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Mary EwartCase StudyEDAD 6589May 28, 2015This school year marks the first year that students were given the Smarter Balanced Assessment in 11th grade. A major change like this required many considerations and potential hurdles: technology, scheduling, concern with student performance, unfamiliarity with the format of the test for students and proctors, and attendance. In addition to the logistics involved, there is a negative public perception of the test; this is compounded in this area by the school in Seattle, Nathan Hale High School, which tried to opt out of the test. When the school was told they could not choose to not administer the test, the entire junior class chose to opt out instead, and the test was not given to any student. All of these factors combined to make this first testing administration one that could have potentially been a disaster.Redmond High School has one principal and three associate principals. Traditionally, an associate principal has been assigned the responsibility of assessments; this associate principal attends meetings at the district resource center, communicates with parents and students, handles the scheduling of students and teachers, coordinates bussing changes required, and is the “go to” person on the day or days of the test administration. In order to successfully administer this test for the first time, this associate principal worked all school year to create and implement a plan. The first potential hurdle was technology. Redmond High students are all issued a school-owned netbook at the start of each year, which should make administering a computer test fairly simple compared to schools that have to coordinate computer lab rotations. Even with the accessibility taken care of, Redmond High School had to come up with a plan to make sure all netbooks had the appropriate versions of the software required, and no software installed that wouldn’t allow the testing session to run. This was accomplished by doing an all school “restart” of the netbooks during homeroom on Monday mornings to allow the district to push any updates necessary over the school network. All 11th grade students who had not checked out a netbook were contacted and any loaner laptops that might have been required were accounted for. Additionally, USB mice and ear buds were ordered for every student to use during the test. Redmond High School also had numerous times during the school year where the wireless network was tested and found to crash when the entire school attempted to use the network. So a plan was created for only 11th grade students to be on the wireless during the test sessions.Scheduling was another major hurdle to consider. To ensure the best testing environment, and guarantee that there were enough teachers available to proctor, the school planned a late start for any non-testing student. This means that testing students arrived to start testing at 7:30am and had access to their regularly scheduled bus if they are bus riders, and the remainder of the school had access to a second bus run three hours later, which meant students arrived to have lunch at 10:30, with classes starting at 11:05. An additional scheduling concern was how to assign proctors, which rooms to use, and how to ensure that teacher assignments were equitable; this was done by asking for teacher volunteers and randomly assigning teachers to the remaining open proctor positions. The number of proctors needed was determined by considering how many 11th graders attend Redmond High School (approximately 370) and how many had turned in “opt out” paperwork. To address the issues with unfamiliarity, the school ran a trail run during an extended homeroom period one day. This allowed staff members to try logging in to the system and starting an exam, and allowed students to see how the interface worked. It was only a mock Language Arts exam, so students were unable to explore the math tools they would need to use when taking the actual exam. When considering attendance, the school did not do anything to encourage or request students to attend. In fact, the only information that went home was when the test would be administered and when students would need to be at school. When the test was administered the week of May 18th – May 22nd, Redmond High School had 67 11th graders in attendance on the first day of Language Arts testing. On the second day, 54 11th graders attended. On the third day of testing, and the first day of the math test, 47 11th graders attended. On the last day, 40 11th graders attended. Prior to the test, Redmond High School had approximately 170 students turn in “opt out” paperwork, which left a class of approximately 200 students who should have attended every day and did not. Some of these students were called in sick, but others just simply did not attend. In fact, many of the 11th graders who did not attend to take the test came to school later in the day to attend classes held in the afternoon after testing. This situation had a negative impact on the school, and indicates an issue with the school community relations. The lack of communication to parents and students made the test seem like it was unimportant and a waste of time. Parents and families are not on board with the testing, and it showed as the majority allowed their students to not attend the testing (even parents who are involved in education). The school lost a week of instructional time, and students in all grades now feel this test is a waste of time. I cannot imagine that feeling not transferring to future years.If I was in a principal position, and had to face a similar situation, I would focus on the communication and parental involvement piece. The school itself was well prepared to administer the test, and the scheduling and transportation worked flawlessly. Technology was not an issue, and all teachers felt capable of maintaining the integrity of the test. The issue came with a lack of student involvement. Since students were not accountable for this test (it does not meet any graduation requirements for the class taking it), without family back-up, there was no incentive for the students to attend. The Washington State Dispositions for Leadership Standard Four state, “…collaboration and communication with families…an informed public is essential to democracy.” Although it would be an uncomfortable meeting, I think the best way to handle this situation would have been to hold multiple parent information nights. I also think communicating with the PTSA and having the PTSA reach out to families asking them to have their students attend would have been an easy thing to do that could have made a large impact. I do not think there would have been a way to have 100% attendance, but I do think that meeting with families for informational nights, and asking the PTSA to reach out to families as well would have made a large impact on both the community’s perception of the test, and consequently the attendance during the test sessions. ................
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