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 Newsmaker
Friday: Roeber Eyes Faster MEAP Scores
Gongwer News Service, May 14, 2004
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Ed Roeber is now
through the first full testing cycle in his second stint as
director of the Michigan Educational Assessment program, and his
work so far has drawn commendation from some of the most
strident opponents of the state's testing program. But if the
stock market had not performed so poorly the last several years,
he might have remained in his private sector post.
The opportunity to move back into the state retirement system
was one of several attractions to moving back into his old job,
Mr. Roeber told Gongwer News Service during an interview Friday.
But now that he is in the post, he has a plan he hopes over the
next three years will significantly improve both the value and
the reputation of the MEAP.
The most recent release of test scores was an about face from
the debacle of the 2002-03 scoring, but Mr. Roeber said it was
still at best a "B-" effort compared to what the test scoring
process should be.
"It's still not as easy at it could have been," he said. "There
are still improvements that could be made."
He said he is working to get, if not for the coming school year,
at least under the next scoring contract, the time to score the
tests down from the current nine weeks to no more than four. "I
think we could get it down to two or three weeks," he said.
"It's a matter of do we want to pay for it."
And he said with his experience in the industry he will be able
to find the contractors who will meet those standards - and
write contracts they would be willing to sign.
Mr. Roeber came back to the MEAP about the same time it came
back to the Department of Education after much cajoling from
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Watkins. "From May to
about September, he would periodically call me to come back,"
Mr. Roeber said.
But at that point he periodically replied in the negative
because of the pay cut he would take coming from a private
non-profit testing firm.
The answer changed when, at a meeting to discuss his officially
filing for retirement benefits from his previous time in the
department, Mr. Watkins was able to meet his salary demands. And
he said returning to the state retirement system was attractive.
"I could rejoin the Michigan retirement system and afford to
retire without having to worry about 401(k)s," he said.
He came to Mr. Watkins' attention after serving on a task force
on implementing Education! YES, an effort he said should have
warned him of the work ahead in MEAP. "When the State Board of
Education commissioned us, we all thought we'd meet two to three
times," he said. "After 13 meetings, we kind of ran out of
steam."
And he said the work now in the MEAP office is more difficult
than he had remembered from his earlier tenure - not that he is
unable to do it. "I realize the difference in stamina I had as a
35-year-old versus now as a 60-year-old," he said. "With the
fall testing and with the discussions of what test to use for
high school, there's a lot of extra things I really didn't think
would be part of the job."
Mr. Roeber has been with the program almost since its inception.
When the test began in the 1969-70 school year, he was working
with the National Assessment of Educational Progress as a
graduate student.
He came to Michigan as the coordinator of test development in
1974 and moved up to supervise the program in 1976, a post he
held until 1991.
But his prior time as MEAP supervisor is not the only asset he
brings to the post. He has also worked the other side of the
fence with test development companies, including having written
the bid (which came in second) for Measured Progress to score
the MEAP.
That experience, and some research he has done since returning
to the department, has shown him there are a number or
opportunities that were not explored when the Department of
Treasury bid out the current scoring contract.
The primary issue, he said, is the time it takes to scan the
answer sheets. The current contractor needs five weeks to
complete the scanning. "There are contractors on the market than
can do it in half a day," he said. "The faster you can get the
boxes open and scanned, the faster you can get the scorer
scoring."
Mr. Roeber indicated it was primarily inexperience among MEAP
leadership at the time that led to not only the lengthy time for
scoring the tests but to the late test scores for the 2002-03
school year. "The staff tried to be too innovative without
having a backup," he said. When the software designed to give
unique identifiers to each student failed, there was no other
way to match students in the database to their district, he
said, which led to having to manually review some 55,000 score
sheets to try to determine where the students attended.
"We're not going to implement anything unless it's been
thoroughly tested and we'll still have a backup," he said.
But he said some changes at the school level could also speed up
the time in releasing the scores. In 2002-03, the schools did
not correct demographic information on students until after the
tests had been scored, part of what led to the number of appeals
on adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left
Behind Act. For the most recent tests, those corrections were
done as the scores were submitted, but Mr. Roeber said he would
like to see schools make those corrections before the tests are
even taken.
He is also trying to cut into the time that MEAP is cutting into
the school year. "Some of my goals are to try to simplify the
test process to make the test shorter," he said.
For instance, the testing process for the writing test currently
allows students 45 minutes to outline their paper before they
begin writing it. "I don't think that's necessary," he said.
He said in general the tests need to be timed. "I think we can
set time limits that are generous but are time limits
nonetheless."
He noted one high school student taking the test last week spent
seven hours on the mathematics portion, a time he said was
excessive.
"English teachers tell students the more you write the better
grade you get," he said. "We certainly don't count the number of
pages when we're looking at clarity of expression." He said, in
fact, some of the longer papers are marked down because the
added material detracts from the original idea.
The changes now are necessary to get the state ready for the
2005-06 school year when the MEAP program will see its more
drastic changes, Mr. Roeber said. That is the year the state
will first implement grade-level tests for all subjects and
could potentially be the first year of an entirely new test at
the high school level.
Though the timely release of the scores this year has ended one
public concern over the high school test, he said it has not
quelled discussion of changing to the ACT or some other college
entrance examination to replace the current test.
He noted that it was only the elementary and middle school tests
that were affected by the delays in 2002-03. The high school
tests, he said, were relatively timely.
But, no matter the improvements or changes, there will always be
some controversy surrounding the MEAP, Mr. Roeber said. While
the education community in general was pleased at the timeliness
of the score release, he said some were raising a flap that the
number of answers to score in the proficient range had been
reduced on some of the tests.
While critics said the move was to make the test scores look
better in light of sanctions under No Child Left Behind, Mr.
Roeber said the change was merely a statistical change to be
sure results on the test this year could be compared to results
last year. "If the questions are more difficult and you want to
keep the scale the same, you've got to adjust the scores," he
said. "That's why you don't report by the raw number or
questions passed."
The criticisms began the first year of the tests when the
department said it would not release scores but was then forced
to under an attorney general opinion. It told the media the
scores were available to the public, but not the schools.
And he said he himself is a critic of the process, at least in
the way some schools are using the tests. The tests were
originally designed, and can still be used, to help teachers and
students identify material that is not being taught effectively.
"Now it's all about accountability and that purpose has gotten
lost," he said.
He hopes by moving the test to the fall, teachers would have
results back in time that they could not only be held
accountable for what they had done, but could use the test
results to correct what they had not.
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