Students want to SPEED up proficiency test results

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 | 9:48 a.m.

For Las Vegas High School senior Natasha Stewart, it's the waiting that's been unbearable.

She took the math portion of the Nevada High School Proficiency Exam on Feb. 5. The letter telling her she had missed the passing score by nine points came March 28, a day shy of seven weeks later.

And Tuesday, just eight days after finding out she had failed the prior round, Stewart was seated in a classroom with a No. 2 pencil in hand, taking the exam for a fifth time.

Had she received the results of the February test sooner, Stewart argues, she could have spent more time reviewing the subject areas in which she had the most trouble. Instead she had just six class sessions with her math teacher to review.

"It's ridiculous that it takes two months to get the test back," Stewart said.

Stewart is one of a group of a half-dozen Las Vegas High School seniors who have organized as "Slow Proficiency test results Equals Educational Defeat," or SPEED. The group has petitioned the Legislature and the Nevada Department of Education to improve the turnaround time for the proficiency exam.

More than 30,000 sophomores, 15,000 juniors and 5,000 seniors statewide are taking the proficiency exams this week. In Clark County 18.3 percent of the senior class still needs to pass one or more sections of the exam.

No diplomas

Students who complete school requirements but do not pass the proficiency exam receive Certificates of Attendance rather than full diplomas.

"It would be extremely embarrassing to invite my whole family to graduation and I only get a Certificate of Attendance," said Las Vegas High senior Ashli Leach , who took the math proficiency exam for the fifth time Tuesday. "I want to go to college, apply for scholarships. I can't do that if I don't really graduate."

Sue Daellenbach, testing director for the Clark County School District, said the answer to the frustration expressed by some seniors may not rest with speeding up the grading process.

"If some of our students would take the proficiency test as seriously as a 10th grader as they do as a 12th grader, they probably would have passed it by now," Daellenbach said. "We want students to buckle down earlier and prepare so they can breathe easier the rest of their high school years."

To that end the district has launched a campaign to enroll more students in upper-level math classes, including geometry, which makes up about a third of the proficiency exam questions. District officials say they want 50 percent of students to pass the math exam on their first try as sophomores. Students have six additional opportunities to take the exams: twice as sophomores and four times as seniors.

As for students dismayed by the short time span between spring testing dates, students should err on the side of caution, Daellenbach said.

"My recommendation to seniors is that they should assume they didn't pass and keep studying," Daellenbach said. "It can't hurt them, and it's better to be over-prepared than to miss out on another opportunity."

Robert Bray, a Las Vegas High School math teacher and advisor to SPEED, said Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, has called for an interim study of the efficiency of the proficiency exam scoring process. Bray questioned why the exams must be sent to New Hampshire to be graded.

"Can't anybody in Nevada grade a test?" Bray asked.

Tuesday's test date wasn't just important for seniors hoping to graduate: It's also the day that results are tallied to determine whether high schools have shown "adequate yearly progress" or AYP under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Schools must show at least a 95 percent participation rate overall and by subgroups of students, broken down by ethnicity, proficiency in English as a second language, socio-economic background and special education status. Schools must also meet academic benchmarks both overall and by subgroup. Schools that fail to make AYP face progressive sanctions, including loss of federal funding and possible takeover by the state.

The Nevada Department of Education has a $13.4 million contract with Measured Progress, a New Hampshire-based testing company, to handle the statewide proficiency exam as well as other testing in other grades. Per the contract Measured Progress has 21 days after receipt of the proficiency exams to return results.

Stuart Kahl, president of Measured Progress, said Tuesday he did not believe it would be possible to shorten his company's turnaround time from 21 days. The process is more complicated than just feeding an answer grid into a scanner, Kahl said.

"We get the results back (to the districts) pretty quickly as it is," Kahl said. "When you run a statewide testing program you have to wait for all of the schools to return their materials and do them as one big batch."

Measured Progress staff have to prepare the materials for the scanners, including making sure the appropriate forms have been inserted to separate various grade levels, Kahl said. In addition to grading individual answer sheets, the company prepares analyses that show breakdowns of student performance by districts, schools and student subgroups.

Paul LaMarca, director of assessments, accountability and curriculum for the Nevada Department of Education, said the entire proficiency exam cycle typically takes five weeks: one week to administer the test, one week for schools to verify answer sheets and ship the materials to Measured Progress and three weeks for the company to score and return the results, LaMarca said. The scores from the February round of the exam were delivered by Measured Progress on March 18 but distribution to individual students was delayed because of spring break, LaMarca said.

The state is looking for ways to shorten the amount of time it takes to return the answer sheets to Measured Progress, LaMarca said.

One step is already in place: Measured Progress sends testing materials directly to individual schools who in turn mail the answer sheets back to the testing company. Under the prior contract with Harcourt Educational Measurement, districts received bulk pallets of testing materials which would then have to be divided, delivered and collected for individual schools.

"If we can continue to expedite the distribution and return process I believe the turnaround time will improve," LaMarca said.

While some states and smaller districts have experimented with online testing, which may provide quicker results, there are significant hurdles that would have to be overcome before the Silver State could follow suit, LaMarca said.

Every school in the state would have to have enough computers for students in order to provide equal access, LaMarca said. There would also be significant security concerns that would have to be addressed, LaMarca said.

In a report covering the 2003-04 school year, Nevada education officials reported a 53 percent increase in incidents of cheating, mishandled materials and improperly administered statewide exams over the prior academic year.

Maintaining integrity

If the integrity of the state's proficiency exam isn't maintained the results are meaningless, regardless of how fast students receive them, LaMarca said.

There is some good news for seniors who may not have passed today's exam. Measured Progress plans to bring scanners and staff to Carson City next month to score the May round of the proficiency exam, which is for seniors only and their last chance to pass the test prior to commencement season in June. Results will be ready in 72 hours, Kahl said, because of the small number of students expected to take the exam. The results will be limited to "pass or fail" and will not have a breakdown of student performance by subject area.

Kahl said he empathized with students, who are of a high-tech generation used to speedy service.

"When there's so much you do with technology and get instant results, waiting 21 days is tough," Kahl said.