Chicago Sun-Times: City schools dump Iowa Test

In probably the biggest testing overhaul ever to hit Chicago, the city's public schools are dumping an exam with a 33-year history in favor of a new, shorter test that will be given three times a year, strictly to help teachers help kids.

The Iowa Test of Basic Skills tackled by millions of Chicago elementary school students since 1972 is being ashcanned, unleashing an avalanche of change in the nation's third-largest school system.

The Iowa will be replaced by a new, low-stakes $1.5 million reading test called Stanford Learning First, produced by the same company that is writing the new and expanded Illinois Standards Achievement Tests.

Stanford Learning First will be given in October, January and May to help teachers pinpoint student strengths and weaknesses in areas covered by the new ISATs. Results will be back in a mere two weeks and shared with parents.

The change means Chicago third- through eighth-graders will face two new tests this coming school year -- and probably three by 2006, when Chicago wants to debut a new low-stakes math test.

It also means Chicago Public Schools will take only one high- stakes test, not two. And parents will receive less data about their schools but more about their kids.

Plus, policies governing which kids must repeat a grade, which ones must go to summer school and which schools land on academic probation will have to be retooled because they were tied to the Iowas.

'Everything on the table'

The ripple effect of dropping the Iowas is "massive," said Barbara Radner, director of DePaul University's Center for Urban Education. "It's more than an overhaul. This is like rethinking the entire system."

Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan said the schools will continue to hold back kids -- a move that won the system national attention but has been criticized by researchers for not helping kids and even hurting some students.

But otherwise, Duncan said, "Everything is on the table" as Chicago crafts new policies as a result of dumping the Iowas.

For example, Duncan said, he'd like to resurrect math as a subject that can trigger summer school or retention, a move that could boost retentions. Math was dropped from the promotion policy two years ago, and many blamed that decision for the across-the- board downturn in 2004-2005 math scores.

Hundreds of principals greeted word that the Iowa was dead with thunderous applause Friday. Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason- Watkins, Duncan and even Mayor Daley spoke of its demise during a meeting at Symphony Hall.

"It's fabulous," Nobel School Principal Mirna Diaz Ortiz said afterward. "I'm very happy that we're going to be measured by one test and not have to take two [high-stakes] tests."

Before, schools prepared for the March ISATs, which measure sophisticated critical-thinking skills, report how kids size up against a state standard and can trigger state sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Then, by May, they faced the Iowas, which focused on basic skills, compared kids with students nationwide, identified schools for Chicago-issued probation and determined student promotion.

"It caused schizophrenia in the schools," said Clarice Berry, Chicago Principals Association president. "Which one do you work on more? ... Now at least you have one master to serve."

'Playing Russian roulette'

Chicago expects to base promotions at least in part on the Stanford 10, a nationally normed test that will be embedded in the new ISAT and reported to the system by May 1. In addition, testmaker Harcourt Assessment is creating a link between the Stanford 10 and the old Iowa so Chicago can keep an unbroken timeline of scores.

Julie Woestehoff of Parents United for Education wondered if the changes would increase retentions because promotions will now be based on ISATs, a harder test.

Though billed as diagnostic, Learning First may amount to "a practice test for the ISAT because it's written by the same people who are writing ISAT," she said.

Reilly School teacher Bonnie Nadick said Chicago should have waited for the new ISAT to gain sea legs before dumping the Iowas.

"They are playing Russian roulette. They should not have done this all at once," Nadick said. "It's like with a new car. They say you shouldn't buy a new [model] the first two years because there's something wrong with it."