Thursday, September 23, 1999
Students can practice at Web site for state's proficiency examinations
BY CHARLEY GILLESPIE
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS — Students have a new way to figure out whether they're ready for the state's proficiency test: the Internet.
Fairfax, Va.-based Edutest is offering a mock version of the tests administered to students in fourth, sixth and ninth grades on its Internet site, www.edutest.com .
“The idea is to identify a student's area of need at the beginning of a school year, rather than find out at the end what he or she has problems with,” said Steven Hoy, the company's vice president of sales and marketing.
Mr. Hoy said the tests, which contain between 70 and 100 questions per subject, were written to determine proficiency in Ohio's new standards.
Free trial period
At the end of the test, the program will show students and teachers which questions they missed. Within a day, the online service will create electronic report cards for individual students and identify specific subject areas and concepts that are posing difficulties.
For the first month, students, classrooms or school districts can take the tests free. After that, a teacher can purchase Edutest at $19.95 per class, or parents can buy it for $14.95 a year per student.
Jan Crandell, assistant director of the Ohio Department of Education's assessment center, said Tuesday that the state is looking at what Edutest offers and how it matches up with Ohio's tests.
"Let the buyer beware'
Ms. Crandell said that while the tests could be beneficial, the state doesn't tell districts what to buy.
“I am unaware of the state essentially sponsoring a product and recommending products to a school district,” Ms. Crandell said. “We say the same thing to all school districts: "Let the buyer beware.'”
Ms. Crandell said the state prints about 1.6 million practice tests each year and distributes them to schools to help the students pass the tests.
Ohio School Board Association spokesman Jeff Chambers said the program is something that probably would be used on a local level instead of statewide.
“When I tried a sample test the format seemed fairly simple, and I liked the fact that a student can do it in school or at home,” Mr. Chambers said.
Company President Susan Hardwicke said parents of children in any grade can benefit from the service.
“We have Web assessments for reading at for first-, second- and third-graders,” she said. “So no one has to wait until the fourth grade to find out how their child would do. It also helps them understand what is needed for the reading test.”
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