Cheney students struggle with Common Core

Cheney residents looking at the state's 2018 test scores may be alarmed, as the average score on standardized assessments for incoming sixth- and ninth-graders nosedived from the mid-70s to the low 40s and 50s. But Cheney School District officials insist all is not as it appears, chalking up the dip in scores to changing testing standards thanks to the recently instituted "Common Core" curriculum.

Cheney students haven't lost knowledge and teachers haven't stopped teaching effectively, but they are navigating an uphill battle to reestablish high test scores district-wide. Following the switch to common core state standards in 2014, students all over the region are falling below the state average in both math and language arts with startling regularity.

Only 49 percent of incoming sixth-graders in Washington are meeting state standards in math, and that number drops to 40 percent in Cheney. About 51 percent met the language arts requirements, still not on par with the state average of 59 percent.

The numbers don't improve drastically after middle school. About 48 percent of incoming ninth-graders in the state meet the math benchmarks on standardized tests, while only 38 percent of Cheney students of the same age group do. Language arts is better, with 53 percent of incoming ninth-graders in Cheney meeting state standards, getting closer to the state average of 59 percent.

Clearly, Cheney students are struggling with the new testing standards. But they're not the only ones - low Common Core test scores are more common than you'd think.

What is Common Core?

The term "common core" refers to academic standards adopted by 43 states, including Washington. Created in 2010, these standards were to address the United States' middle of the road performance on international academic rankings.

Until recently, each state had a different definition of what it meant to be "proficient" in math and language arts. Common core was intended to fix this, by holding students across the country to the same high standards and making them "career and college ready." Under this system, math standards are focused on fewer topics but in more depth, while language arts standards emphasize evidence-based arguments over personal narratives.

Universally, states have found common core standards are more challenging than what they used to test on, and kids aren't performing as well on these assessments.

Carol Lewis is the data and assessment coordinator for the Cheney School District. She spent a full week this summer analyzing and compiling the state data for the district, and says Cheney's scores are not unique.

Superintendent Rob Roettger said he has looked at data from school districts with similar demographics to Cheney and they're in the same boat.

"We haven't made the shift to Common Core standards as quickly as necessary," Roettger said. "What I will say is the expectations for kids are higher than ever before - we're expecting them to do things at much lower grade levels than 20 years ago."

So why do we use it?

The first assumption by those outside the education industry is that Common Core must be unrealistic. But while its standards are being reached far less often than previous curriculum, school officials say the new metrics aren't out of touch with reality.

"All kinds of colleges and professionals were involved in creating them, so I don't think they're unrealistic," Lewis said. "The fact is that educationally, the U.S. has not caught up across the board."

According to a recent analysis on world education rankings by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United States ranks 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math.

So maybe higher standards aren't such a bad thing. But what's the point of benchmarks that students consistently fail to reach?

"We have to have standards, whether that's common core or something else. We need to let things stay in place long enough to see results," Roettger said. "We can't just scrap the whole system and start over again - we have a bad habit of doing that in education."

Lewis notes that school districts don't use these scores to make decisions about individual students. Instead, it's about figuring out what the district needs to do as a system, she said.

"If you look at the data for districts that have made big improvements, you'll see that it was probably flat for a few years before you see those big jumps," Lewis said. "We're seeing (our scores) rise more and more each year."

If the test itself isn't the problem, the real question now is whether Common Core is an accurate depiction of student achievement. The answer appears to be...sort of.

How students perform on tests doesn't always reflect their ability to do the work or understand the material and the district is still figuring out how precise a measure state tests are on student skills, Roettger said.

While the scores are accurate in relation to the new standards, it's important to keep in mind that standardized tests are just one measure of learning, Lewis said. She likens the test score data to a high jump bar - all you can know from looking at it is whether kids are meeting a certain mark. In contrast, the district's growth data is like a ladder that shows how kids are progressing from rung to rung.

"This is a measure, not of growth, but of achievement," Lewis said. "The growth data looks better than what this looks like."

What are the district's next steps?

As the district addresses changing standards and flagging scores, Lewis wants to make one thing clear.

"First of all, our kids aren't failing. And neither are we," she said. "It just got harder, and it's taken some time for us to adjust to that."

The district is focusing on fixing its shortcomings using what it refers to as "PLC work." This is a reference to an educational tactic called Professional Learning Communities, which strives to help all students learn at high levels. The district has been concentrating heavily on this work, inviting guest speakers and hosting teacher trainings to ensure they are prepared to help students most effectively.

To graduate in Cheney, students must meet the requirement on these tests or complete a similar alternative. If they fail to pass the test their sophomore year of high school, they have the option to retake it, or they can exercise alternatives like getting a good score on the SAT or ACT or passing an AP test in the subject they struggled with.

The districts graduation rate of 87 percent shows that these tests aren't a systemic barrier to graduation.

"To be honest, I'd be a big advocate for delinking assessments from graduation," Roettger said. "If they're doing the job and able to complete the work, they should graduate."

The data also doesn't reflect what students accomplish in high school, which is one of the most transitory periods in terms of education. Students may progress by leaps and bounds once they get to high school and are able to pursue courses more tailored for their needs. Plus, there are more resources like tutoring available.

"All you're seeing is kids moving into high school, not what they do once they're there," Lewis said. "Even after the 10th grade test they still have two years to intervene and do intensive learning."

The information gleaned from the recently released data is already making a difference at the high school level and guiding administrative decisions about what classes should be offered.

School officials say that the data is a tool, one that must be used to show administrators and teachers what to do differently to help students be successful - both on tests and in life.

"We have to look at what's real and deal with that," Lewis said. "But you don't ever have to take data negatively, as long as you use it to improve."

Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].