Thursday, June 17, 1999
Grade 4 reading scores improve
Debate continues on tests' value
BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sixty percent of Ohio's fourth-graders read well enough now to do a good job in fifth grade — a performance jump state officials hope continues as tougher standards arrive.
The higher bar awaits students entering Ohio's second-grade classrooms this fall. When they are fourth-graders, they will be the first class faced with passing a reading test before moving into fifth grade.
Dubbed the Fourth-Grade Guarantee, it adds a raw point to the state's already much-debated use of mandatory proficiency tests. The guarantee — part of a 1997 Ohio law setting student performance goals — is a legislative attempt to assure that, after spring 2002, Ohio's schoolchildren will read at grade level before passing to fifth grade.
In scores released Wednesday, 60 percent of the state's 129,200 fourth-graders passed the reading section of the Ohio Fourth-Grade Proficiency Test taken in March. Scores are climbing on a reading test that has been made more difficult. (Last year, 48 percent passed reading.)
State officials are putting pressure on districts with the goal of “how do we create better readers?” said Bill Sears, assistant superintendent for Sycamore Community School District. Results of the emphasis reach as deeply as into Sycamore's kindergarten classes, he said, where lessons are becoming more literacy-based.
“The state says, "If we have to hold this (retention) sledgehammer, we will,'” Mr. Sears said.
But the weight attached to the elementary school test fuels discussion on what happens in the aftermath — in districts that might have to deal with crowded fourth-grade classrooms and to the children who have been held back.
“This could be undue pressure on fourth-graders,” said John Varis, superintendent of Reading schools, where 77 percent of fourth-graders passed reading. “(The test) is just one indicator of success. You hear stories of ninth-graders throwing up on the third try to pass the (Ohio) Ninth-Grade Proficiency Test — what do you think happens to the psyche of a fourth-grader?”
Will Sawyer, a physician with four children in Princeton schools, including two who have passed the week-long fourth-grade test, worries that the tests add pressure without accomplishing much.
“My question about proficiency tests — as a parent who is a poor test-taker — is, are we emphasizing the wrong aspect?,” Dr. Sawyer said. “Are we just measuring test-taking skills, rather than true knowledge base? ”
Children entering second grade this fall will be the first required to pass the reading portion of the Ohio Fourth-Grade Proficiency Test before moving up. The test has been given to fourth-graders since March 1995, allowing school districts time to align curriculum and prepare students.
The fourth-grade test is part of a battery of proficiency tests given Ohio schoolchildren — in fourth, sixth, ninth and 12th grades, covering reading, writing, math, citizenship and science. Until 2002, only the ninth-grade test is tied to promotion; students must pass it to receive an Ohio diploma.
The fourth-grade test's first two years, “were extremely anxious years for kids,” because youngsters were unfamiliar with the format, said Darcy Hanley, principal of Kings Mills Elementary School in Deerfield Township. Students were accustomed to tests with answer sheets requiring coloring in bubbles with a dark pencil; the proficiency tests stress more critical-thinking skills and require more written answers.
“Teachers customized other routine tests to the "short-response' format ... so students weren't walking in cold,” she said.
When the guarantee kicks in July 1, 2001, students will have three chances in fourth grade to pass the reading test, with tutoring offered before each attempt. Children who do not pass will repeat fourth grade, unless the teacher and principal agree that other skills are strong enough to warrant a promotion, said Paula Mahaley, a consultant on the test with the Ohio Department of Education.
“They know those students better than we do,” Ms. Mahaley said. Tying grade promotion to a test score is becoming a trend nationally. About a half-dozen states now use tests as part of promotion standards, said Wayne Martin, a director with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
The key to making retention work, educators say, is assuring it's also linked to a requirement — such as mandated in Ohio law — that students held back also receive tutoring and additional attention.
“These students can't just fall off the edge of the earth,” said Christopher Cross, president of the Council for Basic Education in Washington, D.C. “States need to be sure there is a process to support these children if they don't pass.”
For the past 30 years, grade-retention policies nationwide have swung in different directions, according to the Phi Delta Kappa Research Bulletin. In the 1970s, social promotion — moving students to the next grade based on age rather than academic performance — was considered the best way. Such policies have been dropped and more districts have adopted strict promotion policies often tied to test scores.
From 1970 to 1980, about 20 percent of 12- to 14-year-olds had been held back; from 1980 to 1993, that proportion increased to about 32 percent, according to the Research Bulletin. In recent years, school districts began reviewing retention policies, after evidence showed high retention rates often led to high dropout rates, according to the Bulletin.
Ohio officials are studying whether to insert a second cutoff in the fourth-grade test, allowing students to move up a grade if they pass a lower number of test questions, Ms. Mahaley said. A score of 217 on the reading test still would be required to meet the proficient standard, but a lower score would allow more students to be promoted, she said.
The study of reading-test stan dards, pushed by Sen. Eugene Watts, R-Dublin, will be completed this fall.
There is worry, some school district officials admitted, that holding back numerous fourth-graders will cause classroom problems. But, others said, the attention paid to elementary school students now will prevent surprises.
“It won't be fourth grade where we will suddenly say, "Oh, failing reading?,' ” said Principal Hanley, of Kings Mills Elementary School, Deerfield Township. “It's out there (the retention threat), and it's intimidating, but we feel we will not have that many students retained.”
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