PSS aligning standard tests with US standards

By Marconi Calindas
Reporter

The Public School System is now conducting a workshop that is intended to further enhance local education by fully aligning it with U.S. mainland standards.

The four-day workshop began last Monday, with representatives of each elementary, middle school and high school on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota taking part in improving standard-based tests in the CNMI.

The workshop was facilitated by Don Burger, Pacific Resources for Education and Learning director for Pacific assessment systems and services. He will summarize the result of the workshop tomorrow.

Together with PSS, Burger said they found it high time to have the standard-based tests revised and reviewed to align the PSS standards with the standards of the United States.

The review was done by Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning in Denver, Colorado. One of its missions is to come up with research-based strategies that teachers can use to help increase and enhance student achievement in all subject areas at all grade levels.

“Now we are doing some tests revisions to make sure that the PSS standard-based tests align with the new standards and benchmarks,” Burger said.

He said the workshop had teams of elementary, high school, and junior high school teachers who worked on rewriting all test items based on new standards during yesterday’s session. Monday and yesterday’s session included rewriting test items for reading. Today and tomorrow, the teachers will tackle test items in writing. For Math and Science, tests will be discussed and revised in the weeks to come, said Burger.

Burger said this is the second phase of the test revision process. “We began the test development process five years ago,” Burger said.

He said the tests were not changed because they had proven satisfactory but now PSS is changing it again, making sure that it coincides with new standards and benchmarks.

Burger said that, during the sessions, the teachers were able to come up with several new test items that are supported by questions based on the new standards and benchmarks.

PREL provides guidance on the technical side of the test development process, while PSS supplies the teachers their needed professional development such as planning and designing new tests.

PSS requires the teachers to participate in this workshop because it said teachers understand the extent of knowledge that children in the CNMI possess.

Burger has been with PREL for five years.