January 2002 — Industry Perspective
Print this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Forecasting and Managing Student Achievement on High-Stakes Tests
To meet rigorous accountability requirements, educators need to see more than just a mapping of curriculum content to state standards. They need to see student progress through the curriculum as it pertains to performance on standardized tests - and they need to see it in real time, not months later. To help educators continually forecast and manage student achievement on high-stakes tests, NCS Learn has introduced its High Stakes Management solution.
The High Stakes Management solution is a new suite of tools and services based on research that has established a quantifiable relationship between students' performances in NCS Learn's SuccessMaker courseware, and their performances on standardized tests and state assessments. The result: Educators can now see forecasts of the time students need to reach a specific SuccessMaker course level and see the relationship of the SuccessMaker course level to high-stakes test achievement. The forecasts can then be used to monitor and impact student achievement. The benefits, among others, are in the continual monitoring of progress and the opportunity to identify students who need more help to improve.
For example, if a school's goal is for more than 80 percent of students to demonstrate proficiency on their state math assessment, the school can establish a SuccessMaker target level that will yield the desired result. During the school year, SuccessMaker will provide a continual view of student progress toward the target level and corresponding goal, aiding the teacher in providing a timely and appropriate instructional focus and intervention.
In recent years, NCS Learn worked in partnership with school districts nationwide to collect and analyze data from more than 10,000 students on a wide range of standardized and state tests. In all cases, the results showed a consistent and strong correlation between student levels in SuccessMaker and student performance on the tests.
Improved Achievement on Test Day and Beyond
Regardless of where educators stand on the topic of high-stakes tests, all are eager to improve student achievement. As such, curriculum solutions must address the needs of those on both sides of the debate. Toward that end, such solutions should:
- Provide a clear, unbiased view of student performance.
- Provide relevant and timely diagnostic information to improve classroom practices and student learning.
- Support relevant standards and set high expectations for all students.
- Directly target high-stakes goals.
- Support breadth in the curriculum to ensure that attention is given to all standards and subject areas.
- Offer flexibility to support teachers' creativity and promote students' learning enjoyment.
As more states attach high stakes to their assessments, it is important to note that accountability systems and high-stakes tests alone will not lead to achievement gains. States must make a commitment to provide the professional development and instructional resources educators and students need to reach higher expectations. Educators must have access to high-quality training and curriculum materials to address the needs of all students, and help each meet state standards and requirements. Only then can we impact student learning and achievement well beyond this year's test day.
Contact Information
NCS Learn
Tucson, AZ
888-NCSLearn (888-627-5327)
www.ncslearn.com
