In California, the tests are not reused, but they are not made public either. I think there would be so much public outcry about the test questions themselves, they are kept secret. But according to Harcourt, the test questions are expensive to obtain, and to keep down costs, they are kept in the test question bank and may be reused at a later date either here or in another state, which does make sense.
It would be great if the test were made public. It would help teachers determine the vocabulary used (which is really important for the EL students), the actual concepts, and the depth in which the concepts are taught.
But Californians, as a whole, feel more "entitled" than most and are willing to sue at the drop of a hat. Analysts would be hired to go through each test question to look for anything that could be used to invalidate the question. They would be analyzed for bias based on sex, race, religion,culture, etc. You get the picture. I don't blame them for not wanting to make the test public. Plus, education is very, very political here. They are still fighting about the California High School Exit Exam which in my opinion is equivalent to an 8th grade test. The students can take the test, in sections, over and over and over again, until they pass it. Just about every high school in the state offers special tutoring classes to help those students who are having trouble passing it. But there are cases awaiting court decisions hoping to declare the CAHSEE unconstitutional claiming it is biased.
I like the way your state does it better. Barbara Bay
Michael Edmiston <edmiston@bluffton.edu> wrote: Barbara Bay said the tests will not drive instruction because teachers can't
look at the tests.
Barbara, is that true forever? In Ohio teachers can't look either, and
violations can invalidate the school and get the teacher fired. However,
this is only true before the test is released to the public. The tests are
not reused. Every summer the previous year's test is available on-line to
the public.
Of course next year's test will be different, but once you have a few years
of old tests to study you have a pretty good idea of what topics are covered
and what terminology is used.
My wife teaches fifth grade math. She is pleased that upon examining the
public tests for the last few years that the tests seem to follow the
standards pretty closely. If she is teaching to the standards, then she is
also teaching to the test for the most part. However, she says she has
modified her instruction a little bit because of things she noted on the
tests that were slightly different, or with higher/lower prevalance than
what she was teaching.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
1 University Drive
Bluffton, OH 45817
419.358.3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu