Education Commissioner Susan Gendron is heading to Washington, D.C., later this month to defend the state’s use of the SAT as a measurement tool at the 11th-grade level to ask the federal government to change its ruling that Maine is not in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act.
Gendron said she expects the state to get a favorable ruling from the federal Department of Education, but if that doesn’t happen she’s ready for an appeal. Her meeting with the assistant secretary of education is Sept. 20.
“If we receive a non-approved status we will challenge it,” the commissioner said, adding her department already has a Washington-based law firm on a $3,000 retainer to advise the state.
The state faces the loss of $100,000 in administrative funds and the requirement that it negotiate a compliance plan and report to the federal government every month if its status isn’t changed.
Gendron updated the Legislature’s Education Committee on the state’s No Child Left Behind status at a special summer meeting Thursday.
The state received word in late June that the federal Department of Education had problems with use of the SAT to measure student progress in the 11th grade and was not approving Maine’s testing plan under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Maine and Nebraska were the only states to have their testing systems rejected outright, but 34 states were found deficient.
Using the SAT in high school was the big stumbling block in getting federal approval for the state’s system-wide testing plan, which is supposed to demonstrate that students are mastering the curriculum. Under No Child Left Behind, school systems have to demonstrate annual improvement through scores on the tests.
The federal government wanted more proof that the SAT was aligned with the curriculum, in general, and found it didn’t adequately measure progress in math. A second test will be added at the high school level measuring science and math next year.
While the majority of the Education Committee had endorsed Gendron’s decision to use the SAT this past April to measure student progress, she was back on the hot seat Thursday.
Rep. Vaughn Stedman, R-Hartland, said now the federal government says, “the SAT is not going to be the final answer” and other tests will have to be added. “We haven’t cut down in the amount of testing,” which was one of the goals, he said.
“Why didn’t the commissioner warn us?” asked Rep. Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou, that the federal government was questioning the use of the SAT.
Gendron said some members of the federal Department of Education had given her the go-ahead, but others disagreed. One month prior to the test date, Gendron said she was told, “Commissioner you need to administer your old assessment.”
“We were out of time,” she said, and to switch back at that point would have cost the state an additional $500,000 to gear up the old test – the Maine Educational Assessment – a version of which is still administered in the lower grades. That was on top of the typical $43 per student the old test costs to administer.
Genrdon said she sticks by her decision to go with the SAT, also known as the college boards, because it could encourage more students to think of college as an option. The SATs are traditionally required as part of a college application.
Others on the committee agreed.
“For me it was about how can we frankly shake up the establishment,” said Sen. Libby Mitchell, D-Kennebec County. “If we are going to make people college ready,” things have to change, she said. “I believe we’re not doing that now.”
Rep. Barbara Merrill, an independent from Appleton who is running for governor, had been a critic of the department’s moving to the test so quickly. She called it another example where the department refused to “look before they jump.”
“The sky wasn’t going to fall in,” if they had waited, she said.
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