Crunch Time For State Literacy Exam

Fayetteville Students To Begin Making Up Schedule For Snow Days

FAYETTEVILLE — Students will begin making up eight days of lost instruction next week while teachers are focusing on ways to get them ready for state mandated standardized tests.

The testing schedule begins March 11 when a literacy exam is given to 11th-graders across the state, according to the Arkansas Department of Education. Fayetteville students will attend school Monday and next Saturday.

AT A GLANCE

Test Schedule

Testing dates for the state mandated exams:

• March 11 — Grade 11 Literacy Exam.

• March 17 — English Language Development Assessment for limited English proficient students.

• March 31 — Grades 1 and 2 and Grade 9 Iowa Tests.

• April 7 — Benchmark Exams in Grades 3-8.

• April 22 — End of Course Geometry Exam.

• April 29 — End of Course Biology Exam.

• May 13 — End of Course Algebra Exam.

Source: Arkansas Department Of Education

The loss of instruction to prepare students for the literacy exam is the most challenging as the makeup days begin, said Kay Jacoby, executive director of curriculum, instruction, assessment and accountability for the school district. A passing grade on the literacy exam is a key requirement for graduation in Arkansas.

Karen Fuller, high school instructional facilitator, said the English teachers revised some strategies at an in-service meeting Jan. 3. At that point, students had missed five days because of winter weather. School was closed another three days the next week.

First the teachers identified the students who needed targeted instruction, Fuller said. The teachers agreed to adjust the bell schedule to reach those students. The 30-minute advisory period was added to the remediation time already set aside before or after the lunch period.

Teachers also adjusted the curriculum maps, which provide guides for skills to be covered in the lesson plans, Fuller said.

The schedule was changed for administering formative assessments from the Learning Institute in Hot Springs to measure students’ strengths and weaknesses. The formative assessments look like the state tests, she added.

“We’re doing everything we can in collaborative meetings to get the pen to flowing on paper,” Fuller said. “We are also encouraging writing across the curriculum.”

“We want all 11th-graders to pass,” Fuller said. If students don’t pass in the proficient or advanced groups, they are put in a remediation program until they are able to pass the exam.

The literacy exam is made up of three parts: multiple choice questions, open response questions in short essay form after reading passages, and two essay questions.

“Writing is the most important part of the assessment,” she said. “Students may have trouble if they can’t write a coherent response.”

Also at the secondary level, students take an end-of-course exam after completing Algebra 1, geometry and biology. Students have to pass the algebra test to graduate.

The loss of instruction time can affect students’ test performance, said Anita Lawson, Woodland Junior High School principal.

“Those students who are at risk really need to be at school,” Lawson said. “We do have high scores and we don’t want to lose that. You can make up time on Saturday but not necessarily the quality. We get hit either way.”

Jacoby said there are positive and negative sides when instruction time is lost.

On the positive side, losing days at the beginning of a semester can make students and teachers eager to learn, Jacoby said.

“The negative is that it puts us behind, but it’s not something that can’t be made up,” she said

The state requires schools to make up missed days. An effort is made to get those days scheduled before the Benchmark tests are given. The 11th grade literacy has the most challenges because it is given the second week in March, Jacoby said.

Students in English language arts and math are facing high stakes testing and those classes will have quality instruction, Jacoby said.

“We can cover it all, but does the student learn it,” Lawson said.

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