Results mixed in school assessments.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (Ran Oct. 3, 2007): Due to a programming error by the state Department of Education, a Sept. 25 story on Page A1 and a chart on Page D2 included incorrect percentages of students meeting or exceeding benchmarks on the 2006-07 Oregon Statewide Assessment tests. In most cases, the percentages were actually 1 to 2 points lower than reported. Corrected scores for schools and districts are posted online at www.ode.state.or.us /search/page/?id=1302 (click on download files)

Student test score data released Monday show varied - and in some cases, surprising - results for Oregon schools.

While middle school students posted significant gains in both reading and math on 2006-07 exams, elementary students - typically the standouts - stumbled in math.

The declines were so extreme at some schools that principals and teachers alike were left scratching their heads.

"They were rather disappointing," said Becky Dopps, a fourth-grade teacher at Springfield's Moffitt Elementary, where math scores tumbled by 13, 36 and 17 percentage points for grades 3, 4 and 5, respectively. "There was a huge drop that seemed very drastic. We did a lot of talking at the beginning of (this) year about what might have happened and how to address it."

Oddly, the drop in the percentages of elementary students meeting math benchmarks was significantly greater in Eugene and Springfield than it was across the state. Statewide, 70 percent of third-graders, 72 percent of fourth-graders and 68 percent of fifth-graders met or surpassed standards, down 6, 3 and 4 percentage points, respectively.

In Eugene, 77 percent of third-graders, 79 percent of fourth-graders and 73 percent of fifth-graders hit benchmarks, down 8, 6 and 11 percentage points. In Springfield, it was 70 percent of third-graders, 71 percent of fourth-graders and 64 percent of fifth-graders, down 11, 7 and 13 percentage points.

Dopps and many other educators believe last spring's unexpected switch from computer testing to paper-and-pencil played a big role.

The hasty change - necessitated by a nasty dispute between the state and its testing contractor - fell in the middle of the testing window on the heels of widely reported service problems with the Technology Enhanced Student Assessment system.

"In my case, my students had never taken paper-and-pencil tests," Dopps said. "They were completely thrown off by the issues we had in the middle of the year of not being able to complete the second round of testing and then being thrown into a new round of paper-pencil testing."

With TESA, students could take the test up to three times and keep the best result; the system was also able to modify questions while students were taking the exams, offering easier or harder questions, depending on how students were faring. The Department of Education has a new contractor on board, and officials say computerized testing will resume this year.

Department officials have cited a study that found that TESA and conventional paper-and-pencil tests were comparable, with individual students as well as groups of students earning similar scores regardless of which they took. Tony Alpert, director of assessment and accountability, noted that there was no corresponding decline on the elementary reading exams, also taken with paper and pencil; in fact, reading scores rose slightly at all three grade levels.

But Alpert acknowledged that 2006-07 was "an odd year," with several changes in the assessment process.

"We can't discount any of those as potential contributors," he said.

For example, a change in passing levels - called "cut scores" - kicked in for the 2006-07 tests this year, making it slightly harder for elementary students to hit reading and math benchmarks but slightly easier for middle schoolers and 10th-graders (the only high school students tested) to do so. The state Board of Education made the changes because comparisons with other states found Oregon's benchmarks too easy at the elementary level and too hard at the secondary level.

But that doesn't fully explain the poor showing in elementary math, nor the gains at the middle school level. For comparison's sake, the department re<302>calibrated the 2005-06 scores using the 2006-07 standards, and the numbers in this story reflect the adjusted data.

Alpert said the recalibrated scores were used to calculate the progress schools made over the two-year period - one of the criteria used to determine whether a school makes "Annual Yearly Progress" under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The state made no changes to cut scores for the writing test, given in grades 4, 7 and 10. Those scores were up for all but 10th grade, which held steady.

Statewide, reading scores rose across the board for middle schoolers and 10th-graders, with sixth- and seventh-graders posting big gains.

The percentage of seventh-graders passing the test jumped from 69 percent to 77 percent, for example, a trend that was amplified at several local middle schools.

Seventh-grade scores at Eugene's Madison and Spencer Butte, Springfield's Thurston and Springfield and Cottage Grove's Lincoln middle schools, for example, all climbed by at least 13 percentage points.

Middle school math scores improved slightly, but 10-grade remained stagnant, with just 55 percent meeting standards. That's a worry, as new graduation requirements being phased in over the next several years will require graduates to earn three math credits at the algebra I level or above.

"We know that with the math standards increasing at the high school level, in order to get to that place you've got to ramp it up all the way down," said Rob Hess, student achievement coordinator for the Springfield district.

That makes the sagging elementary math scores all the more worth paying attention to, he said - although he believes that the latest results could well prove anomalous.

"I'm going to tell people to just watch and see what it does next year," he said. "We'll see if it rebounds."

Test scores are the state and federal government's primary tool for measuring achievement. They're used to determine whether a school makes Annual Yearly Progress under federal guidelines and how schools rate on Oregon's own "report cards," due out next month.