New SBAC testing proves efficient for students’ learning

Staff Editorial

The Mira Costa administration’s decision to implement a schedule for the 2015-16 school year in which juniors take the Common Core Smart Balanced Assessment Consortium tests in the morning before first period is a much better way to facilitate the exam than last year’s SBAC testing schedule that required juniors to miss class when taking the exam.

Last year, Costa department chairs voted on April 14 to have juniors take the SBAC tests in three groups from 8 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. on May 14-21, forcing some to miss class if they did not opt out of taking the exam. However, this year, juniors will be testing from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on May 23-26, and first period will start for all students at 10:41 a.m.

The decision to change the test time to before school was designed to minimize the disruption of classes for juniors and decrease the amount of students opting out of the test, Costa Vice Principal Kristin Wolberg said. It was unfair to expect students to give up class time in order to take a test.

Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews recently announced that 30% of juniors opted out of the test. Consequently, the California Department of Education’s (CDE) Title I program did not fund $23,000 to the district, which is usually used to fund Student Academic Support classes, Dale said, because they only reward the funds to schools that had at least 95% student participation on the SBAC testing.

Although students are still offered the option of opting out, the fact that they do not have to miss classes to take the test will hopefully reduce the number of students who decide to opt out. Therefore, this year’s testing schedule is beneficial because MBUSD could receive the Title I funds that it was unable to receive last year if there is an increase in student participation, according to the CDE.

Additionally, according to the CDE, with fewer opt-outs, Costa would no longer be in Program Improvement, a formal designation for Title I-funded schools that fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress reports for two consecutive reporting cycles. Costa did not meet the last two consecutive AYP reports because two years ago, it did not get a 100 percent pass rate on the CASHEE, and last year too many students opted out of the SBAC, Dale said.

Costa being part of Program Improvement negatively affects seniors when they apply for college because it makes Costa appear less academically demanding, Wolberg said. However, with fewer people opting out, Costa will ideally move out of Program Improvement so it can ensure that students’ futures are not harmed.

Although the SBAC testing schedule diminishes instructional class time, this year’s schedule is an improvement from last year’s as it prevents juniors from missing their classes and can stop the school from being in Program Improvement.