With school district leaders taking a strong stance against the validity of the latest standardized test scores, trustees on Morgan Hill Unified’s board of education had their own takes on the data from the 2017 Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.
All seven board members listened at the Oct. 17 meeting as the district Director of Instruction, Curriculum and Assessment Glen Webb presented statistical anomalies across the state and nation that he said were the result of flaws in the testing method.
Superintendent Steve Betando said of the test scores, “This is worse than not taking the test at all.”
However, not all of the board shared that perspective.
Board Vice President Tom Arnett said state tests are “an important indicator of how our schools are doing,” but also are not “a perfect measure” in determining student achievement levels.
“Test scores aren’t the only way we should gauge the progress that students in our schools are making . … We have to be cautious in not overgeneralizing what they mean,” Arnett said. “Are they 100 percent valid and 100 percent reliable? No. But do they mean nothing? I’d say no to that as well. I’m not in favor of throwing them out altogether.”
In Morgan Hill, half the students tested in grades third through eighth and 11th, met or exceeded state standards in English Language Arts/Literacy, while nearly 40 percent did so in Mathematics, according to the California Department of Education’s database.
Morgan Hill School District’s overall scores in ELA and math, which can be viewed on the California Department of Education website (cde.ca.gov), dropped slightly from the previous year’s 52 percent at or above in ELA and 41 percent at or above in math.
As for countywide results, 62 percent of students met or exceeded the ELA standards compared to 49 percent of students statewide. In math, 55 percent of county students met or exceeded the standards compared to 38 percent of students statewide.
“In education, the solutions aren’t easy,” Arnett added. “The first step is to recognize the challenges we’re up against, and there are some hard challenges.”
Board prez encouraged by math results
Board President Donna Ruebusch believes the state testing system is a work in progress and improvements are necessary to better gauge student achievement.
“In general, I think that the understanding is this is still only preliminary data as they are trying to refine the test and perfect the measurement of the exam statewide; that there’s some anomalies in the testing,” Ruebusch said.
However, Ruebusch also drew positive results from this year’s math data, particularly that Morgan Hill secondary schools are “outperforming other high schools in Santa Clara Valley; in fact, every other high school,” she surmised. “We are seeing progress in the right direction.”
At top-performing Ann Sobrato High School, nearly three-fourths of 11th-grade students tested last year (73.69 percent) met or exceeded ELA standards while almost 50 percent met or exceeded math standards.
Trustee David Gerard, who dismissed the state’s latest test scores when he spoke at the Oct. 17 meeting, changed his tone after researching the district’s claim and then “taking a deep dive into the data,” he said. While praising Webb for having “his heart in the right place,” Gerard did not believe the state test scores were invalid.
“I think this is an opportunity to review and target,” said Gerard, who wants to find solutions to improving scores of the low-income Hispanic students. “The 2017 SBAC results bring to light some very serious equity issues . … While this presents us with a huge challenge, I have no doubt that with excellent teachers and district leadership we will be successful.”
In Morgan HIll schools, about 34 percent of all Hispanic students tested met or exceeded ELA standards compared to nearly 67 percent among White students and 80 percent among Asian students. In math, 23 percent of Hispanic students met or exceeded standards compared to nearly 57 among White students and nearly 74 percent among Asian students.
