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Getting tests right in West Virginia

West Virginia public education officials have taken a giant step forward in deciding to use the SAT college entrance test for all Mountain State juniors. Many more steps remain before the valuable standardized testing system we need for public schools is in place, however.

Each and every one of those steps needs to be taken. No shortcuts allowed when the quality of our children’s education is involved.

For years, West Virginia used standardized tests that were virtually unique. It was impossible to compare our schools with those in other states, except through the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Unfortunately, NAEP examinations rely on relatively small samples of students.

Because the SAT is used by many colleges and universities to evaluate potential enrollees, it should be better for comparison purposes.

Plans are for the SAT to be administered to all public school juniors, not just those planning to continue their educations past high school.

No standardized testing system can be perfect. State officials should keep a few things in mind to make ours as valuable as possible:

≤ In terms of comparing our students to those in other states, the SAT may not be as good as its counterpart, the ACT. About 2 million students take the ACT each year. The participation rate among those eligible to take it is below 25 percent in just eight states. In contrast, the SAT lacks even that level of participation in 24 states.

State officials say the SAT meets their criteria better and is slightly cheaper than the ACT. It may be the few extra dollars would be worth spending.

≤ Caution will have to be exercised in comparing our schools’ SAT scores to other states. All high school juniors will take the test here. Only those bound for college will get it in many other states.

≤ A separate process is being used to select a standardized test for children in grades 3-8. It will be very difficult to find something that allows state-to-state comparisons — but officials should come as close as humanly possible.

Improving our public schools requires knowing how well they stack up against the competition in other states and countries. Getting standardized testing right — or as close to it as possible — is critical in accomplishing that.

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