Pub. 3 2013-2014 Issue 2

24 B y now all charter schools are familiar with the newUtah testing platform intro- duced this year, as part of required public school accountability, called Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence or SAGE. This new platform replaces the old multiple-choice Cri- terion Referenced Tests, or CRTs, and is computer-adap- tive. Computer-adaptive assessments have the advantage of adjusting the difficulty of the test as students correctly or incorrectly respond to questions, providing a better measure of what each student knows and can do. What is less familiar is how to interpret the new forthcoming data and use this to increase student performance. Because of the rapid role out, the SAGE data will be only summative for the 2013-14 school year, similar to the CRTs. In the Fall of 2014, the formative interim assess- ments will become available. In addition, due to the assess- ment of the completely different standards associated with the Utah State Core in English, Language Arts and Math- ematics, the comparison of previous scores associated with CRTs is very difficult. As such, it is important for charter school board members, administrators, faculty, and par- ents to be very cautious in comparing testing results from the 2012-13 school year and the 2013-14 school year. The Utah State Office of Education is predicting that student proficiency rates may decrease (possibly dramati- cally) this year as a result of the more rigorous standards and assessments. It is important for charter school boards, administrators, faculty, and parents to understand that this reduced proficiency will not be a result of decreased instructional excellence or school achievement. Over the coming years, student proficiency will increase as students, parents, and teachers work together to implement the new standards and assessments. After the first testing window closes in Spring 2014, the assessment department at the Utah State Office of Education will consult with various stakeholders to set standards for cut scores during Summer 2014, with accountability reports available in Fall 2014. While it can be frustrating to wait so long, until the testing window closes, it is impossible to set vertical scales and cut scores because of the computer-adaptive nature of the new assessments. In future years, test results will be immediate and this wait will evaporate. With this information in mind, it is my suggestion that charter boards, administrators, and faculty use this school- year’s summative data to set baselines for future longitudi- nal comparison. As the interim assessments become avail- able, charter schools would do well to use these for more Using the New SAGE Assessment to Increase Student Performance BY EMMA BULLOCK