State Partnerships Moving Forward with College‐Readiness Assessments: A Response to Camara, et al. (2019)

Abstract

C amara, et al. (2019) makes a compelling argument for the use of college-admissions tests as high school assessments. The validity argument is laid out clearly; however, the purposes they list do not overlap completely with the purposes state policymakers give as reasons for using these tests as part of the accountability system. Despite this lack of congruence, the college-readiness assessments fulfill much of the states' visions for evaluating student readiness for college-level coursework. To make this point, we will focus on the implementation of both ACT and SAT in the state of Oklahoma as an exemplar case.Recently, and in accordance with the Federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Oklahoma envisioned an assessment program in grades 3-8 and high school that not only measured its state academic standards, but also provided a well-articulated vision of aspirational college-and careerready goals. The system is designed to provide college-and career-ready indications of student progress in every assessed grade. Oklahoma selected the SAT as the ESSA-designated state academic assessment and the ACT as the locally selected, nationally recognized option for high school English Language Arts and mathematics assessments. Each district, then, selects whichever of the two bests meets the needs of its students, and the state works with both ACT and the College Board to place results from both assessments on a state scale for purposes of cross-district comparison.In Oklahoma, a stated purpose for using SAT/ACT at grade 11 is to increase equity in opportunities by funding all students to take a college-admissions test while simultaneously reducing testing time for students. For the equity argument to be valid, all students need to be able to access the test with approved accommodations. Additionally, to be used as an accountability test, the ACT and SAT had to align to Oklahoma state standards. Next, the ACT and SAT scores needed to be placed on the same scale with three cut scores that were meaningful across both tests. Finally, the tests had to take up less time in high school than the state-developed assessments. PurposeComparing the primary stated purposes from Oklahoma, Camara, et al. (2019), and ESSA demonstrates why there is controversy among the use of these tests. r OK Purpose: Increase equity by providing a mechanism for all students to take a CCRA while reducing testing time.r Camara et al's purpose: Meet states, districts, and school requirements for high quality assessments to measure high school student progress and readiness for college and careers. r ESSA purpose: Assess grade-aligned standards to hold schools and districts accountability for providing students with an equitable opportunity to learn. All purposes related to college preparedness but from different angles. Tests that purport to serve multiple purposes rarely serve all of them well. However, we want to demonstrate how one state, Oklahoma, focused on their purpose in addressing the ESSA alignment requirements, necessary accommodations for...