.  It also means that the state should support other measures, such as pre-school education, staff development, and adequate funding for all schools, which begin to address student learning needs before they reach high school. 

The continuing teacher shortage and the ongoing challenge of recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers to teach in low performing schools in economically distressed communities means that many students will be held to the same requirements even though, throughout their educational career, they may have received an inadequate education. The Board needs to take steps so that all students have access to highly qualified teachers.

Finally, we urge the Board to follow the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing developed jointly by the American Education Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). These standards outline a comprehensive and authoritative statement concerning appropriate test use and interpretation.

In conclusion, LWVMD urges the Board to clarify current policies on the HSA requirements as quickly as possible and, in doing so, to strike a balance between demands for accountability and the consequences of imposing a high stakes graduation requirement on all students in 2009.