Education Week - July 20, 2016 - 26

Buzz Builds on ESSA's Testing Pilot
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

or as a consortium. (In this case,
a consortium can only have up to
four members). After three years,
the education secretary could open
it up to more states-even all
states.
States that want to participate in
the pilot would have to clear some
high hurdles. For instance, they'd
have to make sure that their tests
are valid and reliable for all students and for particular subgroups
of students, including Englishlanguage learners and students in
special education, two populations
that aren't always easy to test.
And they'd have to check to make
sure the results are comparable
across districts, so that a particular
score or outcome means the same
thing from one district to the next.
New Hampshire does this by having students take the state assessment in certain grades. In proposed
regulations for the pilot, the department listed other options for clearing this bar.
By the end of the demonstration
period, the districts would need to
include a representative sample of
students from around the state. For
instance, a state with a large ELL
population-such as California-
would need to ensure that there
were plenty of ELLs taking the tests
in the trial districts.

These new systems would have to
be able to be scaled statewide by the
end of the pilot period.
That last requirement might be
the toughest, said Scott Marion, the
executive director of the Center for
Assessment, a nonprofit organization
that is working with New Hampshire
on its performance tasks.
"The thing that scares ... everybody is scaling statewide," he
said. "They want you to have these
guardrails, so it's not like any district could just waltz in [to the pilot].
You have to earn your way in."

Weighing the Challenges
But Donna Harris-Aikens, the
ESSA implementation lead for the
National Education Association,
thinks those challenges are surmountable.
"I think it will be challenging to
scale up statewide," she said. "But
I don't think it will be impossible.
There are states that are looking for
a different way to demonstrate [student] progress. We are hoping and
encouraging people to spend some
time trying to figure out if they can
do this."
One reality that has states that
might otherwise be excited about
jumping into the pilot worried:
There's no federal money tied to it.
That gives Amy Fowler, the deputy secretary of education in Ver-

NEW APPROACHES

mont, some pause-especially given
all the tricky technical work the
pilot requires.
"Many folks in my state are saying it would be so great if we could
take our own test. It would be so
great. But do we want to give up
other things that money could be
used for? Right now, we're feeling
like it's not the most efficient way
to go, even though it's attractive to
educators."
Still, the program is generating
plenty of interest. A big group of
states-including Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire,
Ohio, Tennessee, and Vermont,
along with the District of Columbia and more-participated in a
webinar that the Council of Chief
State School Officers held earlier
this year to talk about the pilot's
potential.
Meanwhile, the CCSSO is advising states to examine the testing
flexibility already in place in ESSA,
to see if they can accomplish what
they want on assessments without
having to join the pilot.
Under the new law, states can
try out computer-adaptive assessments or use a series of short-term
or interim assessments instead of
one big summative test-all without having to participate in the
pilot.
Fowler, for instance, thinks Vermont may be able to do some of

The U.S. Department of Education has proposed rules for states
hoping to snare one of seven spots in its new Innovative Assessment
pilot program, which would let them design their testing programs
under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Among the highlights:
* States that want in on the pilot don't have to come up with a new
testing system for every subject and every grade-they could try a
more innovative format just for 3rd grade science tests, for instance.
* The goal is one system eventually; the draft regulations make it
clear that states are supposed to come up with one system that can
eventually be scaled statewide.
* Districts could try a handful of schools at first, rather than
districtwide, or all at once.
* The department would offer states four options to show that
these new systems produce results comparable to those of their
state's test. Among them: giving the state test once in each grade
where there is an innovative test, and giving the state test to a
representative sample of students in certain grades.
* States hoping to be selected for the pilot will have to lay out in detail
what they intend to do, show their plans have support from the field,
describe their budget, timeline, and evaluation plans, and how they
intend to support teachers and students in using these new tests.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education

what it wants to do-such as possibly moving toward a science test
that incorporates at least some
performance elements-using that
flexibility.
But Paul Leather, the deputy
commissioner in New Hampshire,
is urging his colleagues to give the

innovative assessment pilot a go,
despite the many challenges.
"It's really been very rewarding
work," he said. "Schools and districts
have gained a lot. It's a little higher
bar than what we're used to ... but
I think everyone would say that it's
been worth it."

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