It seems that revisiting the question of when, how and what tests students in elementary, middle and high school must take never gets old. At the local, state and national levels, educators are assessing the assessments and recalibrating what must be asked of whom and when – and to what end. This reflection is essential to crafting good education policy, but implementing any changes must consider the challenges inherent to a major shift. When the Colorado Department of Education announced last week that high school juniors will now be required to take the SAT rather than the ACT – beginning this spring – no such consideration was made. While the switch might ultimately be a good one, its roll-out puts students at a disadvantage for this year.
Since 2001, 11th graders in Colorado have been required to take the ACT, a college entrance exam, and are prepared accordingly. Students in Durango School District 9-R take a course to help ready them for success on the test, which has implications for college acceptance. The state pays for the test, and the Colorado Legislature voted in its 2015 session to require the Department of Education to seek competitive bids for the entrance exams and the SAT won. Rather than make the switch next year, giving educators time to prepare their students, districts will have to scramble once school resumes after the New Year. It seems an unnecessary burden to have placed on schools and students – though not an impossible one.
Many college-bound juniors already take the SAT in addition to the ACT, and are preparing accordingly. It may even turn out to be a better metric in the long run. Nevertheless, the systems are not yet in place in school districts to maximize overall student success on the test, and announcing the switch midway through the school year adds a stressor to an already challenging effort. While the state promises flexibility, the strain will nevertheless be significant and was avoidable.
“We realize this is a big shift for students, and that this decision is coming later in the school year than any of us would like,” Interim Commissioner of Education Elliott Asp said in a news release. “We are committed to exploring options for flexibility that makes sense for this year’s juniors who need to use this spring’s exam for their college applications.”
It is curious, then, that the state made the last-minute decision to switch this year. Recognizing the significance of the college-entrance testing, Asp and the committee that recommended the switch would have better served students by postponing it until the 2016-17 school year. Doing so would have allowed districts time to prepare students for success. Now, there is little opportunity for that.
Dan Snowberger, 9-R’s superintendent, anticipates a big job. “This will have lots of implications that we will have to start reviewing when we go back to school,” he said. “This is very similar to when we had to change from (the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program) to the (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) test, when we had to start with a new baseline to monitor growth. There’s no comparability between the ACT and the SAT.”
The state did districts a disservice by making this mid-year change, and students will bear the brunt of the challenge.
