Feds say too few students took required tests in 148 CT schools
After thousands of Connecticut students failed to take required statewide achievement tests last spring, federal officials want to know what Connecticut education leaders are doing to ensure it doesn't happen again.
"The U.S. Department of Education is concerned that Connecticut's participation rate did not meet requirements of [federal law]," Moninque M. Chism, the director of the agency's Office of State Support, wrote Connecticut's education commissioner last month. "Let me emphasize the importance of a high-quality, annual statewide assessment system that includes all students so that local leaders and educators have the information they need to help every student succeed."
The state was required to send its plans to improve compliance to the U.S. education department earlier this month, but spokesmen for both the federal and state education departments were unable to provide any details about those plans Monday.
Numerous Connecticut Mirror requests since August for documents showing any guidance the state has provided to districts to boost participation have gone unanswered.
About 11,200 students did not take the state exams last school year — a growing trend referred to as the "opt-out movement." It coincides with growing concern among parents that their children are spending too much school time being tested or prepared for tests.
While Connecticut's statewide participation rate did meet the federal standard, many individual districts did not. One-quarter of public school districts did not test at least 95 percent of their students, the minimum participation rate the federal government expects.
High school students missing the exams were to blame for most of the decline. Of the 148 schools where too many students missed the statewide Smarter Balanced Assessment, nearly three-quarters were high schools. (Curious how many students skipped the test in your school? Click here to find out.)
Connecticut lawmakers earlier this year voted to replace the Smarter Balanced Assessment for high school students with the SAT, an exam many students take regardless.
Aimed at removing one of the many tests high school students must take, it's unclear whether this shift will improve participation rates.
The federal government's letter to Connecticut Education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell emphasizes that the state could lose millions in funding if too many students sit out again.
CTMIRROR.ORG FILE PHOTO
A Bridgeport student takes a Smarter Balanced practice test.
The federal education department "has a range of enforcement actions at its disposal… The State Education Agency should demonstrate that it has taken or will take appropriate actions to enforce the requirements."
The state's enforcement actions could include cutting funding to school districts, lowering a school's rating, identifying a school as 'high risk' or counting non-participants as non-proficient on the exams.
When releasing the results of this years' exams, Wentzell was vague about how the state plans to address low participation rates and whether funding would be in jeopardy.
"We are going to work with our districts to ensure that we have similar levels of participation," she said. "When the final analysis is done, I believe, it will be a handful, literally, of Feds say too few students took required tests in 148 CT schools | The CT Mirror:
