Align test for success in high school

Illinois students in grades 3-8 recently completed their annual weeklong series of standardized tests -- the Illinois Standard Achievement Tests. The tests are supposed to be a gauge of how well -- or how poorly -- our schools are teaching students in core subjects like math and English, science and social studies.

It also is a gauge of how well students are prepared to move on to the next level -- especially whether eighth-graders are prepared for high school.

As Daily Herald staff writer Emily Krone reports today, there is a discrepancy between how Illinois eighth-graders do and then how they perform later on the standardized tests as juniors in high school. While the eighth-graders do well, when they get to high school, they can struggle. Many must take remedial classes as freshmen in reading and math.

"You would expect if you're meeting state standards you wouldn't need remediation," said Judith Levinson, an administrator for Evanston Township High School District 202. "So yes, I think there're problems in the system."

Not all agree, however, on whether there is a problem or what the problem is. Is the high school test too hard -- resulting in much lower scores from those who do well in eighth grade? Or are the elementary tests too easy?

We agree with former state Superintendent Max McGee, now the president of the Illinois Math and Science Academy. He believes the high school state test is a good test because it is a hard test. "It has succeeded in making the high school curriculum more rigorous."

Getting our children ready to move on after high school should be the key role of these tests. And getting our children ready to move into high school should be the key role of the elementary tests.

"Part of what we can do is insist on more rigorous tests, and perhaps a higher level of standards, because the students will work up to it," McGee says.

Indeed, we also recognize the reality of the current situation facing schools with the No Child Left Behind federal accountability law. Currently, elementary students are passing state tests at record rates. Meanwhile, just in the Daily Herald circulation area, 36 high schools have failed to meet standards for at least four consecutive years.

Making the elementary tests harder will certainly increase the number of schools who might not meet standards and force No Child Left Behind punitive measures on those schools.

"It's a very delicate balance, and states will be willing to set more realistic cut scores when penalties from NCLB are so expensive and inappropriate," said Steve Cordogan from Northwest Suburban High School District 204.

We believe in accountability but have long held that changes are needed with NCLB so good schools aren't targeted as they sometimes are today. We want to see our elementary children prepared for high school, not going in with a false sense of security because standards are too low in order to avoid unfair penalties from the federal government.