Although the Secaucus school district had prepared substantially to meet proposed new testing requirements for the state, the district will not be negatively affected if the state pulls the plug on future changes, said School Superintendent Constantino Scerbo last week.
Scaling back state-required educational testing could be a good thing if done right, Scerbo said.
Governor-elect Jim McGreevey, in shaping plans for his upcoming administration after his Nov. 6 victory, said he would like to cut back plans to expand standardized testing for students.
Under the previous administration, plans were in place that would require students in schools throughout the state to be tested in more areas. Currently, schools test students in writing, reading and mathematics at three grade levels.
McGreevey, who ran his election under a "back to basics" banner, said he would not implement the increased subjects, instead asking the state to continue testing writing, reading and mathematics.
While the state has not yet indicated what it will do in the next administration, Scerbo said an opportunity exists to revamp the testing system in an important way, relieving the school districts of a layer of testing while also increasing the district’s understanding of how individual students are doing compared to other students in the state as well as the nation.
Secaucus had to make changes in the past
Scerbo said that like most school districts around the state, Secaucus had hired additional staff to prepare for the expected testing
"Take World Language," he said. "We had to hire someone on an elementary level to teach a language."
Scerbo said districts were required to select a language as the primary world language for student study.
"We selected Spanish and had to hire an elementary teacher to prepare our students," he said.
The school district also altered its own testing to adjust to the expected changes in the state, and that came at a cost as well. Last year, Secaucus school officials spent $20,000 – about twice what it has spent per year in the past – to institute the Terra Nova test, a test administered by McGraw-Hill.
Scerbo said the district has been seeking a test that more closely resembled newly instituted tests given by the state so that school officials can better evaluate its students, better prepare them for the state tests, and align student evaluation with the state’s core curriculum standards
Scerbo said the board moved to make the change based on two problems the district has had with the old test, noting that the district needed a test that is sensitive to what is going on with the state tests.
While the state has been aggressively seeking to increase testing to gauge where students stand in relationship to other students in the states, federal legislation passed in the mid-1990s has required districts to run achievement tests. The state’s effort to have districts meet newly implemented core curriculum standards pushed districts into still more testing. Two years ago, the state began a pilot program that changed the nature of testing students in the 4th, 8th, and 11th grades. The GEPA (Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment) is one part of a more rigorous testing program being phased in by the state to match new curriculum standards adopted in 1996.
Many districts then grappled with whether or not to change testing methods to more directly line up with the new methods the state had a adopted, and have a better local sense of how their students stood in regards to the state’s mandates.
Scerbo urged state do away with three tests
Secaucus adopted Terra Nova achievement tests to replace the Metropolitan testing because of the greater range of information, and said he hoped the state would do away with the three-grade testing program, opting instead to allow districts to report the results of the achievement tests instead. Currently, students take three tests for the state and yearly tests for the district.
"Why do we have to repeat tests?" Scerbo asked. "Since the district does achievement test yearly, why not let them report the results rather than conduct three tests specifically for the state."
Scerbo said the achievement tests could be compared to other students nationally, giving a better picture of how local students stand. He also said critics have complained about class time being sacrificed in order to conduct tests. By allowing the districts to use achievement test scores and eliminating the three tests given for the state, students would get more time in the classroom.
Scerbo said this issue was discussed last year by the Small District School Committee of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, encouraging the state to remove the additional testing requirement.
"We really don’t care what achievement test they choose," Scerbo said. "Some districts still give the Metropolitan test, others the California, while others give the Iowa. We give the Terra Nova. Let them pick one and we’ll live with it."
Scerbo said this could be the right time to revamp the state’s testing requirement and reduce the hours students have to spend testing. He said the investment in the Terra Nova will not be lost, because the district would have to test its students regardless of what the state does and Terra Nova gives better information that previous standardized tests.