by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

In a recent post, Mel Riddile discussed the difficulties inherent in using test scores to evaluate schools and teachers based on results from exams that are meaningless for the students. He referred to the student practice called “Christmas-treeing.”  This occurs when students draw decorative designs on answer sheets to tests that have no impact on their own academic success.  Several years ago I saw first-hand the difference student accountability can make in achievement.  In the first year the English Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in Virginia became mandatory for graduation, the pass rate in the state rose more than twenty points from the low seventies to the nineties. In previous years the annual increases in scores had been in the low single digits. What follows is an account of how my former school successfully dealt with the problem of student indifference on standardized tests.

For the first few years of SOL testing the scores did not count for the students but the overall results for each school were published throughout the state.  This set of circumstances led to a spate of bogus answer sheets resulting in a great deal of teacher frustration.  Even after the tests became a component of graduation the problem did not completely disappear.  Because many students needed only to pass four of the nine non-English exams, many test takers continued to be unmotivated.  Our district did little to lessen the problem by issuing an announcement that refused to allow any grade ramifications for the results.  But we did discover one caveat in the document—an area or district director could approve an incentive proposal.  With that exception in mind we submitted the following plan:  

“In order to motivate our students on the SOL exams, teachers would like to use the SOL testing results as a portion of a student’s final exam grade.  We strongly believe this provision will serve as a stimulus for our students to perform at their highest level on these extremely critical tests. 

“Our program would be as follows:

“Teachers will be allowed to count a student’s SOL test as a maximum of 50% of the final exam grade.  (The final exam cannot count for more than the district-approved 20% of a student’s final grade.)  Teachers have the option of counting the SOL exam as less than 50% based upon their professional philosophy.  However there should be a consistent policy for each course.  (All Algebra 1 classes would have the SOL test count in the same manner. They would not, however, have to have a policy identical to other courses such as Biology, Chemistry, etc.)

“A conversion table would be used to give a percentage score for each SOL test. 

“Rationale:

“This approach to the SOL incentive will give student performance greater validity. It would encourage students who do not believe they can score 500 to work as hard as possible since virtually every SOL point matters in the calculation of their grades.

The conversion scale*:

*The SOL exam is scored on a scale of 200-600

400-499 is passing and above 500 pass advanced

While this plan was approved by the area director it was not without controversy.  Some administrators and other teachers found this solution to be less of an incentive and more of a punishment because students who barely passed the SOL received grades equivalent to “D” and “C-“.  One administrator posed the following question: “What if I had a student who worked really hard and rarely missed class and had a B+ average and he gets a 402 on his SOL exam and is given a D for half of his final?  Is that fair?”  Other teachers countered with the question, “How can a student earn a grade like that in a course and answer only half of the questions correctly on a multiple-choice test?”   Still others felt that the incentives should be only positive.  Their plan was to give a set amount of bonus exam points for passing (400 - 499) and two additional ones for passing advanced (500-600) but no points for failure.  The argument with this plan was two-fold.   Considering a score of 400 and 499 of equal value did not seem either fair or particularly inspiring. Also, placing no penalty for scoring below 400 could be viewed by certain students as a reason not to give a maximum effort. 

Finally, the initial plan was approved and remained in place for a number of years at the school.  Most teachers felt that it worked extremely well both in terms of motivating students to perform at their highest level and as a fair and accurate assessment of what they actually learned in the class.  While the percentages used to partially calculate their final exam scores did not have an overwhelming impact on the year-long grade, they had enough of an effect to warrant student attention.  And the adjusted values directly reflected each individual’s actual results on the SOL exam.