The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s third through ninth grade students will try out a new standardized test this spring that will eventually replace the final installment of a currently used series of three exams.

The district is preparing to implement a new state standardized test that aims to offer a summative, rather than interim, measure of students’ academic growth. Summative assessments measure how much a student has learned after a specific course of study. The district’s third through ninth grade students will take the first iteration of the Alaska System of Academic Readiness, or AK STAR, testing in English language arts and mathematics.

The long-term goals of the assessment are to reduce the number of standardized tests students take and to offer a more comprehensive analysis of student growth over time. Currently, the district administers nine different kinds of assessments. Which assessments students take depend on their grade level and the time of year, among other things, according to the district’s 2021-2022 assessment calendar.

One of those assessments is the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA)’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth assessment. Currently, MAP Growth assessments are administered to KPBSD’s third through 10th grade students three times per year: once in fall, once in winter and once in spring.

With the implementation of AK STAR, students would take MAP Growth tests in fall and winter and the AK STAR summative assessment in spring, beginning in the 2022-2023 school year. This year, students will take both the spring MAP Growth and AK STAR assessments.

This summer, NWEA will determine the best way to link the two assessments. Then, starting next spring, students will only take the AK STAR assessment in spring.

Through MAP Growth assessments, testing ends when a student meets certain criteria or reaches the maximum number of test questions. In contrast, AK STAR will offer a fixed number of questions for each student. Unlike the MAP Growth assessments, the AK STAR exam will only test students on material from their current grade level.

Like the MAP Growth assessment, AK STAR will offer an adaptive test model. Adaptive tests are those in which the next question is easier or harder depending on whether the initial question was answered correctly. For the first year it’s offered, AK STAR will offer a linear testing model, under which questions are presented in an order that doesn’t depend on a student’s previous answer.

KPBSD District Assessment Coordinator Cindy McKibben told members of the KPBSD Board of Education during a Monday work session that one of the AK STAR assessment’s attributes is that it “celebrates growth” instead of just giving a result score. Where MAP Growth assessments focus on guiding instructional material, McKibben said, the AK STAR summative assessments will be more about accountability.

“This really will provide a resource for kids to be able to reflect on their work,” McKibben said. “They can see how what they’re doing in the classroom impacts how they score on these assessments.”

When asked Monday how accessible testing materials will be for educators, McKibben said there are no plans to share the test with teachers. However, because both the AK STAR and MAP Growth assessments are offered by the same company, “there is some comparability.”

“True mastery means that you can transfer that knowledge no matter how the question is asked,” McKibben said. “ … I do not believe that they are planning to share the questions with teachers.”

KPBSD Superintendent Clayton Holland said Monday that practice AK STAR tests are available on the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development’s AK STAR webpage under “student readiness.”

McKibben said she thinks the AK STAR testing will give the district accurate data about student performance because of how it will build on interim assessments given during other parts of the year.

“That’s going to be much more valuable than a snapshot of two hours on one day, in one content area,” McKibben said.

More information about the AK STAR test can be found on the district’s assessment webpage and on DEED’s assessment webpage.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.