Education Week - December 5, 2012 - 8

EDUCATION WEEK

DECEMBER 5, 2012

www.edweek.org

Testing Costs States $1.7 Billion a Year, Study Estimates
Total a tiny fraction of all K-12 spending
By Andrew Ujifusa
Standardized-testing regimens cost states some $1.7 billion a year overall, or a quarter of 1 percent of total K-12 spending in the United States, according to a new report on assessment finances. The report released Nov. 29 by the Washington-based Brown Center on Education Policy, at the Brookings Institution, calculates that the test spending by 44 states and the District of Columbia amounted to $65 per student on average in grades 3-9 based on the most recent test-cost data the researchers could gather. (The Brown Center report was not able to gather that data from Connecticut, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming.) It also says that the District of Columbia spends the most on its assessments per student—$114—of the 45 jurisdictions Brookings measured, followed by Hawaii, Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, and Massachusetts. New York, where test scoring is a local responsibility, spent the least—$7 per student—followed by Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon, and Utah. Despite the relatively small amount states spend on tests overall, compared with total education spending nationally, the report, written by Brown Center fellow Matthew M. Chingos, warns that the testing costs take on fresh importance in tough budget periods. Although while the two consortia developing tests for the Common Core State Standards in English/ language arts and mathematics (adopted by 46 and 45 states, respectively) may help reduce overall costs for states, the report says, “it is not yet clear whether larger consortia ... are a better choice than smaller ones formed more organically” from a cost standpoint. science tests required by the No Child Left Behind Act, “there is the risk of multimillion-dollar assessment contracts contributing to a political backlash against testing among parents and taxpayers who oppose the use of standardized testing for accountability purposes or object to public dollars flowing to for-profit companies (as most of the testing contractors are).” The report also includes information on the major contractors that provide services for the states’ primary assessment contracts, although they don’t represent all state spending on tests. It found that six vendors overall accounted for the bulk of the states’ $669 million of annual spending for tests required under the No Child Left Behind Act in grades 3-8 and once in high school. That spending amounted to $27 per student on average. Of all the contractors, the report says that New York Citybased Pearson Education received the most money (39 percent), followed by McGraw-Hill Education, also in New York (14 percent), and the Arlington, Va.-based Data Recognition Corp. (13 percent). Of the roughly $1 billion in remaining testing costs, the Brown Center calculates that amount would consist of the data it did not receive from the five states, as well as testing costs that are not contracted out and costs not included in primary assessment contracts, such as state exams not mandated by the nclb law.

Risking ‘Backlash’
The report, “State Spending on K-12 Assessments,” notes that while only 9 percent of Americans in a poll published by the journal Education Next said they disapprove of federal mandates for state tests like the math, reading, and

IS IT GOOD FOR THE KIDS?

To the 113th Congress: Let the Governing Begin
By Gene R. Carter, Executive Director, ASCD
The U.S. public has spoken, reelecting an Obama administration, a Republican-controlled House, and a Democratic-controlled Senate. It’s crucial that the 113th Congress fulfills the weighty responsibility the American people have bestowed on it by casting aside its differences and working together to simply do the job it was elected to do.
Much has been written about the outgoing 112th Congress’s stunning lack of productivity and dismal approval ratings. It is on track to set a record as the least productive Congress in the post-World War II era, passing just 196 laws as of mid-November, well below the similarly divided 104th Congress, which passed 333. It has repeatedly failed to fund the federal government in time for the start of the fiscal year, instead relying on a seemingly never-ending stream of emergency bills to avoid government shutdowns. Even nuts-and-bolts legislation on traditionally bipartisan topics like education is mired in gridlock. This has to stop. Our nation’s leaders must find a way to compromise before any further damage is done to school improvement efforts, Congress’ reputation, and the public’s faith in representative democracy. Lawmakers can start with the now five-year overdue reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The country’s main education law was passed at the turn of the century when the Common Core State Standards were a pipedream; Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist; and President Obama was an Illinois state senator. But while the sorely outdated law’s renewal has been at a standstill, states, districts, and schools have been anything but. Put simply, ESEA has become an impediment to education reform. Take, for instance, the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia. Even as educators are integrating these more rigorous standards into their instruction, student and school performance continue to be judged using No Child Left Behind’s (NCLB) outdated testing regimen and accountability measures. And as states have overhauled their teacher evaluation systems, incorporating student achievement outcomes into their teacher effectiveness determinations, NCLB continues to exclusively consider inputs like state certification status and licensure test results as part of its maligned “highly qualified” designation. Recognizing that schools couldn’t continue to operate under NCLB’s significant flaws, the Obama administration has offered states flexibility from the law’s most onerous provisions in exchange for specific reform commitments focused on college and career readiness, improvements in the lowest-performing schools, and teacher effectiveness. Although the waivers issued to 34 states so far alleviate some of the immediate pressure to adhere to outmoded federal regulations, they are a band-aid solution that, in turn, is creating a haphazard patchwork of state progress. Moreover, the waivers have neutralized the administration’s sense of urgency for the more comprehensive solution of ESEA reauthorization. Congressional inaction isn’t confined to ESEA or the fiscal cliff. No less than eight other major education programs are coming due for their own scheduled renewals, including those that provide federal support for students with disabilities (IDEA); career and technical education; early childhood learning (Head Start); and college affordability, access, and teacher training (Higher Education Act). Obviously, Congress won’t be able to clear the entire legislative backlog next year, but it must try. Every year that these laws governing major federal programs aren’t revised is another graduating class that leaves school without the benefit of the most current practice and support. As educators, it is incumbent upon us to instill urgency in our elected representatives to reauthorize ESEA. We see firsthand how NCLB has narrowed the curriculum and promoted teaching to the test. We are living the uncertainty of implementing new standards while being judged on previous ones. We’ve experienced the frustration of not making adequate yearly progress even when our students are demonstrating impressive growth. And we know the law in its current form won’t help us in the mission to prepare our students for college, career, and citizenship success. More than ever before, Congress will act only if constituents demand it. So let’s raise our voices and insist that Congress get serious about accomplishing its legislative business. This means more legislative working days, less partisan bickering, and more willingness to compromise. And it means putting the interests of our nation’s students above political oneupmanship. Voters have entrusted the 113th Congress with an incredible opportunity to shape the future of this great nation; the least it can do is leverage this opportunity by improving the prospects of our youngest generation.

Common-Core Wrinkle
In an interview, Mr. Chingos said that comparing current state assessment costs against the projected costs of administering and scoring the common tests now being developed would not be meaningful, given the different numbers of students involved and the different way the work is being parceled out. A few factors could drive down the cost-per-student of the standards-aligned tests. In addition to the larger number of students the consortia will be dealing with when the common-core standards are fully implemented, the market for providing services to the consortia will remain relatively competitive, Mr. Chingos said, since each group will likely use more than one contractor. Nonprofits also could enter the market, in his view. At the same time, Mr. Chingos said the field of companies and nonprofit groups vying for common-core consortia work is relatively small and mostly impervious to new, outside competition, a dynamic that could reduce potential savings for states. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, for example, estimates a cost of $20 per student, less than many of its member states are spending but an increase for six of its members, the report says.
Scan this tag with your smartphone for a link to “State Spending on K-12 Assessment Systems.” www.edweek.org/links.

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Education Week - December 5, 2012

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