Alabama State Board of Education discusses possible adjustment to reading cut scores

The Alabama State Board of Education during its regular meeting on February 9, 2023. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

ANNISTON — Members of the Alabama State Board of Education Wednesday discussed the possibility of changing a test score threshold that determines whether a student can advance to fourth grade.

The 2019 Alabama Literacy Act, which was fully implemented this year, aims to have students reading on grade level by the end of third grade. Part of the law requires that students who don’t meet the cut score by the end of third grade – and do not attend a summer reading camp or use other ways to address the score – will be held back for another year.

About 6.5% of the third graders tested this spring were below grade level after the summer camps.

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The board members discussed changes to a factor known as conditional standard error of measurement (CSEM), calculated into a test score to ensure that a student’s performance is accurately captured. CSEM is a range where a student’s score would be expected to land if that student took the same test over and over again.

For the 2024 reading tests, CSEM stood at -2.00. The closer the factor gets to zero, the more students will be found to be reading below grade level.

According to a chart provided to the board members, a -2.00 CSEM correlates to 91.02% of students on or above grade level, while a -.025 CSEM would be 77.18% students on or above grade level.

Tracie West, a Republican who represents District 2 on the board, said that there was a perception that the reading test was too easy.

“Would the perception … in going from a -1.5 to a -1.25, would we be pushing a little harder to do that in a one year period of time?” she said to Juan D’Brot, senior associate with the Center for Assessment, and part of the Alabama State Department of Education’s technical advisory committee.

At a work session earlier this year, Mackey said that they use the term “sufficiency” internally but that the law refers to grade level. Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, the spnos sponsor of the act, told the Reflector at the time that she felt sufficiency was below grade level.

State Superintendent Eric Mackey said that the current -2.00 CSEM provides 95% confidence that a student is “truly below grade level.” Moving the CSEM to -1.00, he said, would mean there is a 68% confidence, or a 32% “not confident those are the right students.”

“Going from 95% confidence to 68% confidence is a big jump,” he said.

D’Brot said that changing the cut score would depend on the risk that the board was willing to take.

“The question, I think, that you have to weigh is, what’s the greater risk promoting students that should have been held back, or holding back students that should have been promoted, and that, I think, gets into some kind of legal questions about, where do you want to hold things steady?” he said.

Wayne Reynolds, a Republican who represents District 8 on the board, said that he was more concerned about a “false positive,” where a student who is not ready is advanced.

He said that he does not want to pass somebody who does not have the skill sets, “whether it’s a lawyer or a doctor or a driver’s license.”

Mackey said that he thinks it’s best if those changes are made gradually, and that they have an obligation to let districts and other school leaders in the next couple of months.

“I worry about us not telling districts until February and they’re giving a test in March,” he said.

The State Board of Education went on a two-day retreat in Anniston, the second one of the year.

The board also discussed further restrictions on cell phones in schools, which was a discussion at the earlier retreat. Mackey said that their resolution encouraging districts to have stricter policies was working.

Another topic of discussion was school safety, with Mackey saying Wednesday in a budget discussion that they would need money to implement a series of school safety measures required under a bill that passed in the last session .

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