District 300 to use new test at high school

To the alphabet soup of standardized tests that has come to define the modern high-school experience, educators in Community Unit District 300 are adding one more name: Scantron.

The Minnesota-based company is best known for its exam sheets, on which students bubble in answers that can be immediately checked with a special machine.

But curriculum planners in District 300 are hoping that one of Scantron's lesser-known products will help raise student achievement at the district's three high schools.

This year, Hampshire, Jacobs and Dundee-Crown high schools will introduce a new test created by Scantron. The computerized exam will test students' reading and math skills at the start, midpoint and end of the year.

The results, which will not factor in students' grades, will allow teachers to adjust their lessons to tackle specific weaknesses found by the test.

"With once-a-year state assessments, we can't show growth until we've lost those students," said Carole Cooper, director of accountability and assessment for District 300. "What we want to do is to be able to show the public and the board that these students are learning - within the time frame of the school year."

The high schools are set to start testing freshmen this year. If educators are able to use the data to improve teaching during the course of a school year, students in higher grades will start taking the exam.

Terry Mootz, associate principal for curriculum and instruction at Dundee-Crown High School, said the test will enable the school to fine tune its teaching as it continues to implement a state-mandated restructuring plan.

"It's going to allow us to ask questions that we hadn't been able to ask about before," Mootz said. "If you're seeing students are having trouble with a particular skill, you can focus on that skill."

The test costs about $98,000 a year, according to the district, and will be paid for with federal stimulus funds.