Math Tests For Idaho Students Didn’t Add Up Results Ruled Invalid When Officials Find Questions On Topics Students Hadn’t Studied

State educational officials have been forced to admit that they sent out math tests this year asking students about concepts they hadn’t been taught yet.

That’s what happened to fourth- and eighth-grade students this year in the state Department of Education’s Direct Mathematics Assessment tests.

The state decided the testing procedure was so flawed that it directed school districts to destroy the results.

“We messed up,” said Rhonda Edmiston, spokeswoman for Superintendent Anne Fox. “And now we’re working on correcting it and keeping it from happening next year.”

The math test results have been declared invalid and state averages will not be released officially. Many school districts, however, already have received copies of results from their districts.

A memorandum issued by the Department of Education says the tests were not “grade-level appropriate” and no test results are to be released. The memo further directs districts to “destroy the initial information sent for your review.”

This is the second year the state-developed math assessment test has been given to all fourth- and eighth-graders. Sally Tiel, the department’s coordinator of guidance assessment and evaluation, said there was no problem with the first year’s results.

But when it was revamped for the second year, it included concepts students hadn’t been taught yet. The tests are rewritten every year to keep students from sharing answers.

School officials said the problem was more timing than content. Students do master the skills on the test by the end of the fourth and eighth grades, but the state tests were conducted at the beginning or middle of the year, before teachers had time to teach the concepts.

“In all honesty we thought the tests were fine when we sent them out, but when teachers and administrators saw the tests they said, ‘We haven’t covered this information yet,”’ Tiel said.

“We didn’t seek enough input from teachers and math experts when we were writing the tests,” Edmiston said. “The writers of the test didn’t realize the students weren’t at that level yet.”

Whitepine Superintendent Harold Ott said fourth-graders took the test in October and faced several questions about fractions, but hadn’t learned fractions yet.

“I knew the minute I looked at it that the test level was too high,” aid Jerri Parce, a teacher at Moscow’s McDonald Elementary. “Just because something is in the middle of a textbook doesn’t mean we’ve reached it by January. It’s not at all unusual not to finish a textbook by the end of the year.”

The department received $500,000 from the 1996 Legislature to conduct student testing this year.

Edmiston said she didn’t know how much of the $500,000 went for the math tests that had to be scrapped, but the vast majority of the funds go to the Iowa Test for Basic Skills and Tests of Achievement and Proficiency.

“And a majority of (the work on the math test) is done in house, as well. So It’s not a huge expenditure,” she said.

In crafting next year’s tests, the state will work with districts and teachers to determine what should be tested, Edmiston said.