Many parents who opened up the envelope mailed to their homes this past week by the Montclair School District with the results of their children’s standardized tests scores were in for a shock.
"Some students who had advanced proficiency were now only proficient, while others that had been proficient were now partially proficient," said Assistant Schools Superintendent Terry Trigg-Scales, who directs the curriculum for Montclair’s public schools. "I’m sure it came as a surprise to many parents and students."
Rather than indicate a drop in the achievement level of Montclair’s public school students, the new test results for the NJ Assessment of Skills and Knowledge reflect a New Jersey Department of Education effort in which proficiency levels have been increased statewide.
"There is no question that we have raised the bar," said DOE spokesman Rich Vespucci.
Vespucci explained that in that past, students who correctly answered 40 percent of test questions were considered proficient. Under the new standard proposed by State Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy and approved by the state Board of Education only in July, students will now have to answer at least 50 percent correctly to be proficient.
"We aren’t opposed to higher standards," said Schools Superintendent Frank Alvarez, "We just wish that there had been more discussion so that we could prepare for the changes."
Alvarez said the change came sooner than expected and has caused some confusion. "We have situations in which students test results improved over last year but their proficiency level dropped," Alvarez said.
According to Vespucci the new test standard is part of a DOE initiative that is aimed at the students in the fifth through eighth grades. It is designed to prepare them for major changes that are expected to occur in New Jersey’s public high schools.
"The high school of the future will provide students with a much different learning experience than their grandparents or even their parents had," Vespucci said.
"Our current high school model was created in the early 1900s and it was used with great success through most of the 20th century. But right now, we are 10 years into the 21st century, and the skills that employers are looking for are not the same skills our current high school students have."
State education officials and their colleagues from more than a dozen other states are in the process of rethinking and reforming the way high schools teach.
Educators said they are shifting away from the traditional instruction that relied more on the memorization of knowledge. Instead, they want students to be able to know where to look for the knowledge they need and understand how to apply it.
"Employers have told us that they need workers with problem-solving skills," Vespucci said.
The change is expected to be in place within five years. Increasing the test levels for students currently in the fifth through eight grades will help ease their eventual transition to the new-styled high school instruction when they enter secondary schools.
State officials say that the first year in which test standards are raised usually result in lower scores. However, they point out that, from their experience, achievement levels increase steadily as teachers and students better understand what will be expected from them.
Trigg-Scales said the district is already putting together an action plan that will focus on efforts to raise the proficiency levels of all Montclair students.
The proficient testing is mandated under the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act. The legislation has set a goal of having all students nationwide meet proficiency levels by 2014.
The Montclair fifth- through eighth-grade students were tested last spring in three areas: Mathematics, language arts and science.
The test included 300 questions. To achieve advanced proficiency, students must respond correctly to 250 or more questions. Students who answer 200 or more correctly are listed as proficient. Students who answer fewer than 200 correctly are designated as partially proficient.
Although students were expected to have a higher number of correct responses, the degree of difficult of the questions was not increased. Students who do not achieve the proficiency level for their grade are not held back. However, officials do use the test results as an indicator that a student may need additional help.
