Fallbrook High to focus on rigor; test results show school is "at risk" level

The Fallbrook Union High School District (FUHSD) administration has determined it needs to add more rigor to its core classes as a way to improve students’ academic performance on state assessments.

Because of the change from state academic standards to the Common Core standards (CCs), the academic testing has significantly changed. This makes comparing previous academic year’s testing data nearly impossible, according to assistant superintendent Jose Iñiguez. One large focus is the progress in relation to 21^st Century skills.

"There’s a huge difference between the old California State Testing results, the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) results and the new Smarter Balance Assessment," said Iñiguez. "Before, a student could guess the answer and do well – which is unlikely – but they could guess. The level of rigor uses higher levels of Depths of Knowledge (DOK), and may have more than one answer."

DOK levels range from one, which is recall and reproduction; two, basic application of skills and concepts; three, strategic thinking; and four, extended thinking. The Common Core purposes require that students be able to show their cognitive competencies, interpersonal competencies, and intrapersonal competencies. This is more than just a mastery of core academic contents; students need to be able to communicate with others, and have an understanding of their own comprehension of materials.

According to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), the Fallbrook High School district had eight percent of students exceed in math, 20 percent of students met standards, 27 percent nearly met standards, and 45 percent of standards not met. The county overall had 14 percent of students exceed math standards, 21 percent meet standards, 26 percent nearly meet standards, and 39 not meet standards.

In terms of English Language Arts, the Fallbrook High School district had 16 percent exceed standards, 41 percent of students meet standards, 28 percent of students nearly meet standards, and 15 percent of students not meet standards. In the county, 26 percent of students exceed standards, 34 percent of students met standards, 22 percent of students nearly met standards, and 18 percent of students did not meet standards.

"It’s really comparing apples and oranges, and it’s not fair to compare CSTs to this. Evidence is clear that 80 to 95 percents of the CSTs were at a DOK level 1 or 2. Even though the CSTs were supposed to assess the state’s standard along with a level of rigor, the reality was they didn’t. Teachers would teach to the test, and the test did not align with the rigor, and the end result was a lower level of rigor and expectations," said Iñiguez. "That’s not the case with the Smarter Balance. More than half of the questions are DOK level 3 or 4. The rigor in demonstrating the content and matter of standards is significantly higher now."

Iñiguez stated that the Smarter Balance test naturally requires teachers to teach with an increased level of vigor, because it does not merely refer to summative assessments at the end of the year.

"The new Smarter Balance also provides formative assessment services for teachers and districts, free of charge," said Iñiguez. "Teachers can use that to administer assessments online, which allows teachers to gather feedback on assessments. The idea behind this is that teachers will know well before the end of the year where students are most in need of help."

Another significant difference with the new Smarter Balance tests is that 11^th grade students will be taking the exam, regardless of what level of work they are able to perform.

"This is a big deal because those who took the exam took what was based on what math course students were in, and the students needed to be in Algebra 2 or higher," said Iñiguez. "Now results are directly aligned with Smarter Balanced assessments. The second big change is that with CSTs, students only received one score. That won’t let parents and teachers delve into more detail. The new assessment gives several subscores called claims in each subject, so parents can see what part of math a student needs help in."

According to Iñiguez, the 2014-2015 assessment results are a baseline for growth, which can be judged from.

Iñiguez stated that because of the current discussion regarding federal accountability format, the high school district is not out of the 'at risk' category.

"The school’s academic performance index is on a hiatus for at least one more year," said Iñiguez. "The problem with that though is, it basically freezes everyone in place for program improvement. We don’t know what that’s going to look like, but there are rumblings that the results from the current assessments will replace the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) at the state level. The federal government might take that state level assessment as part of the federal accountability format."

"The district is currently prepping teachers to increase rigor and understanding," said Iñiguez. "We are not only assessing our current level of rigor, but also our understanding how to increase our rigor. It’s not necessarily the content matter that’s lacking the rigor – it’s how we cover the material that brings about the rigor."

"The format of the lesson is as important as the lesson itself," continued Iñiguez. "How do we allow students to demonstrate a much higher level of understanding of concepts if we are not allowing them to either talk to one another or to the class, like the CCs are asking them to? Are we working on letting the students wrestle with content matter, question one another, analyze one another’s results, and understand how they arrived at those conclusions? That’s not something you can do if the teacher lectures for the duration of class every day."

Iñiguez stated the types of activities being taught to teachers should illicit a higher level of thinking that students need to demonstrate in higher balanced assessments. State assessments no longer require simple memorization, but require multiple steps to arrive at an answer. This may include analyzing various sets of data, primary documents, and supporting answers with evidence.