By Carey M. Wright, Ed.D., State Superintendent of Education

 

Every fourth-grader who is sitting in one of Mississippi’s public school classrooms this year has cleared a significant academic hurdle. These students were the first to take a high-stakes reading test at the end of third grade to prove they were ready for fourth grade reading instruction. Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act now requires students to pass this test to be promoted.

 

Elementary school teachers and principals and district superintendents also cleared a significant hurdle. Our state’s literacy law put a great deal of pressure on educators to do everything possible to get third-graders ready for their big test. Our educators took this responsibility seriously. Teachers and principals across the state shifted their curriculum, programming and teaching strategies to focus intensely on literacy in kindergarten through the third grade. This effort involved ongoing professional development, coaching and mentoring, including re-learning how to effectively teach reading.

 

The 92 percent of students who passed the 3^rd Grade Reading Summative Assessment are to be congratulated for their achievement. While some students mastered the test with no problem, others truly struggled, taking the test three times before achieving a passing score.

 

Those who just barely passed the test, as well as students who failed but were promoted with a good cause exemption, are now being provided with intensive reading instruction in the fourth grade to help them catch up with their peers. The state’s efforts to make literacy a priority in our schools will continue until all students become proficient readers.

 

There was a lot of anxiety around the state in the months leading up to the 3^rd Grade Reading Summative Assessment and in the days that followed while the passing score was determined.

 

The passing score for the third grade reading test was set at 926. The process for determining this score is called standard setting. Standard setting is a research-based, empirical process that is led by people with expertise in psychometrics and the content standards being tested.

 

The standard setting process used in Mississippi was consistent with accepted national practice. After the first administration of the third grade reading test, subject matter experts reviewed the test questions and the actual test results and made judgments about what students should know.

 

Standard setting is necessary for a wide range of competency tests – everything from third grade reading tests to professional certification exams for nurses, accountants and lawyers. The new English language arts and math assessments that students in grades 3-8 and in high school will take starting this year are also competency tests.

 

The goal of competency tests is, simply, to demonstrate a level of knowledge. For example, would you want a doctor to operate on you who knew only 65 percent of the material tested on a medical board exam or one whose score demonstrated he or she had mastered the minimum level of all of the standards required to practice medicine? Most would surely pick the latter.

 

Those who are unfamiliar with the standard setting process may find it frustrating not to know the passing score of an exam before taking it. Others may criticize where the passing score was established because they don’t understand the science behind the standard setting process.

 

In a Sept. 8, 2015, article in The Clarion-Ledger, Sam Bounds, executive director of the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents, called the process for determining the passing score for the third grade reading test “gerrymandering.” This comment is insulting to all of the professionals – including a panel of Mississippi educators – who took part in the standard setting process, and to all of the teachers who worked diligently to make sure their students were competent readers. Most importantly, the comment diminished the achievement of all of the students who worked hard to pass the test.

 

As we transition to a new set of assessments this school year for grades 3-8 and Algebra I and English II, we will go through another round of standard setting. This means the first cohort of students taking these new tests won’t know the passing score until after they take the exams.

 

Teachers who are purely focused on helping their students meet the academic standards required for their subjects won’t have to worry about how their students will perform on state assessments. Students will demonstrate competency if they have mastered the knowledge and skills expected at each grade level.

 

It is critical for parents and all people who have a stake in our state’s public education system to support the efforts of our schools, our teachers and, most importantly, our students. When great teaching and learning goes on in our classrooms, test scores will reflect this.