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State Representative Jim Buchy
Results Show
Paper Options Should Remain for Testing
Testing season is quickly approaching for students across Ohio.
After the debacle with PARCC last year, the legislature has taken great
strides to ensure that this year’s experience goes much more smoothly,
producing better and more accurate results.
This year, students will be taking the AIR test, which has produced
much better results in the past than PARCC, and we are expecting good,
reliable results. This exam will be primarily administered using
computers-unless the school’s administration opted for paper testing
before the January 11th deadline. However, with the release of
the school report cards for last year, we have found that this may not
be the best route for testing.
On January 14th, the first round of school report cards was
released. Their results showed that students who took paper
versions of the PARCC examination did markedly better compared to peers
who took the online test. These results were consistent between
schools and even among students within the same schools. The
disparity between scores even caused a delay in the release of the
report cards because of concerns over the integrity of the results.
After reviewing this evidence, many school administrators have
concluded that they would rather their students take the paper version
of this year’s AIR test-to better the testing experience and produce a
better evaluation of the progress their students have made.
However, the deadline to opt for paper testing was three days before
these results were made public.
The Ohio Department of Education has refused to allow schools an
additional opportunity to opt for paper testing following the release
of these results. Given these findings, it would be common sense
to allow administrators to choose the paper option.
I have stood strong with our schools and recently sent a letter to
Interim Superintendent Dr. Lonny Rivera asking him to reconsider this
decision and respond with a timely plan to allow administrators an
additional opportunity to opt for paper and pencil testing if they so
choose. While I appreciate the benefits of electronic testing, we
must measure the progress of this new technology before forcing it on
our schools. If students test better using tried and true paper
and pencil, rather than unproven online methods, we should be allowing
our schools to opt-into paper testing at any time they see fit.
Parents can view the adjusted report card scores for your local schools
attinyurl.com/adjustedreportcards
Please give me your opinion on this topic and others in the news this
month by completing an online survey at tinyurl.com/buchyapril2016
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