Testing difficulties for Dist. 203
Naperville Unit District 203 is in a bit of a pickle.
District officials say they're trying to comply with state testing requirements while still looking out for the best interests of their students -- and it's more difficult than it sounds.
The state requires students to take an annual assessment to measure their educational progress and ensure school districts meet state and federal standards as outlined by the No Child Left Behind Act.
In past years, students who are new to the English language have taken a special test, called an IMAGE assessment, to evaluate their progress.
"The IMAGE assessment was designed for English language learners," said Catherine Cahoon, director of English Language Learners services. "The test is written in a way that's more comprehensible for ELL students, so it gives us better information about what they understand in the content areas."
This year, the state has been told the IMAGE assessment doesn't meet federal requirements.
"According to the federal government, they have warned the state for several years that the IMAGE test doesn't meet federal standards," Superintendent Alan Leis said. "According to the state, they've gotten no concrete direction on how to modify the IMAGE test to make it acceptable."
The state is working with the federal government to develop a new ELL test that fits the requirements, but it won't be ready by spring, when students are assessed.
Still, every child in the testing group must take a state achievement test.
That means that this year, ELL students will have to take the same test issued to the majority of students.
Students in grades three to eight take the Illinois Standards Achievement Test while students in 11th grade take the Prairie State Achievement Examination.
The state has offered to provide translations of test instructions and a glossary of key words in 10 languages -- Arabic, Cantonese, Gujarati, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese.
Translations are not available for students who speak other languages.
The actual test is written in English for all students, even if the instructions have been translated.
Of the 210 ELL students in the testing group, about 40 have enrolled in U.S. schools for the first time within the past six months, Cahoon said.
Dave Chiszar, director of assessment and quality, said many of those ELL students do not yet comprehend English and will find it difficult to take the test.
The district must decide how to handle those cases.
At Tuesday's school board meeting, Chiszar proposed administering the test to all ELL students, even if they won't understand the language.
"If these (new) students get frustrated and are only filling in bubbles, we'll let them turn the test in and take a computer test instead," Chiszar said.
The computer test will assess the students' skills in school subjects, but the language will be adjusted to meet each student's reading level.
"We'll get and use the information about how they're doing," Chiszar said. "But we don't want it to be an exercise in futility."
Leis said he doesn't know how the state would respond to the proposal, which would attempt to meet state requirements without causing unnecessary anxiety for students.
"By putting the test in front of students, we've fulfilled our obligation to the state," Leis said. "We aren't shying away from assessment, but this isn't the right test for (these students)."
Leis said it's likely test scores will be lower this year without the use of the IMAGE assessment for ELL students.
"It's a little black mark on your record," Leis said. "We're very proud of the fact that all of our schools are in full compliance of NCLB … but this could mean that a couple of our schools, or even the district, might not do as well this year."
Leis said low test scores could affect the district's status in the state, but there would be no material repercussions unless the district continued to perform poorly in subsequent years.