HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 1666

As Reported by House Committee On:

Education

Title: An act relating to making the results on the statewide assessments available as norm-referenced results and as student growth percentiles.

Brief Description: Making the results on the statewide assessments available as norm-referenced results and as student growth percentiles.

Sponsors: Representatives Magendanz, Lytton, Muri, Bergquist, Hansen, Kilduff and Caldier.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:

Education: 2/5/15, 2/17/15 [DP].

Majority Report: Do pass. Signed by 21 members: Representatives Santos, Chair; Ortiz-Self, Vice Chair; Reykdal, Vice Chair; Magendanz, Ranking Minority Member; Muri, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Stambaugh, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Bergquist, Caldier, Fagan, Gregory, Griffey, Hargrove, Hayes, S. Hunt, Kilduff, Klippert, Lytton, McCaslin, Orwall, Pollet and Springer.

Staff: Megan Wargacki (786-7194).

Background:

K-12 Data Governance Group.

The K-12 Data Governance Group (DGG), within the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), was established to assist in the design and implementation of a K-12 Education Data Improvement System for financial, student, and educator data. The objective of the system is to monitor student progress, have information on the quality of the educator workforce, monitor and analyze the costs of programs, provide for financial integrity and accountability, and have the capability to link across these various data components by student, by class, by teacher, by school, by district, and statewide. The DGG includes representatives of various educational agencies such as, the Education Data and Research Center and the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program Committee, and is independently reviewed by the latter two groups.

The DGG has multiple responsibilities, including:

• identifying reports that should be made available on the Internet;

• ensuring that data systems are flexible and able to adapt to evolving needs for information; and

• establishing minimum standards for data systems.

The OSPI is also required to make certain reports available on the Internet. All DGG and OSPI reports required under the DGG statute must contain data to the extent it is available and must include documentation of which data are not available or are estimated.

Norm-Referenced Results.

When student assessment results are compared to the results from a larger group, the results are referred to as "norm-referenced." The larger group, referred to as the norm group, may be all the students in the state that took the assessment, all the students in a district, or all the students in a school. The larger group may also be refined to evaluate the results of a subgroup of students, such as a students of a particular race or ethnicity, or students participating in a particular program.

Student Growth Percentile.

In March 2013, the OSPI introduced a method of measuring student academic growth, called the Student Growth Percentile (SGP) because the OSPI could not measure the absolute growth of a student from one year to the next. Once the Smarter Balanced Assessments are fully implemented, the OSPI will be able to measure absolute growth; however, it will continue to use the SGP. The SGP is a method of norm-referencing, which describes student growth compared to other students with similar prior test scores.

The SGP allows comparison of students who enter school at different levels and shows student growth and academic progress, even for students who are not meeting the state standard on assessments. The SGP is a number between 1 and 99. If a student has a SGP of 85, it means the student showed more growth than 85 percent of his or her academic peers. A student with a low score on a state assessment can show high growth and vice versa. Similarly, two students with very different assessment scale scores can have the same SGP.

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Summary of Bill:

To the statute describing the intent of the Legislature in establishing the DGG is added, the Legislature intends to maintain the privacy of individual student data, while making data available to the public.

To the statute describing the reports that the OSPI is required to make available on the Internet is added, the results on the statewide assessment must be computed as norm-referenced results and as student growth percentiles where possible.

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Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Available.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony:

(In support) The OSPI changed its data suppression policy last year based on guidance from the federal Privacy Technical Assistance Center.  There was a concern about Washington meeting the federal data suppression rules, which are very conservative.  The result of the new-OSPI rules is that 48 percent of high schools have their reading assessment data results suppressed.  This makes it difficult for the public, including parents, to understand their students data. There are other ways to ensure that student privacy is maintained, while making as much data as possible available to the public. Norm-referencing data and the SGP are preferred ways to evaluate programs or policies and are the choice for significance testing.  Both are available, either is better than nothing.

(Other) The OSPI thinks it could publish norm-referenced results.  The OSPI is already working on improving its public display of growth data. With these new methods, school passing rates can be compared to statewide rates to show how far a school is from the norm.  Norm-referenced reporting would still face some of the current challenges, such as small numbers of students and schools with extremely high or low scores.  This bill has resulted in innovative ideas to display more data while still maintain privacy. The State Board of Education will work with the OSPI and the Legislature to meet the goals of the bill.

(Opposed) None.

Persons Testifying: (In support) Representative Magendanz, prime sponsor.

(Other) Deb Came, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction; and Julia Suliman, State Board of Education.

Persons Signed In To Testify But Not Testifying: None.