Yes on Senate Bill 707
In spite of the snow days, I haven’t really had much time to continue writing about my thoughts on replacing the EOIs with the ACT. Word has it, however, that opposition is mounting. In response, CCOSA sent out this action alert to members today:
Legislative Action Alert
Senate Bill 707: Common Sense High School TestingPlease contact Your Senator TODAY and urge them to VOTE YES ON SB 707!
SB 707 would allow the State Board of Education to:
- Eliminate End of Instruction tests AND replace those assessments that generate data relevant to students, educators, and are indicators of college and career readiness.
- Currently Oklahoma spends over $17 million annually on student assessments that do not generate actionable data to improve student learning.
- Select ACT or another assessment(s) to be used as a high school exit exam.
- The selected assessment(s) must be used by Oklahoma institutions of higher education to determine college readiness/course placement.
- Select other graduation requirement criteria, in addition to a designated assessment(s).
- Select alternative assessments to demonstrate college and career readiness.
Facts about the ACT:
- Currently 21 states administer the ACT Test statewide, either to every student (statewide administration) or at the school district level (district choice).
- The ACT Test is used by some states as part of their accountability plan submitted to US Department of Education with their requests for waivers under ESEA.
- The ACT Test measures College and Career Readiness described by ACT’s College and Career Readiness Standards – but it is an 11th grade test accepted by post-secondary institutions for enrollment and placement purposes.
Please contact your Senator TODAY and urge them to VOTE YES on SB 707!
So far, I’ve provided ten reasons why we should proceed with this plan. You can read Part I and Part II on the blog. I’ll try to work on Part III tonight and have it posted by morning.
The EOIs are a $7 million a year boondoggle. And that’s just the direct cost. Indirect costs associated with the program make it probably double the price. We have the power to put an end to that this year, saving families and the state a lot of money.
okeducationtruths 
ACT/ASPIRE = common core
https://www.act.org/products/k-12-act-aspire/
Schools are for learning NOT corporate profits!
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That was quick. A few words in response…
1. I didn’t say anything about Aspire for grades 3-8. I’m only talking about eliminating the EOIs.
2. ACT isn’t the Common Core. The link you provided shows that the ACT features “Alignment with Common Core State Standards and ACT College Readiness Benchmarks.” In other words, a single test question can be aligned to multiple frameworks. It’s called being versatile. For years, the ACT and SAT have served as college entrance exams for all the states, whether they had different standards or common standards.
3. Yes, ACT is evolving. The PLAN and EXPLORE are going away. The price structure of Aspire (and reliance on computer testing) pretty much take using it statewide off the table.
4. If your problem is with corporations profiting from schools, how is sending $7 million a year to a testing company (just for EOIs) better than paying for a test that 70-75% of the state’s high school students are going to take anyway? This would reduce the profits of which you speak.
5. Unless you can find artisinal school materials such as textbooks and assessments that have been hand-woven locally, somebody is always going to be making a profit off of our schools. SB 707 reduces the extent to which this happens.
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From what I understand of the federal law, we would still have to use a science test that assesses 80% of the state science standards. I don’t think the ACT test would assess 80% of OAS for science so we would still be giving that EOI…
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Why not use AP tests? It has all the advantages you listed plus:
1. You can pick 3 that easily meet NCLB guidelines.
2. They can’t be gamed as easy as the ACT (no rules like “ok in the English section the shortest sentence is usually the correct answer”). If education leaders are worried about “teaching to the test” now, this could be a whole new level due to the lack of depth in the ACT.
3. APs are better respected, more colleges value AP higher than the ACT.
4. Research shows disadvantaged students are much more likely to attend college after taking AP. Chances increase with taking a test, even if the test is failed.
5. Increases expectations to an appropriate level through the structure of the class instead of providing a lagging indicator once a year.
6. Still no need to waste money on creating and developing tests.
7. Getting a “1” could count as passing, that just requires making an attempt at the test.
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I think you are confusing acronyms. This is not about replacing AP (Advance Placement) tests with the ACT. It is about changing the EOI (End of Instruction) tests.
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I’m not mixed up. I’m suggesting that we replace EOI’s with Advanced Placement tests instead of the ACT.
Lots of schools like Harding are having a lot of success by requiring AP classes for every student regardless of previous academic achievement. You can use programs like AVID to help students that need help improving their academic skills to that level.
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http://commoncore.pearsoned.com/index.cfm?locator=PS1n4y&elementType=news&elementId=197981
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But if we, as Oklahoma, switch to the ACT, are we setting ourselves up for Common Core again? Isn’t the ACT being re-written to reflect Common Core?
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No matter what type of standards we switch to, they are going to allign somewhat with common core just as the current PASS standards do. Standards are just a statement about what a child should know by the end of the academic year. It is not a methodology of teaching. The main problem with common core was the convoluted way the standards (math) where being taught, the materials used to teach them (The Bluest Eye), and how they were tested (making every student solve a problem using the same steps.) We still have a 5th and 8th grade Common Core writing test that is developmentally inappropriate. When the writing test for 5th and 8th grade is harder than the high school English EOI, something is seriously wrong.
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https://gerriksonger.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/act-aspire-text-complexity/
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I agree! Cheers to Mr. Bill Gates again all in the name of education.
http://www.act.org/newsroom/jassal-named-executive-director-of-act-foundation/
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Getting rid of EOI’s and replacing them with RIGOR and “common core” EOI’s is nothing but political deception. I really thought administrators did their homework before jumping on a bandwagon
http://www.act.org/qualitycore/about.html
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