Missouri’s top education official announced last week that statewide results for two key high school exams will not be released this year.
Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven said the state received results for end-of-course exams in Algebra I and English II in late July and questioned their reliability and “comparability from year-to-year.”
“We are holding the testing vendor, Questar, accountable for not producing usable assessment results,” she said. “Our students and teachers work hard throughout the year and are counting on us to get this right.”
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education administers state-mandated exams each year, including reading and math in grades 3-8, science in grades 5 and 8 and nine end-of-course exams — which are typically given during high school.
Vandeven said after the end-of-course exams were delivered, the state pulled together a team of “nationally recognized assessment experts” — called the Technical Advisory Committee, or TAC — to review the results.
She said on Aug. 18, the committee concluded two of the end-of-course exams “should not be publicly reported” or “used in statewide accountability determinations.” The others will be released this fall.
“We concur with that recommendation,” she said.
“It is disappointing as we saw some gains in both of these areas, particularly Algebra I,” said Dr. Allen Moss, Houston superintendent. “In addition these two tests carry the bulk of points for EOC (End of Course) performance on the APR. We’ve been told that individual raw scores can still be relied upon for A+ determination and other uses.”
Moss the said the district is disappointed that it may be perceived the work put in this past year has been wasted.
“That is not the case. One year of scores is not an indicator of where a school is heading,” he said. “We are still waiting to see what type of APR DESE will issue and what it will be based on.”
Vandeven said results of end-of-course exams are typically included in a students’ final grades and because of that, individual results are returned to schools quickly.
“The districts get their results immediately,” she said.
She said no concerns were raised until the statewide results, which provide a broader snapshot, were delivered to DESE.
Pressed for more details about why the test results were unreliable, Vandeven referred questions to Bill Thornton, general counsel for DESE, who said the state will remain tight-lipped at this point.
“This possibly might end up in litigation,” he said.
Vandeven said the scores on end-of-course exams are typically factored into students’ final grades and eligibility for the state’s A+ Scholarship program, which covers tuition for two years.
She said the state has taken steps to make sure students, schools and districts are not penalized for the testing irregularity.
Vandeven said the exams in question, given in spring 2017, have been retired. Teams of educators have been working on new end-of-course exams based on the new Missouri Learning Standards.
Asked if the state has withheld test results in the past, Vandeven said no other issues have come up in recent memory.
“We cannot recall a time when this has happened in Missouri,” she said.