The change will help the state comply with federal requirements.
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer

Starting next year, Maine’s elementary and middle school students will have another test to take.

The Maine Department of Education announced this week it will establish a new statewide standardized exam for students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7. The annual test will allow Maine schools to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act.

“It’s far superior to most other options the state had,” said Union 44 Superintendent Paul Malinksi, who oversees schools in Sabattus, Litchfield and Wales. “I give Susan Gendron credit as commissioner for doing what was expedient, what I would call down and dirty, and getting it over with.”

Under the year-old education reform law called No Child Left Behind, states are required to assess students’ reading and math skills every year from grades 3 through 8. But currently, Maine only requires a statewide test twice – in grades 4 and 8.

To fill that gap for about 60,000 kids in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7, the state had planned to let schools use their own local assessments, such as portfolios and projects, to judge student progress. Such local assessments were being phased in by state law anyway as part of Maine’s Learning Results.

But the U.S. Department of Education told Maine officials that school systems would have to prove that each evaluation was valid, reliable and comparable – for example, that a Lewiston fifth-grader’s portfolio provided the same insight as an Auburn fifth-grader’s standardized test.

A recent survey showed that 40 percent of school systems are only just beginning to create their local assessments. Maine Department of Education officials believed that schools wouldn’t be able to prove that their assessments met federal guidelines by the government’s summer 2004 deadline.

In a letter sent to school superintendents this week, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron announced that Maine will create a new reading and math test to be given each spring starting in 2004-05. The test will be four hours long and may be spread over several days.

The exam will be similar to the Maine Educational Assessment, which uses a mix of multiple choice, short answer and essay questions to gauge students’ skills.

Schools will still be expected to create local assessments that meet state and federal guidelines. State officials hope the new test will be temporary.

Many school leaders applauded the education commissioner’s announcement.

“I think it’s the correct decision for the commissioner to make,” said Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque.

An outspoken opponent of the No Child Left Behind Act, Levesque called the situation a “mess.” But he said a new test will allow the state to comply with the law while giving schools more time to create the kind of assessments they really want.

“I don’t think she has a choice,” he said.

Although Lewiston is well ahead of most other schools in creating its local assessments, Levesque said, “we would be hard pressed to meet the timeline the feds have set.”

In Auburn, Assessment Director Steve Clark agreed.

His school system would have had trouble proving that its local assessments were valid, reliable and comparable in a year. A test will allow Auburn to meet federal requirements without further burdening school officials and without taking away from local assessments.

“I think it makes sense overall,” he said.

But Auburn parent Jodd Bowles isn’t so sure.

The father of 9-year-old twins, he believes students are already tested far too much in school. Adding another test won’t help anyone, he said.

“My children are drowning here and they can’t get an education,” he said.

Bowles said his sons spent more than a month of third grade taking local tests. Then had to take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a standardized exam that many Maine schools require.

Although his kids seemed to breeze through tests, Bowles is frustrated that the state plans to add one more.

“They’re tested to death,” he said. “They’ve just got to give the teachers a little room to teach.”

ltice@sunjournal.com

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