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Texas joins other states to give TAKS test online

Sunday, August 13, 2006

(8/13/06 - AUSTIN, TX) -- Texas students seventh grade and up will take standardized tests one of two ways this year: by logging onto the Internet and clicking a mouse, or the old school way with paper and a freshly sharpened No. 2 pencil.

Texas joins 21 other states this year by offering its standardized test, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, online. The test is used to assess skills in math, English, science, reading, writing and social sciences, and teacher pay and school funding is tied to how well students perform.

Advocates say online testing is cheaper, allows for quicker results and provides the exam in a format most comfortable to students.

"That's the technology they're used to," said Wade Pogany, director for curriculum and instruction at public schools in South Dakota, one of the first states to offer computer-based testing. "More and more our students are very technical savvy and they're used to using computers."

Web-based tests could also change troublesome cheating patterns, which have prompted reviews this year at more than 600 of Texas' 7,700-plus public schools because of "unusual or unexpected patterns" in test results.

"Online testing has different issues," said Lisa Chandler, the Texas Education Agency director of student assessment. "Obviously, if you don't have an answer document that can be erased by someone who wants to cheat, it's going to be very difficult for that to occur."

However, Chandler pointed to other challenges, such as the longer window of testing that may be needed if students share a limited number of computers.

"There could be some sharing of answers or questions from student to student," she said. "The longer the window is, the more possible sharing is."

Chandler warned that districts also must ensure students can't "see the computer screen of another student taking the test." "There has to be some caution as far as how the computers are set up so that that's not possible," Chandler said.

Students take the TAKS every year starting in the third grade, and cannot advance to certain grades unless they pass certain subjects. Proficiency in all six subjects is required for graduation. Schools face sanctions ranging from staff changes to closure if too many students fail for four years in a row.

Mary Fulton, a policy analyst for the Colorado-based Education Commission of the States, said online testing can help eliminate security hassles for teachers.

"You won't have printed materials that teachers have to safeguard and distribute," she said.

The initial costs of classroom computers and an Internet connection capable of handling a high volume of users could be expensive for some poor schools districts, said Ruben Alejandro, an assistant superintendent at the Weslaco school system in South Texas.

"Online testing is definitely more beneficial," Alejandro said. "The only problem is a lot of districts are not capable of handling online testing completely because they don't have the infrastructure in place."

The test was made optional this year to accommodate schools that do not yet have enough computers or the Internet capacity, Chandler said.

"There are variations from district to district, even from campus to campus in terms of infrastructure and the number of students they have per campus versus the number of students they need to test," Chandler said. "That's why the state has made this voluntary, at least at this time."

The TEA will provide the testing software for free, but schools must have enough computers for students taking the test and an Internet connection.

Statewide, 1.5 million students in the seventh grade or older took the test last year. Each of the state's 1,200 districts can determine how many computers are needed and how many can be shared during the testing window, Chandler said.

A national study found that Texas schools on average have about 3.4 students per computer. That's slightly less than the nationwide average of 3.8, according to the Technology Counts report by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. A look at the differences between schools found that Texas schools with high rates of poverty provide slightly fewer classroom computers.

But cost savings over time could be significant as more schools move toward online administration. Wasted paper, discarded booklets and costs of shipping and handling the tests can be "astronomical," Alejandro said.

The TEA estimates that a complete move to online testing could save the state as much as 25 percent on their $279 million, five-year testing contract with New Jersey-based Pearson Education Measurement.

"Once the infrastructure is in place and the software is developed, there's very little cost" to electronic tests, Alejandro said. "It makes a lot more sense to go online."

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