Navigating Assessment Tests in Baldwin-Whitehall

“The test.”

In the American public schools system, no two words — except maybe “the prom” — inspire the same mix of hope and anxiety, anticipation and animosity. In the this year, around 2,500 students will take “the test,” but new state requirements mean that many students might find the process unfamiliar.

For the district’s class of 2015, “the test” is actually “the tests.” While most students will continue to take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, more commonly known as the PSSAs, older students will take eventually take the new Pennsylvania Keystone Exams.

The PSSAs are currently under way and mandatory for all students in most grades. The PSSAs take place in three “windows,” periods of time where students take multiple tests in various subjects.

From March 14 to 25, students in third through eighth grade, and 11th-graders, will take six sections — three in reading and three in math — each lasting between 45 and 85 minutes. From March 28 through April 1, students in fifth, eighth and 11th grades will take writing assessments in four sections, each lasting about an hour. From April 4 to 8, students in fourth and eighth grades will take two sections, and 11th-graders will take three sections, each lasting between 45 and 65 minutes.

To pass the PSSAs, students must beat a “cut score,” or the average score for all students across the state in each grade. Because the PSSAs are required for graduation, 11th-graders who fail must retake the test in October, and if they fail that, must take a “senior seminar.”

“It’s a class that focuses on the assessments,” said John D. Wilkinson, assistant superintendent of secondary education for the Baldwin-Whitehall School District.

Students in lower grades who fail the PSSAs don’t face quite such extreme consequences, but because the PSSAs aim to reflect the adequacy of the classroom, Wilkinson said that the district views test scores as a doctor views a physical exam: comparing test scores from one year to the next to make sure that students are getting better in each subject, not worse.

If younger students fail, “there are needs that need to be addressed,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said that the district is performing “pretty well” on the PSSAs. Across the board, students scored 56 on math and 63 on reading. He said that science scores are not reported to the federal government but that the district typically has not fared as well in science.

Even though all Baldwin-Whitehall students take biology, chemistry and physics — a point that Wilkinson takes pride in — the PSSAs include material not covered in the classroom. Wilkinson said that the district is adjusting its curriculum to fix that discrepancy.

The class of 2015 is the first in Pennsylvania to take the new Keystone Exams.

Wilkinson described the Keystone Exams as an offshoot of the federal Race to the Top program that funneled money to states with innovative educational ideas.

Pennsylvania is one of several states that opted into a “Common Core” standard.

“The Common Core now is kind of like the nationwide standard,” Wilkinson said.

The Keystone Exams will be implemented in two phases.

For the first, students who will graduate in 2015 and 2016 must pass four total tests in English, math and science. For the second phase, students who will graduate in 2017 and beyond must pass 10 total tests in English, math, science and social studies.

The tests are going to be administrated on a five-year implementation plan with students in the 10th grade taking three tests — Algebra I, Biology and English Literature — this year.

The administration of Gov. Tom Corbett recently proposed a one-year pause in the program, at least in part to keep the cost of the tests out of a tight budget cycle, but that plan is still just a proposal.

The Keystone Exams will eventually replace the PSSAs for older students. However, Pennsylvania will continue to administer the PSSAs to students in the third through eighth grades.

Students taking the Keystone Exams in these initial years, though — including this year — get a break, Wilkinson said.

Because they will set the first “cut score,” they can’t fail.

“The mere fact that they are taking the test means they are meeting their grad requirement just by taking it,” Wilkinson said.

Eventually, though, students who fail the Keystone Exams will be allowed to complete a “graduation project,” created under state guidelines, in lieu of passing them.

Without passing and failing, what keeps the students honest this first year?

“It’s just the culture we’ve built,” Wilkinson said. “The kids at Baldwin are fantastic.”