Education officials praise new test company

Thursday, Nov. 18, 2004 | 9:05 a.m.

State and local education officials have high hopes for the New Hampshire company chosen to take over a $13.4 million contract to administer standardized tests to Nevada's students.

Measured Progress, a Dover, N.H.-based nonprofit company now in its 21st year, will develop, administer and score reading, math and science tests for Nevada students in grades three through eight and in high school.

The company was chosen based on its pledge to provide timely and accurate scoring results for the tests as well as handle the distribution and collection of materials. Measured Progress also agreed to provide the work for $450,000 less than the prior contract with Harcourt Educational Measurement.

The state Board of Education voted in September to dump Harcourt, citing a series of high-profile -- and expensive -- errors over the past two years. In one instance thousands of high schoolers were told they had failed the state's math proficiency test when they had actually passed. The company also used the wrong answer grid to score tests for third- and fifth-grade students at 220 elementary schools.

A review of test security at Nevada's public schools for the 2003-04 academic year found reports of cheating, improperly administered exams and mishandled materials increased 53 percent statewide and 79 percent in Clark County. The vast majority of the complaints were related to "human error" rather than intentional cheating, Nevada Schools Superintendent Keith Rheault said Wednesday.

Rheault said he expects there to be fewer instances of mishandled test materials once Measured Progress takes over the contract, which runs for two years and eight months. The state Board of Examiners approved the deal earlier this month.

"Fewer people being required to physically handle the materials means fewer opportunities for errors," Rheault said. "With Measured Progress solely responsible for getting the tests to the schools and getting them back, we'll have better oversight."

The deal with the Nevada Department of Education is one of the nonprofit company's larger contracts but not the biggest, said Stuart Kahl, president and chief executive of Measured Progress. The company also has a $118 million, five-year deal with the Massachusetts Department of Education to oversee its version of high school proficiency tests, Kahl said.

Measured Progress has more than 200 employees and has worked with more than 25 states.

When asked how his company's approach to testing services in Nevada will differ from Harcourt, Kahl said Measured Progress will have a more discernible presence at both the state and local level.

"We're known for being accessible," Kahl said. "We plan to work closely with the superintendents and the districts and provide the kind of support they need and have been lacking in the past."

In addition to sending two full-time employees to work at the state education department's Carson City offices, Measured Progress will deliver all test materials to individual schools and collect answer sheets for scoring. In the past, the state's 17 school districts received bulk shipments of materials and were responsible for dividing up the order for individual schools.

At the Clark County School District's main offices on Flamingo Road, a large warehouse is set aside for the oversized pallets of testing materials that must be parceled out to 301 campuses. Sue Daellenbach, testing director for the district, said more than 600,000 individual exams are given each year.

Having Measured Progress take over the burden of delivering and retrieving the tests will be a "huge deal" for the district, freeing up staff for other tasks, Daellenbach said.

"Just unpacking the boxes (of test materials) is practically a full-time job," Daellenbach said.

In the tiny Lincoln County School District -- with just nine schools compared with Clark County's 301 -- all administrators wear several hats, said Superintendent Rick Hardy. Last year, when Hardy was principal of the juvenile correctional facility's high school program, he also served as the district's testing director. In addition to overseeing standards and curriculum, the job required Hardy to deliver testing materials to each school and later collect the answer sheets.

With some of the schools as much as 90 miles apart, Hardy said it wasn't unusual to spend an entire day behind the wheel, ferrying booklets from one site to another.

"We're talking about a lot of driving," said Hardy, who represented the state's rural school districts on an advisory panel that evaluated the contenders for the testing contract. "Some of the duties of overseeing testing will remain but I expect half of the time commitment to be taken away by Measured Progress."

The state's year-round schools -- of which more than 100 are located in Clark County -- will also benefit, Hardy said. Measured Progress agreed to expand the test administration window, giving year-round campuses more instructional days before students would be required to take the tests. In the past students at year-round schools have had as many as 32 fewer instructional days than their peers at nine-month schools but were still required to sit for the exams at the same time.

"That's going to mean more equity for students and give districts more realistic comparisons of results," Hardy said.

Kahl said he was bemused at the level of excitement Nevada education officials expressed at his company's plans to handle test distribution and collection.

"Shipping materials directly to schools is standard operating procedure for us," Kahl said. "You don't want to send 10,000 documents and make the district count them out. It's easier for them this way and easier for us."

While the final contract has not been signed, Measured Progress already has employees in Reno working out the details of the transition, Kahl said.

"We're looking forward to a productive partnership," Kahl said.