AV #222 - The PSAT and SAT do not work well for perhaps 25% of our high schools

 

As we examine how best to improve the School Performance Framework, let’s ask if these tests are meaningful – and helpful - for many of our high schools and their students

 

After trying three other ways of measuring the academic performance of Colorado schools,[i] we may have settled on tests that work for most. We now ask all 9^th, 10^th, and 11^th graders to take the PSAT and SAT.

The latest SAT scores for 11^th graders across the state (2019) look pretty good. According to the Colorado Department of Education, the national average was 973 that year; in Colorado, it was 1001.[ii] My list here of a dozen high schools suggests these “college-readiness” assessments work well for hundreds of schools like them. Strong scores like these are well above the minimum in Reading/Writing (460) and in Math (510) needed to meet the College Board benchmarks.[iii] They also easily exceed the minimum score required to meet the 2021 Colorado Graduation Guidelines: Reading/Writing - 470, and Math – 500.

12 Colorado high schools	2019 - SAT-Reading/Writing	2019 - SAT – Math
State of Colorado - average	505	496
Liberty Common Charter (Poudre)	650	664
Peak to Peak Charter School (Boulder)	621	610
Fairview High (Boulder)	602	615
Cherry Creek High	585	604
DSST: Stapleton High (DPS-charter)	558	600
Cheyenne Mountain High	568	571
Arapahoe High (Littleton)	561	565
Mountain Vista High (Douglas)	559	565
Lewis-Palmer High	556	544
Telluride High	554	554
Fort Collins High	547	540
Aspen High	542	547

 

For these – for most – high schools in Colorado, we may have landed on a meaningful assessment.[iv]

AV #222 - contents 1.  PSAT/SAT scores in low-performing schools –100 points below the state average. My regret: overstating what this tells us. 2. How do these schools, how do their students, view the PSAT/SAT? Are declining scores sending a message? 3. Equity - FRL students (145 pt. gap); EL students (230 pt. gap) 4. AEC schools - a college readiness exam for “high-risk students”?

However, I have concluded, belatedly,  that these tests are not the best way to measure the academic performance and progress for our lowest-performing high schools. The PSAT/SAT scores for high schools in the bottom quartile on their academic performance—the 30-plus rated on Priority Improvement or Turnaround, and the roughly 100 Alternative Education Campuses—receive results that are so grim as to provide little useful data. Moreover, consider the students’ experience. I believe up to 25% of our high schools need a different assessment.                                                                                                                                                   

Look at the School Performance Framework in so many of these schools. See the pages with Ratings on the PSAT and SAT results. Often “Percentile rank – 1.” Over 20 times they fairly shout, DOES NOT MEET.  How is this useful to the school and its teachers? 

And for students, when they see their miserable scores, so disheartening. And all this on a test – let’s be clear - that was not designed to assess the academic progress of schools, especially where most students are performing below grade level.

I want to add, from the top, that a low PSAT score in 9^th grade determines nothing. A 14-year-old is capable of remarkable progress over the next three years. Perhaps he or she will graduate with honors. And I am sure a number of individual students in the dozens of schools you will see in this report do score well, and benefit when their impressive SAT numbers appear in their college applications. 

Imagine 11th graders who found the PSAT tests in 9th and 10th grade incredibly hard and frustrating, who walk in to take the SAT doubtful that it is even worth their time to give it their best, who suspect the test is designed to clarify not how much they know, but how little they know. (“Confirmed,” they might say, when they get their final score—less than half of the 1600 total points possible).

But what you will see here are the average scores for many schools—100 points below the state average, and even further below the level the College Board considers “on track” to reach its benchmarks. You will also see the average score for Colorado students on Free or Reduced Lunch: 145 points below the average score for their fellow high school students not on FRL. The gap widens for English Language Learners—230 points. And for some Alternative Education Campuses the gap is even worse. Enough examples to support my case that a huge number of students are not academically ready for PSAT and SAT assessments. It is up to us to find and offer assessments that are a better match, that will be much more meaningful to teachers and students.

I recall giving a grammar test to an extremely able class. Later I began to grade the tests … many F’s; only a few would have received a C. I had failed, not my students. I had done a bad job of teaching that unit. The students were not ready for this assessment. I threw out the tests, and nothing went in the grade book. I hope I apologized to my class. We cannot blame students when the test does not meet them where they are, when it gives them little chance to succeed.  

Better studies than you will see in AV #222, as well as national reports (see Addendum A), show that many are raising similar questions about the value and fairness of these tests.

Conclusion: We need a better way to assess students in such schools, to gather meaningful data, and to learn how to improve the curriculum and instruction. We are wasting too much school time forcing students to take assessments that are a poor match for their current skills. We must do better.

Assessments that meet students where they are will give them a chance to perform in ways that do not simply add to their frustration (with their school, with “the system”) and that, instead, will provide far more useful information to them, to their teachers, and to their families.

 

On the purpose of PSAT and SAT, according to the College Board[iv]                                                                                                                                         (Bold mine) “The SAT Suite of Assessments is made up of the SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, and PSAT 8/9. The tests, created by the College Board, measure the same skills and knowledge at a level that is appropriate for the different grade levels taking the tests.” “The overarching goal of the SAT Suite of Assessments is to make it easy for students, parents, and teachers to understand and monitor student progress toward college readiness.” “Why Take the SAT? - The SAT is an admissions test widely accepted by U.S. colleges and many international colleges and universities. SAT scores help colleges compare students from different high schools. Your scores show your strengths and readiness for college work.”

 

 

1.   SAT/PSAT scores in low-performing schools – my regret at making too much of them

2019 Aurora Central - SAT results  READING/WRITING –  407 - (state average – 505) MATH  400 - (state average – 496) Rating - all student groups   DOES NOT MEET

Another View has—I now think perhaps too often—presented the dismal PSAT/SAT scores in our lowest-performing high schools as a way of capturing their poor academic achievement, which called for dramatic change. In #200, as the State Board of Education prepared to assess the progress (or not) in six of our high schools on the accountability clock for (too) many years, I provided the PSAT and SAT scores (“All below ‘minimum scores accepted’ in Colorado’s Graduation Guidelines for 2020-21.”) for Aurora Central and Gateway in APS, Abraham Lincoln and Manual High in DPS, and Adams 14 High School and Pueblo’s Central High School. In #202 I again provided those figures for Aurora Central (see box). I kept it up in #211, a deeper study of Abraham Lincoln. Not only did I highlight its SAT scores in 2018 and 2019 (see box, below. Updated scores.) …   

B.  NEW GRADUATION GUIDELINES  2021	SAT - ENGLISH QUALIFYING SCORE 470		SAT – MATH QUALIFYING SCORE 500
SAT scores for Abraham Lincoln High	2018	2019	2018	2019
	427	415	433	424

 

… I then presented painful sections from Abraham Lincoln’s most recent School Performance Framework.

 

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT (9TH/10TH GRADES)
Subject	Student Group	Percentile Rank			Rating
		2018		2019	2018		2019
CO PSAT – Read/Write	All students	1		1	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
	English Learners	1		1	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible	1		1	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
	Minority Students	1		1	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
	Students with Disabilities	1		1	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
CO PSAT – Math	All students	2		5	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
	English Learners	1		2	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible	2		5	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
	Minority Students	2		5	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
	Students with Disabilities	1		1	Does Not Meet		Does Not Meet
POSTSECONDARY AND WORKFORCE READINESS  (11th GRADE)
Subject	Student Group		Rating
			2018			2019
CO SAT – Read/Write	All students		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
	English Learners		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
	Minority Students		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
	Students with Disabilities		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
CO SAT – Math	All students		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
	English Learners		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
	Minority Students		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet
	Students with Disabilities		Does Not Meet			Does Not Meet

*From the School Performance Framework Reports for 2018 and 2019 for Abraham Lincoln. https://www.cde.state.co.us/schoolview/performance.  Same source for results that follow from 10 other high schools.

I began to wonder if I was making too much of such “damning information,” as I saw it, about the lack of academic achievement and progress in a few schools. This page on Abraham Lincoln’s School Performance Framework—how different would it look at 10 other low-performing high schools I had been studying?

It turns out, not much. Indicating as much about the test itself, perhaps, as the schools.

SPF reports at three other high schools were almost as harsh. APPOACHING on just a few occasions.

DNM= Does Not Meet   APP=Approaching    If no information, N<16

Subject	Student Group	Mapleton   Expeditionary      School of the Arts		Manual High   (DPS)		Sheridan High    (Sheridan)
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT (9TH/10TH GRADES)
		2018	2019	2018	2019	2018	2019
CO PSAT  Read/Write	All students	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	English Learners	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Minority Students	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Students with Disabilities	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
CO PSAT – Math	All students	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	English Learners	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Minority Students	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Students with Disabilities	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
CMAS – Science	All students	DNM	DNM	-	DNM	APP	DNM
	English Learners	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible	DNM	APP	DNM	DNM	APP	DNM
	Minority Students	DNM	DNM	-	DNM	APP	DNM
	Students with Disabilities	DNM	-	DNM	DNM	-	DNM
POSTSECONDARY AND WORKFORCE READINESS
Subject	Student Group
		2018	2019	2018	2019	2018	2019
CO SAT–Read/Write	All students	DNM	APP	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	English Learners	DNM	DNM	-	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Minority Students	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Students with Disabilities	DNM	-	-	DNM	DNM	DNM
CO SAT – Math	All students	DNM	APP	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	English Learners	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible	DNM	APP	APP	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Minority Students	DNM	APP	DNM	DNM	DNM	DNM
	Students with Disabilities	DNM	-	-	DNM	DNM	DNM

 

AS FOR THE OTHER SEVEN – Like Abraham Lincoln High School, their PSAT/SAT scores earned a rating of

DOES NOT MEET

in every category for which enough students took the test, in both 2018 and 2019.

 

We must ask if college admissions tests are the right way to measure academic improvement in schools where so many students perform two years or more below grade level. How is a school expected to make good use of such scores – staring at DOES NOT MEET, 25 times?

Adams City High         (Adams 14)                                             

Aurora Central High        (APS)                                    

Bruce Randolph*             (DPS)

Gateway High School     (APS)

Hinkley High School        (APS)

Jefferson Junior/Senior High School* (Jeffco)

Westminster High           (WPS)

*Bruce Randolph & Jefferson Jr/Sr High - Students with Disabilities – for several assessments, no information – n < 16.

 

I now wonder how these school communities feel about the central role of the PSAT and SAT scores in their School Performance Rating. What if all a school takes away from such a discouraging report is humiliation? Right now, these scores seem used largely (by people like me?) to badger schools. The scores, I once thought, told us a lot. I am less sure of that now.

                             

2.    How confident are low-performing high schools in PSAT/SAT as a meaningful assessment – for them? Are declining scores a signal that students might see little reason for such tests? 

Look at our most recent SAT scores. The decline statewide, from 2018 to 2019, was troubling. But note how dramatic it was in several high schools rated on Priority Improvement or Turnaround.  Sure, this tells us something about the school’s lack of academic progress. But isn’t it just as possible the students are sending us another message – how little they care to do their best? Why bother?

 

SAT (Graduation Guideline Minimum)	Reading & Writing (470)			Math (500)
	2018	2019	Decline from 2018	2018	2019	Decline from 2018
STATE AVERAGE	513	505	-8	501	496	-5
Big Picture College Career Acad.	489	430	-69	498	418	-80
Denver Montessori Jr/Sr High	549	482	-67	488	403	-85
Girls Athletic Leadership School	508	471	-37	481	438	-43
Gateway H.S.	438	415	-23	417	406	-11
Hinkley H.S.	443	423	-20	438	424	-14
Jefferson Jr/Sr H. S.	435	415	-20	414	388	-26
Aurora Central H.S.	421	405	-16	409	398	-11
Abraham Lincoln H.S.	427	415	-12	433	424	-9
Adams City H.S.	441	432	-9	430	412	-18
		23 to 100 pts below state average	decline worse than state average		58 to 108 pts below state average	decline worse than state average

Data from Chalkbeat Colorado –https://co.chalkbeat.org/2019/8/15/21108632/sat-scores-are-slightly-down-in-colorado-find-your-school-s-2019-re    Declines, my own math.

In a similar vein, while we hope to see significant progress on the PSAT/SAT scores in our lowest-performing schools, we seldom do. Consider the “growth scores” from these high schools, most of them among the 35 high schools on either Priority Improvement or Turnaround on the state’s Accountability Clock. The majority of their students were not meeting the state’s expectations for their grade level as the 2018-19 began (see 9th graders arrive, page 7). As PSAT/SAT scores are how we track academic progress in Colorado, growth below 50% indicates their students fell even further behind by the spring.

 

ACADEMIC GROWTH	SPF Rating*	PSAT/SAT – Evidenced Based Reading & Writing Growth	PSAT/SAT   Math   Growth
STATE AVERAGE - ACADEMIC GROWTH		50	51
Aurora Central H.S.	PI - yr 9	43	46
Abraham Lincoln H.S.	PI – yr 5	43	44
**Sheridan H.S.	IMP	43	40
Adams City H.S.	PI  - yr 9	42	36
Hinkley H.S. (APS)	TR – yr 2	42	46
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College (DPS)	PI – yr 1	39.5	45
Central High (Pueblo 60)	PI – yr 5	39	42
Gateway High School (APS)	TR – yr 5	39	44
Manual H.S. (DPS)	TR – yr 6	38	49
Antonito High School (South Conejos RE-10)	PI – yr 3	36.5	39
Noel Community Arts School (DPS)	PI – yr 1	36	47
Jefferson Jr./Sr. H.S. (Jeffco)	TR – yr 1	34	31
Big Picture College & Career Academy (Mapleton)	PI – yr 1	31	43

*PI = Priority Improvement    TR = Turnaround     **Low-performing school, but on Improvement (IMP), not PI or TR.

Do these schools and their teachers believe the PSAT and SAT are a meaningful way to measure academic progress in their building? (Doubtful when, in their 2019-20 Unified Improvement Plans, they set wildly improbable SAT goals[v].) I have asked two of these schools. No response. A state official whose opinion I trust, in close contact with our lowest-performing high schools, sent me this surprisingly upbeat analysis:

 

First, I observed that SAT was pretty motivating to teachers and students alike once the school culture shifted to one of ‘college and career readiness’ for all. Teachers seemed to understand that

Imagine you feel compelled to take a three-hour test – not well-suited to your current knowledge and skills, and you can’t see why your score will matter (“Is this part of my grade?” “No.”). I wonder how many students give the exam about one hour, and then largely quit. All teachers have seen students do this on occasion. What if it is happening, multiple times, in some of these high schools?

students need to demonstrate certain skills on these assessments and that outside validation of college admissions did seem to make them more meaningful. It served as a great jumping off point to have teachers comparing and referencing the rigor of PSAT/SAT when designing student work and formative assessments. Prior to a concerted effort to use the SAT as a bar for rigor, the ACT/SAT seemed to be something on the side that didn’t drive curriculum and instruction.

“Motivating”? I wish we knew if this is the case. (Perhaps worth a survey of our 30-40 lowest-performing high schools.) I believe their low scores and lack of growth might well reflect, to some degree, just how little these three-hour tests mean to a large percentage of high school juniors in these schools.

 

TIME: “The SAT is broken up into three sections consisting of four tests …  Total time -180 minutes…”[vi]

Reading: 65-minute section with 52 questions (75 seconds per question)

Writing and Language: 35-minute section with 44 questions (about 48 seconds per question)

Math – No Calculator: 25-minute section with 20 questions (75 seconds per question)

Math – Calculator: 55-minute section with 38 questions (about 87 seconds per question)

 

 

 

 

 

  

9^th graders arrive in these high schools well behind – why then a college admissions test?

 

From a visit I made to Abraham Lincoln High School in the early 1990’s. A math teacher said to me something like this: “How are we expected to teach 9^th grade math when they show up here having a 1.1 GPA in middle school?”

 

Frustration. Please know how important this is. In my first job I was asked to work with 9th graders reading well below grade level. The master teacher I studied with pounded it into my head: Do not give them work that merely adds to their frustration. Know how angry they are that they just can’t do it. Be sure to meet them where they are.

My purpose here is not to blame the high schools. And it is not to blame the students. The scores are this low because we, the adults, have imposed a test on students they are not ready for. To that end, let’s remind ourselves how well the average 9^th grader is doing, academically, as they enter high school in our lowest-performing districts. 

Note how 8^th graders in districts like these perform on the English portion of the CMAS test. It tells us that most 9^th graders in such districts begin high school well short of meeting grade level expectations.

CMAS – 8th grade – 2018 & 2019– The high schools in these five districts welcome freshmen, over ¾ of whom were not meeting expectation in English, and an even higher percentage not at grade level in Math. And we ask them to take a college readiness test in 9th grade?
	CMAS- English Language - % Met or Exceeded Expectations
	2018	2019
State of Colorado	43.8%	46.9%
Sheridan	37.1%     33 students out of 89	16.5%          15/91
Huerfano	32.6           14/43	22.9%            8/35
Englewood	26.3%        26/130	20.0%        26/130
Mapleton	22.0%      142/645	28.9%       173/599
Las Animas	19.8%        24/121	14.9%        35/235
NOT MEETING GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS	77%  -  789/1028	76% -  833/1090

In our large districts there is a greater variety. In Denver, it is likely that most freshmen at East High School or the Denver School of the Arts met or exceeded the state standards in 8^th grade, well prepared for a challenging high school curriculum.

 

*See Jean Fleming’s “Adaptive Assessments – Meeting Students Where They Are in Their Learning” (March 16, 2016) More on such alternatives in next week’s Another View.

But in these five smaller districts, above, the numbers reveal where the majority of freshmen are performing as high school begins. Given such figures, above, it makes no sense to use the PSAT to measure their academic progress. We can surely find other tests* whose purpose is not to see if most students are on track to be “college ready” by junior or senior year. Heck, they are not on track for freshmen English! Or as those Lincoln teachers said to me, over 25 years ago, not ready for 9^th grade math. 

We must find an alternative that meets these freshmen where they are. Give them a chance to be successful and show what they are learning.  Not how much they do not know.

This is a serious question: Are we knowingly giving thousands of students a test that we know will prove frustrating and disheartening, and—for their schools—of little value?

 

3.    Equity – Students on Free or Reduced Lunch and English Learners - PSAT/SAT Results

 

“We are all about equity.” The phrase is ubiquitous. OK, let’s go there. Definition first: fair, impartial, equitable. What do we make of the starkly different results based on whether or not students are on Free or Reduced Lunch? Or a second feature, whether or not students are English Learners? 

A.     Colorado - Gaps between students – Eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch, or not Eligible 

Consider these gaps in the PSAT and SAT scores by Colorado students on Free or Reduced Lunch (FRL) compared to those who are not FRL eligible. Then consider the gap between where FRL students perform and where the College Board sets its benchmark for that test, in that grade, “on track for college and career readiness.”

 

2019 PSAT and SAT results – COLORADO - Stark Gap for FRL vs. non-FRL Students

	Students ELIGIBLE for Free or Reduced Lunch	Student NOT ELIGIBLE for FRL	GAP
PSAT – Grade 9	816	959	143 pts
# of students*	23,556	39,486
PSAT – Grade 10	847	987	140 pts
# of students	21,284	39,438
SAT – Grade 11	898	1051	153 pts
# of students	19,019	38,954
	63,859 students	117,878 students

*number of students =number of valid scores

On average, the gap between almost 64,000 FRL high school students and the nearly 118,000 students not FRL eligible = 145 points.

The gap between FRL students and the College Board benchmark for each test is also striking. Please note, again, how, as these students approach senior year, their scores fall further below the benchmark.

 

	Average score for Colorado students ELIGIBLE for FRL	College Board benchmarks = “on track for college and career readiness”	GAP grows from 9th grade to 11th grade
PSAT – Grade 9	816	860	44 pts.
PSAT – Grade 10	847	910	63 pts.
SAT – Grade 11	898	970	72 pts.

 

 

B.     10 districts - From grade 9 (PSAT) to grade 11 (SAT) – Students on Free or Reduced Lunch

 

Given this, let’s look at PSAT and SAT scores in 2019 in 10 low-performing districts where the majority of students are on Free or Reduced Lunch. In any of these 10 districts would the PSAT and SAT scores indicate most FRL students “are on track for college and career readiness”? Between 9th and 11th grade, do we see FRL students move closer to, or drop further away from, demonstrating “college and career readiness”?

The answers, sadly, will be no, they are not on track. On average, 11^th grade FRL students in these districts fall even further below the College Board benchmark[1] than we see for 9^th graders. 

Percentage of students on Free or Reduced Lunch (2019-20)
State of Colorado	41%
Sheridan	90%
Adams 14	83%
Las Animas	80%
Westminster	78%
Huerfano	77%
Pueblo 60	74%
Aurora Public Schools	74%
Denver Public Schools	64%
Englewood	62%
Mapleton	58%

As you see below, in 2019, ninth graders who are on Free or Reduced Lunch in these 10 districts received, on average, terribly low scores on their first PSAT. How many will be able to improve scores enough over the next two years to meet the SAT benchmark in reading/writing and in math? 

I am not suggesting we lower the bar. A “hard test” is not wrong, per se. Teachers try to find a balance, based on this mantra: Give students a challenge, but do not set them up for failure. 

My point is that our chosen assessments are too hard to be helpful for tens of thousands of our students. And their schools. 

9^th grade to 11^th grade, PSAT to SAT - FRL students - nearly 100 pts. "below average"

 

State of Colorado	PSAT All 9th graders Average - 906	PSAT benchmark for 9th grade 860*	SAT All 11th graders Average - 1001	SAT benchmark  for 11th grade 970
	FRL students Average - 816		FRL students Average -898
Denver Public Schools	804		902
Huerfano	800		871
Pueblo 60	781		873
Aurora Public Schools	780		859
Adams 14	779		830
Sheridan	779		848
Westminster	779		858
Mapleton	778		884
Englewood	776		888
Las Animas	733		775
Between 56 (DPS) and 127 (Las Animas) points below the benchmark for 9th grade.			Between 68 (DPS) and 195 (Las Animas) points below the benchmark for 11th grade

 *From the College Board: “Grade-Level benchmarks indicate whether students are on track for college and career readiness.” PSAT benchmarks “are based on expected student growth toward SAT benchmarks at each grade.”

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/about/scores/benchmarks

C.     2019 PSAT and SAT results – An even larger gap for English Learners (EL) vs. Non-EL Students 

From the PHD dissertation by Miguel Cardona, President-elect Biden’s pick for Secretary of Education: "From my perspective, it seems that the normalization of failure of the ELL students continues to influence practices."[vii] (Emphasis mine.)

 

The gap is even more dramatic for students who are English Learners. The state has two classifications: NEP: Not English Proficient, and LEP: Limited English Proficient. The EL scores below combine those two groups. Again, notice how the gap in scores widens by the time EL students take the SAT junior year.

 

	EL Students	NON-EL Students	GAP
PSAT – Grade 9	710	924	214 pts
# of students*	5,319	57,723
PSAT – Grade 10	741	954	213 pts
# of students	4,518	56,204
SAT – Grade 11	765	1018	253 pts
# of students	3,860	54,113
	13,697 students	168,040 students

*number of students = number of valid scores

Here is where judging a number of our lowest performing high schools on their PSAT/SAT scores, as I have done, seems unfair – especially when I see scores like these for their English Learners in 2019. EL PSAT scores* English Math Abraham Lincoln 370 388 Adams City H.S. 377 375 Aurora Central 360 360 Manual High 362 372 *From each school’s 2019 School Performance Framework.[viii]

On average, the gap between almost 13,700 English Learner high school students and over 168,000 students not English Learners = 226 points.         

Is this, perhaps, an example of what our next U.S. Secretary of Education once wrote of as “the normalization of failure of the ELL students”?

We will not eliminate inequities in the system overnight. But what if this is one case where we can reduce inequities in how we test our students?                                                                **                                                                      You and I find such scores, such gaps, depressing, true? Again, imagine what it is like for the students. 

I took this test in 9^th grade and scored poorly. In 10^th grade you made me take another PSAT. Again I did badly. And now in 11^th grade you want me to take an SAT when you and I know even before I sit down that, based on my record the past two years, there is little chance I can score what is supposed to meet some “college readiness” benchmark. How does this help me?

It rarely does.

I refer back to page one. The PSAT and SAT tests seem to work for most high schools in Colorado. The data gathered here raises the question of whether they work for all.

 

 

4.   100 AEC schools with “a specialized mission” and a “college readiness” exam = mismatch

Finally, if it seems unfair to use PSAT/SAT tests as a way to measure progress in our lowest-performing high schools, this becomes even more apparent with our Alternative Education Campuses, now serving roughly 20,000 students. Colorado has close to 100 AEC schools whose “specialized mission” is to serve “high-risk students.” Are the PSAT and SAT well-designed for them, many of whom struggle to finish high school? Of course not. These teenagers have good reason to question why they should spend three hours on these tests. Here are 10 AEC schools. Note how far below the College Board benchmark their 11^th graders were in 2019. The data that comes back on the School Performance Framework will have practically no value for them, for their teachers, or their school.  

School (District/Authorizer)	TOTAL score	Read/Write		Math
State of Colorado - Average	1001
College Board Benchmark	970	460		510
Lowest category in this scoring – “Score is below the benchmark by more than one year’s academic growth”			160-420 points		160-470 points
*Colorado High School Charter (DPS)	791	415		376
McLain Community High (Jeffco)	781	401		380
Vantage Point (Adams 12)	775	392		383
Denver Center for 21st Cent. Learning at Wyman (DPS)	773	408		365
Brady Exploratory (Jeffco)	772	400		372
Vista Academy (DPS)	772	389		383
AIM Global (Las Animas)	768	398		370
New America School-Thornton (Adams 12)	767	394		374
New Legacy School (CSI)	748	386		362
New America School – Lowry (CSI)	736	379		357

*Chalkbeat Colorado https://co.chalkbeat.org/2019/8/15/21108632/sat-scores-are-slightly-down-in-colorado-find-your-school-s-2019-results

I am aware the state of Colorado has created accommodations for AEC schools that reduces the impact of the PSAT/SAT scores on a school’s School Performance Rating.[ix] (It does not, however, boost the score for the student. That 17-year old is still staring, in dismay, at that 780.) Dr. Jody Ernst, Vice President at Momentum Strategy and Research, has spent years working to improve the accountability for AEC schools across the country. I asked if a number of AEC folks in Colorado would rather the SAT/PSAT were not the one academic assessment used by the state for their high schools. She responded:

“I think it is safe to say that there are AECs that wish that their students were not required to sit for the PSAT/SAT exams—whether because tests stress their students out or that most students don’t take it seriously because it is not relevant for them, or because some aren’t ready for it yet. All of which impact how well the students do on the assessments. However, I think the test outcomes may be secondary to how the [school] leaders’ feel the tests impact their students.”

 

Can you tell the difference? Addendum B: 10 Colorado high schools. Traditional high school or Alternative Education Campus?

Ryan Marks, Director of Evaluation and Assessment at Colorado’s Charter School Institute, adds that attending college is not top of mind for most AEC students, so “they don’t see a lot of relevance in these PSAT and SAT tests.” And if post-secondary education is a goal, attending community colleges—which have open admission policies and do not require a minimum SAT score—are usually the best fit.

**

Still, accountability matters for all our schools. As we re-evaluate our School Performance Framework, I find promise in two state-wide efforts: the Student-Centered Accountability Program (S-CAP)[x] in roughly 15 rural districts and the way our roughly 100 Alternative Education Campuses are invited to present academic outcomes[xi]. Both invite high schools to use other options to measure their progress. Both efforts include what I find especially relevant for the students I have focused on here, for whom the PSAT and SAT seems such a poor fit: computer adaptive tests. (NOTE: Whatever we do, let’s not play helpless and say the federal law won’t allow us such options. See Addendum C – ESSA and Testing.)

 

Next week’s Another View will be brief, highlighting these two efforts. It will offer some hope to readers who share my conclusion: we must find other ways to assess many of our high schools and their students.

 

ADDENDA

Addendum A – Colleges & ACHIEVE question the fairness and value of SAT/ACT exams

(All bold mine)

Don’t Use SAT and ACT as Your High School Tests, Study Urges

Education Week, Catherine Gewertz, March 13, 2018  

 

   States should not use the SAT or ACT to measure high school achievement because those exams don’t fully reflect states’ academic standards, and could distort what’s taught in the classroom, according to a study released Tuesday.

   The paper, released by Achieve, which pushes for high-quality standards and tests, calls for a halt in an assessment trend that’s been picking up steam in recent years: states using the SAT or ACT instead of their high school tests. This school year, 13 states are using one of those college-admissions tests statewide to measure high school achievement.

   Testing experts have long raised questions about using the SAT or ACT as an official measure of high school achievement. They argue that college-admissions exams can’t do a good job of measuring students’ mastery of their state’s academic standards because they were not crafted to gauge students’ grasp of those standards. They were designed to do something different, which is to predict students’ chance of success in college.

--

   States that already use the SAT or ACT to measure high school achievement statewide should consider augmenting those tests with additional or revised items to get a fuller representation of their academic standards, the Achieve paper argues. That’s not unprecedented. Maine and Illinois, for instance, have augmented those exams to more fully cover their standards.

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/dont-use-sat-and-act-as-your-high-school-tests-study-urges/2018/03

 

Questioning their fairness, a record number of colleges stop requiring the SAT and ACT

Results are mixed, but suggest that making these tests optional is improving diversity on campus

Hechinger Report, Alina Tugend, Oct. 9, 2019

 

   … the SAT and ACT are facing what could be the greatest challenge in their histories, which stretch back to the early 20^th century.

   “There are a number of things merging that pose a significant threat to standardized admissions tests,” said Michael Nietzel, president emeritus of Missouri State University…  One in four institutions no longer requires these tests for admission, for example, Nietzel said. Combined with tutoring that wealthy families can afford, extra time their kids are more likely to get than lower-income classmates and downright cheating, he said, “they’ve lost their luster as a common yardstick.”

https://hechingerreport.org/questioning-their-fairness-a-record-number-of-colleges-stop-requiring-the-sat-and-act/

 

Why Is the SAT Falling Out of Favor?

The University of California will no longer use SAT and ACT scores in admissions decisions. Critics say the tests put less wealthy students at a disadvantage. New York Times, Shawn Humbler, May 23, 2020

    SACRAMENTO — The University of California’s decision this past week to stop requiring the SAT and ACT tests for admissions renewed a debate that could be a prompt on a college application: Are the tests that were first deployed to diversify the Ivy League beyond rich prep schoolers a worthwhile yardstick, or are they, as one U.C. regent put it, “a proxy for privilege”?

   The California system has become the biggest and best-known American institution of higher education to step away from the use of the two major standardized tests, citing charges that they disadvantage students who are poor, black, and Hispanic.

   In the last decade or so, more than 1,230 colleges and universities have made the SAT and ACT optional for admission, according to FairTest, a group that has pushed to end testing requirements. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/23/us/SAT-ACT-abolish-debate-california.html?auth=login-email&login=email

 

The Future of College Entrance Exams

Test scores used to be the only way into college. Now, many universities are doing away with the requirement.  Lauren Camera, Senior Education Writer, Oct. 26, 2018 

The news reignited concerns over whether there's a mismatch between what students learn in school and what college entrance exams ask of them, whether the tests are an accurate barometer of college readiness, and – from an equity standpoint – whether the tests present an advantage to those with more means. The growing debate is also giving some colleges and universities the ammunition needed to join the growing ranks of schools that have made an ACT or SAT score optional for admission – prompting some to question the fate of college entrance exams altogether.  https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2018-10-26/the-new-opt-out-movement-colleges-make-entrance-exams-optional

 

Addendum B: 10 Colorado high schools. When the SAT scores have this in common…

 10 high schools. 5 traditional high schools, 5 Alternative Education Campuses. Recent SAT scores.

 Do you know which is which? 

Our lowest-performing “traditional” high schools have SAT scores so similar to those at many AEC schools, it might be hard to know which is which. Such results again show how a college readiness test is a poor match for a large percentage of our schools, whatever their classification. 

SAT (Graduation Guideline Minimum)	English - 2019	Math- 2019
STATE AVERAGE	505	496
Pathways Future Center (Ad-12)	435	414
Adams City H.S.	432	412
Nikola Tesla Education Opportunity Center (Co. Springs)	424	396
Abraham Lincoln H.S.	415	424
Gateway H.S.	415	406
Jefferson Jr./Sr. H. S.	415	388
Colorado High School Charter (DPS)	415	376
Denver Center for 21st Century Learning at Wyman	408	384
Aurora Central H.S.	405	398
Vantage Point (Ad-12)	392	383

 

Addendum C - ESSA and Testing

Source – EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS ACT Assessments under Title I, Part A & Title I, Part B: Summary of Final Regulations [xii]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               (Bold mine)

“High-quality assessments are a critical tool that can help educators, parents, and policymakers promote educational equity by highlighting achievement gaps, especially for our traditionally underserved students, and that can spur instructional improvements that benefit all our children. At the same time, where too much focus has been placed on testing, educators, parents, and students have rightly highlighted the need for more creativity and innovation,” said U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. “Our final regulations strike a balance by offering states flexibility to eliminate redundant testing and promote innovative assessments, while ensuring assessments continue to contribute to a well-rounded picture of how students and schools are doing.”

 

Background on ESSA’s Testing Provisions

Passage of the ESSA

To measure progress against that goal and maintain a critical focus on educational equity and excellence for all, the law maintains the requirement that states administer to all students annual statewide assessments in reading/language arts and mathematics in grades 3-8 and once in high school, as well as assessments once in each grade span in science for all students and annual English language proficiency assessments in grades K-12 for all English learners. The law also includes important protections to ensure that all students are tested, offered appropriate accommodations when needed, and held to the same high standards. The ESSA also provides several new flexibilities to help states develop innovative approaches to assessments and reduce duplicative, unnecessary testing.

 

Flexibility for locally selected, nationally recognized high school academic assessments

• Under ESSA and these regulations, a state may permit districts to use a nationally recognized high school academic assessments in place of the statewide high school assessment; a district using this flexibility, however, must use the same locally selected, nationally recognized assessment in all of its high schools.

 

Moving to high-quality, computer-adaptive assessments

• The law and regulations explain that states may develop computer-adaptive tests, which may provide a more precise estimate of a student’s ability with fewer questions than traditional tests.

• Even if computer-adaptive assessments include questions above or below a student’s grade level, such assessments must measure and report assessment results against grade-level academic standards to ensure all students are held to the same high standards.

 

Supporting Flexibility for States and Districts and Promoting High Expectations for All Students:

Title I, Part A General Statutory Requirements

States have flexibility to develop new assessment designs, which may include a series of multiple statewide interim assessments during the course of the academic year that result in a single summative assessment score (sometimes described as “modular” assessments).

Promoting Innovation and Next Generation Assessments: Title I, Part B

General Statutory Requirements

• The final regulations under Title I, part B support states in implementing the new flexibility in ESSA to pilot innovative approaches to assessments.

• The Secretary has authority to grant flexibility to states to administer an innovative assessment in a subset of districts—instead of the statewide assessment—and to use those results for the purposes of accountability and reporting as the states scale the new systems to statewide use. 

 

  

Endnotes

[i] Changes in high school assessments in Colorado – for grades 9, 10, 11 - 2002-2019

Years	9	10	11
2002-2011	CSAP	CSAP	ACT
2012-14	TCAP	TCAP	ACT
2015 (State on “accountability hold” during transition to CMAS)	CMAS/PARCC	CMAS/PARCC	CMAS/PARCC and ACT
2016	CMAS/PARCC	PSAT	ACT
2017	CMAS/PARCC	PSAT	SAT
2018	PSAT	PSAT	SAT
2019	PSAT	PSAT	SAT

[ii] CDE- News release - https://www.cde.state.co.us/communications/20190815assessmentrelease - Same numbers for Colorado at CDE summary of 2019 results - https://www.cde.state.co.us/assessment/2019_psat_sat_statesummaryachievementresults 

[iii]  From the College Board: “Grade-Level benchmarks indicate whether students are on track for college and career readiness.” PSAT benchmarks “are based on expected student growth toward SAT benchmarks at each grade.” https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/about/scores/benchmarks

[ iv]“meaningful assessment.” Switching from CMAS/PARCC tests for high school students to national “college readiness” exams has improved buy-in.  In 2019, the participation rate for grades 9, 10, and 11 exceeded 92% (http://www.cde.state.co.us/assessment/2019_psat_sat_statesummaryachievementresults).  “Both tests are meant to measure college readiness, and SAT test scores can be used on applications for most colleges and universities. Officials hoped that by offering high schoolers a test with more of a link to their college readiness — rather than an unrelated state achievement test — they would be more motivated to take the tests.” (Emphasis mine) So for most 9^th and 10th graders, yes, it is likely we do see improved motivation.  https://co.chalkbeat.org/2019/8/15/21108632/sat-scores-are-slightly-down-in-colorado-find-your-school-s-2019-results

[v] https://blog.collegeboard.org/difference-between-sat-and-psat

[vi] Aurora Central – Aurora Central -SAT English will rise from 407 in ’18-19 to 501 in ’20-21. SAT Math will rise from 400 in ‘18-19 to 488 in ’20-21. Abraham Lincoln – Medium Growth Percentile will climb in 2019-20 from 43 (English) and 44 (Math) to MGP of 60. Why set such a goal when it is not the least bit credible?

[vii] https://blog.collegeboard.org/how-long-does-the-sat-take

[viii] “Biden selects CT’s Miguel Cardona to lead the U.S. Department of Education,” https://ctmirror.org/2020/12/22/biden-selects-cts-miguel-cardona-to-lead-the-u-s-department-of-education/?utm_source=ECS+Subscribers&utm_campaign=e721d5b49a-ED_CLIPS_12_23_2020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1a2b00b930-e721d5b49a-63602687

[ix] School View, School and District Data, Colorado Department of Education, http://www.cde.state.co.us/schoolview/performance

[x] Alternative Education Campus Accountability, Colorado Department of Education. “The states’ performance framework for AECs takes into account the unique purposes of the campuses and the unique circumstances….” http://www.cde.state.co.us/accountability/stateaccountabilityaecs_draft

[xi] The Student-Centered Accountability Program (S-CAP) is a system of accountability proposed and designed by a group of Colorado rural school districts. At the heart of Student-Centered Accountability is a focus on the success of well-rounded students using a system for continuous improvement. To accomplish this, the districts use multiple measures of student success to expand results beyond a single state test score. https://scapbvschools.weebly.com/

[xii] Alternative Education Campus Accountability, Colorado Department of Education. “Through the AEC School Performance Framework, AECs are permitted to select optional measures for accountability and improvement planning in addition to the state-required measures.” http://www.cde.state.co.us/accountability/aecoverviewfactsheet

[xiii] https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/essaassessmentfactsheet1207.pdf