Unalaska School District superintendent John Conwell says according to recently released scores from a new statewide assessment test, Unalaska students are on track with the rest of the state.
The assessment test is called the Alaska Measures of Progress, or AMP.
"Looks like we are at or slightly above the state of Alaska median scores, when you compare our district with the state," Conwell said.
Conwell said he is happy with the results.
"Considering this is the very first time this assessment has been given; it was delivered in a different mode. It was a computer-based test and we've done paper/pencil tests for many, many years through the standard based assessments," Conwell said. "So considering our limited bandwidth and some of the technological hurdles we had to overcome just to pull this off last spring, I'm pretty pleased that dour students did as well as they did."
Margaret MacKinnon, Director of Assessment and Accountability for the Alaska Department of Education, says the AMP results fall into four levels, which either meet state standards or partially meet the standards.
According to the preliminary 2015 data for Unalaska Jr./Sr. High, of the 121 students who took the test, 56 scored within level 3 or 4 on the English Language Arts portion of the test. MacKinnon says that means they understood most or all of what was on the test.
55 Unalaska students scored at level 3 or 4 on the mathematics portion. By comparison, 66 had level 1 or 2 scores. MacKinnon says that means the students haven't demonstrated they can master everything on the test at that grade level. In other words, those kids “partially meet the standards.”
At Eagle View elementary school, 104 students in grades third through sixth took the AMP test. Of those, in English Language Arts, 42 met state standards and 62 partially met state standards. In mathematics, 40 Eagle View students met the standards, but 64 did not.
"The AMP, for us...it's one small slice of the pie. And we take it seriously, but it's not the be-all-end-all for us either," Conwell said.
Conwell says the AMP is not the only assessment test Unalaska schoolchildren are now taking every year.
At the elementary grade levels, students take the STAR reading and math tests from Renaissance Learning. In junior high, they take the Terra Nova CAT/6.
"I think we're one of the few districts that still administer the Terra Nova in the fifth grade and the seventh grade," Conwell said. "We do that so that we can get some national comparisons to how our kids are doing in those grades, just a snapshot in time kind of comparison."
Conwell says local students are no longer taking the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam in the tenth grade.
"That requirement was dropped a few years ago and there is currently no exit exam required for earning a high school diploma in Alaska," Conwell said Thursday.
But Unalaska students do take either the SAT, the ACT or the WorkKeys assessments, particularly if students want to be eligible for the Alaska Performance Scholarship.
On top of all those, some Unalaska students choose to take an aptitude test called the ASVAB, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.
Last week, Alaska Education Commissioner Mike Hanley framed the less-than-stellar statewide AMP scores as a helpful new baseline that raises the bar for Alaska students. But when asked about the way the test was administered, his answer was not so rosy.
"I’m not happy. I’m not satisfied with the way the data was rolled out," Hanley said.
The state has a five-year, $25-million-dollar contract with the Kansas-based Achievement and Assessment Institute, or AAI, to develop and score the new AMP tests.
Reporting glitches caused weeks of delays in getting scores out this fall. AAI said recently that that some of the problems are related Alaska-specific challenges and the switch from paper-and-pencil to online testing, and that they should’ve been better prepared.
But from Hanley’s end, the delays have added to overall lack of confidence in AMP
"After going through the process, you pick the vendor you think is going to work the best. We have to look and see if that’s still the case. Is this the best vendor, and how do we move forward?" Hanley said.
The technical glitches are one thing, but other concerns are being raised as well. In October a group of 20 district superintendents wrote a letter the state board of education, questioning the usefulness of the test itself.
Dillingham Superintendent Danny Frazier was one of the 20 who signed. Frazier says the AMP results don’t give teachers detailed-enough information about their students’ learning.
"Say that a child was having difficulty in reading. Well, where are they having difficulty? And this test doesn’t tell us. Is it comprehension? It is word recall? Is it phonetics?” Frazier said. “We’re just unable to tell from the test how we could remediate a student and help them learn better.”
Frazier said another letter is in the works in which he believes superintendents will call for abandoning this test altogether. If so, that will be in line with a bill Palmer Republican Representative Jim Colver says he’s drafting, calling for the repeal of AMP:
“In other words, quit doing this, it’s too expensive, we don’t get usable data, and it’s burning up a lot of instruction time and admin expenses for little value,” Colver said. “All we’ve done is, said to our districts that a little more than half of them are doing a good job. How does that empower? How does that move us forward?”
Colver said he’d like to see AMP replaced with a nationally standardized test, such as the MAP tests used currently in some districts and elsewhere as a benchmarking tool.
Commissioner Hanley says making changes isn’t so easy.
“I’m not sold on this vendor, I’m not sold on having one test for everybody. But we do have to follow the laws that are in place,” Hanley said. “Annual testing is required by law … If the state were to shop for a new vendor, working through the procurement process could leave Alaska schools without a test next year.
That would be … complicated, says Hanley.
“Federally, we’re required to have a test. So, what would that mean? I’ll also be talking to US Dept. of Ed. to say, we need to make a change, we’re in a tough spot, we need a waiver for a year – to see if we can get that without putting our federal money at risk,” Hanley said.
The easiest thing, according to Commissioner Hanley, would be to make sure AMP gets fixed. Hanley met with AAI representatives this week.
Unalaska School District superintendent John Conwell says he thinks it's too early to discount the AMP test.
"It's in its implementation stages and I think we need to give it some time," Conwell said. "It's based on a whole new set of standards that we were just given back in 2012, we've been working hard here at the district to look at our curiculum in math and the language arts, to get those revised and aligned to the new standards, and all that takes time. I know it's tempting to kind of rush to judgment on some of the new initiatives, but I think if we give it time hopefully we will see our students improving, and learning more, and continuing to get a great quality education here in Unalaska."
