Measures of Student Learning/Measures of Student Learning/Common Exam UpdateCommon Exam Update

WS/FCS Board of Education

November 13, 2012

Purpose of Common Exams:

To measure educator effectiveness

Setting the Context

For those grades and subjects that are currently non-tested, we need ways to measure growth:

Common Exams

Setting the Context

Measures of Student Learning/Common Exams

• Exams designed for currently non-tested subjects (does not replace any existing tests)

• Built by the state – every district will have the same exams

• Intended to replace final exams in high school

• Not part of the accountability model

Measures of Student Learning/Common Exams

• FALL 2012-13:

Measures of Student Learning/Common Exams

• SPRING 2013:

*Elementary subjects are not required

*

*

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Elementary CEs

Elementary CEs are not required, as teachers will have EOG reading and/or math measures

Measures of Student Learning/Common Exams

HIGH SCHOOL EXAMS:• 80-minute test

– Two 40-minute sessions

• Multiple-choice and constructed responseconstructed response– Students write in answers; for example:

• Math – students provide numeric answer and show their work

• English – short answer (paragraph or less) and extended response (up to 3 paragraphs)

Measures of Student Learning/Common Exams

HIGH SCHOOL EXAMS:• Constructed response Constructed response is weighted based

on how much time is spent on CR items– If students are expected to spend 25% of the

test time on CR items, then approximately 25% of the score will be based on CR responses

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/educatoreffect/measures/specifications/

Constructed ResponseConstructed Response

% of time on CR

% of total pts attributed to CR

# of CR

items

# of MC

items

ELA 20-25% 17-23% 3-433-37

Math (Adv. F. and Pre-Cal)

20-25% 34-44% 827-32

Science 25% 23-28% 5 40

Social Studies

50% 48-52% 8-1018-21

Measures of Student Learning/Common Exams

• How/if it counts as grades are determined by each school system– High School: just like a final exam - 25% of final grade– Middle School: just like how EOGs are currently

counted – 20% of final grade in the respective subject

• Scores returned by software will be percent of total possible points (no proficiency cut score)– We will be creating a district ‘curve’ that reflects a

similar pattern to EOC grades

Measures of Student Learning/Common Exams

• Each school system is responsible for scoring the exams– Multiple choice – scanned at central office– Constructed response - scored by school

personnel• Scoring processes are determined by each district;

DPI offers the possibility of one or two scorers– Teacher of record cannot be the sole scorer– WS/FCS will have two scorers; the teacher of record and

another subject matter expert

Concerns

• Constructed Response– Amount of time it takes to score– Availability of scorers– Training on rubrics/scorer reliability– Items not field tested

• Other– Senior Exemptions: while students will not be

allowed to exempt, seniors will be allowed to test early

Measures of Student Learning/Common Exams

• Middle School– We expect the length of the test to be similar,

but no specifics released for these yet

Questions andfor more

Information:

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/educatoreffect/measures/