Dive Brief:

• New exams aligned with the Common Core State Standards were harder than the tests they replaced, but students who had to take them on computers generally struggled more than their peers who took the tests on paper.
• Ed Tech Magazine reports the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) found performance differences based on the device students were using — they got tripped up by small screens or on-screen keyboards, among other things.
• Instead of focusing exclusively on test content, teachers should focus on familiarizing students with the technology they’ll have to use to be successful proving their knowledge on the new assessments.

Dive Insight:

Students often score lower on new exams because they and their teachers have to get used to a new format. But low-income students, students with disabilities, students who do not speak English fluently, and black and Latino students, more generally, routinely fall further. The academic achievement gaps, as measured by standardized tests, grow.

When it comes to using technology for these new assessments, FairTest has tracked a long and growing list of glitches that have forced states to throw out scores or shift from computer-based to paper-and-pencil tests at the last minute. Schools nationwide spent millions of dollars building out their network capacity to prepare for the tests in the first place. While it has been a rocky start with these new assessments, one can assume the frequency of problems will eventually decline.

Recommended Reading

Ed Tech Magazine: Test Takers Continue to Face Challenges When Using Some Technology