High stakes testing begins in Tahoe Truckee

It is just after 7 a.m. as approximately 200 students crowd into the cafeteria at the local middle school eating a free breakfast and blowing off steam by shooting practice basketball in wall-mounted portable basketball hoop.

Some of the students get a little rowdy and wrestle, before a school administrator walks by causing them to stop. Nervous energy fills the roomful of sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

Tuesday marks the first day of week-long standardized testing for students at North Tahoe Middle School. In fact, almost every district student from grades second through eleventh will be taking the California Standards Test, or CST, during the month of May, according to the district’s Director of Educational Services Dave Curry.

The test, although not required for students to move to the next grade level or to graduate high school, will determine whether the district moves away from the title of program improvement school.

The standardized test is also a piece of how student achievement is tracked, Curry said, explaining that significant state and federal funding is tied to overall achievement.

School status • Truckee Elementary is in its second year of program improvement. The school needs to meet Annual Yearly Progress two years in a row. • North Tahoe Middle School is in its fifth year of program improvement. The school needs to meet Annual Yearly Progress two year in a row. • Kings Beach Elementary School is in its third year of program improvement. The school is in “safe harbor” and needs to meet Annual Yearly Progress this year. • The Tahoe Truckee Unified School District is in its third year of program improvement. The district needs all schools to meet Annual Yearly Progress two year in a row.

Program Improvement

In March, the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District was named as one of 96 California school districts in program improvement that could face state sanctions. The district, now in its third year, is the only Placer County district to face the sanctions.

The term “program improvement” is given to districts whose students have not met adequate yearly progress two years in a row, according to the California Department of Education Web site. The progress is measured by the California Standardized Test mandated by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

Curry said the district will hold itself responsible for helping students who grade poorly on the test to achieve future success.

“Every kid can learn,” he said. “No matter what they’re background, they can learn — that’s what this [collaboration] is about.”

Collaboration

Parallel to the testing, Curry explained every teacher in the district is involved in creating a district-wide assessment that is tied to the state standards.

He said because the results of the California Standards Test come out in August, the test “is almost like an autopsy,” not helping the student who takes the test, just the student that comes after.

The district collaboration effort is an attempt to establish small weekly assessments to find out what the students know and make adjustments in instruction quickly, he said.

“That’s what our collaboration efforts have been about — addressing student learning immediately,” he said. “The most important question is how will we respond when students are not learning?”

The test

The standardized test measures student progress toward California's academic standards, one of the highest in the country, Curry said. The state standards describe what students should know and be able to do in each grade and subject tested.

The test results are reported to the California Department of Education which reports the results to the federal government agency in charge of No Child Left Behind Act, Curry said.

Students’ scores are compared to pre-determined criteria to determine if the students’ performance on the test is advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, or far below basic. The state target is for all students to score at the proficient or advanced levels.

But the test, said Truckee Elementary second grade Teacher Anna Davis, can have skewed results because sometimes one state standard can be summarized in one question. If the student has a moment of forgetfulness then it looks like they do not know the material, she explained.

“It’s frustrating to think that the public holds the ‘be all end all’ of learning with one score,” she said.

Taking the test

To prepare the students for the grind of test-taking and take out what Curry calls “the factors that should not be factors” — like positive thinking, fear of tests and sleep — the administration at the North Tahoe Middle School treat the 255 students to a variety of breakfast items daily during test week, said Principal Teresa Rensch.

The teachers also conduct test preparation strategies and the students put on a test prep rally the day before, instructing the students on the ‘do’s and ‘don’t’s of test-taking. The administrators provide pencils with positive messages printed on them like “rock the test” and give out chewing gum, mint candies and bananas, Rensch said.

According to research Rensch has conducted, mint is calming, chewing gum helps with concentration and bananas are good for brain function.

Meanwhile across the district, in a second-grade class at Truckee Elementary School, 18 students nervously set about taking the first practice CST test of their lives.

Second-grade teacher Anna Davis said no consequences come as a result of a low score on the tests at the elementary level.