NC ABCs of Accountability
North Carolina's ABCs Accountability Program Frequently Asked Questions.
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1. What is the North Carolina ABCs Accountability Program?
The ABCs Accountability Program promotes school improvement by giving feedback to all public schools across the state on the growth and achievement of students in basic subjects. Growth and achievement are measured using state-developed tests that students take each year.
2. What are the tests that are used in the ABCs Accountability Program?
In grades 3 through 8, students take the state's End-of-Grade (EOG) tests in reading and mathematics at the end of the year. In grades 9 through 12, End-of-Course (EOC) tests are given to students in ten selected courses: Algebra I, English I, Biology, Geometry, Algebra II, U.S. History, Civics & Economics, Chemistry, Physical Science, and Physics. Also, students in grades 5 and 8 take a science test and students in grade 10 take a Writing test each March. Students in 8th grade also take a Computer Skills test. All of these tests are based on the Standard Course of Study, which is the official statewide curriculum from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
3. What about students in Kindergarten, first, and second grade?
There are no "standardized" tests given to students before 3rd grade. Teachers in grades K-2 use other assessments to measure how students are doing throughout the year. These assessments are also based on the Standard Course of Study, but they are not officially part of the ABCs Accountability Program.
4. What types of questions are on these tests?
The EOG and EOC tests contain multiple-choice questions that are based on the Standard Course of Study topics that teachers are expected to cover in class. The Writing test asks students to write a brief essay on a set topic. The Computer Skills test is an online test of how well students can use a computer for basic tasks, like typing a letter or using a database.
5. Where do the test questions come from?
The questions for each test are all written by North Carolina teachers who teach those specific subjects and grade levels. Each question is linked specifically to the goals and objectives in the state's official curriculum, which is called the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. The state then puts each test item written by those teachers through a very long and rigorous evaluation process. This process determines which items are good enough to be part of the state's official tests. To develop these tests for just one subject (e.g., Reading, Geometry) takes about 3-4 years, and each test is redone about every 5 years in order to adjust to the updates that are made to the Standard Course of Study.
6. Can I see the questions on these tests?
Not currently. The official test items are held secure by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to be sure that no student or teacher can see what's on the tests before they are given. However, sample items and other information about each test can be found on their website at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/parents.
7. What do the results of the tests tell me about my child?
The number of questions a student answers correctly on an EOG or EOC test is converted to a "scale score". This scale score can then be converted to one of four Achievement Levels - I, II, III, or IV. If a child obtains an Achievement Level III or IV score, he or she is considered proficient (i.e., the student has shown the ability to do what is expected at that grade in that subject).
When these scores are looked at across an entire school, they provide good information about the performance of a school as a whole. It is important to remember that because these tests are designed primarily to measure the overall performance of schools, scores for individual students are less reliable than average scores for entire schools. A teacher's assessment of what a student knows and is able to do is just as important to consider when determining how well an individual student is performing in school.
8. What about students with disabilities – do they take these tests too?
All eligible students are tested according to state and federal laws. Students with disabilities are often given special help to complete the tests – extra time to complete the test, test booklets with larger print, test booklets printed in Braille, etc. – that allows them to show what they have learned in a way that fits best with their abilities. A small number of students with disabilities (and also some students who do not speak English) who cannot take the typical state tests are tested with alternate tests that are developed by the state especially for those students.
9. How do schools use my child's EOG or EOC score?
Schools use EOG and EOC results in many ways. Test results can help target instruction to the specific needs of students. The results also give parents and students feedback on the progress being made from year to year. Teachers also use these test results to evaluate how well they are doing in getting their students to learn the material in the Standard Course of Study.
In grades 3 through 8, scores are used to help make promotion and retention decisions for students according to state and local policies. Specifically, students who score in Achievement Level I or II on their reading or math EOG test at the end of the year must be provided with extra instruction immediately, and might not be allowed to move on to the next grade until they retake and pass those tests (i.e., get a Level III or IV score) after the benefit of that extra instruction. Remember that promotion/retention decisions are NEVER based solely on any single test score. In reality, many kinds of information are used before making a decision to retain a student in grade.
In grades 9-12, state policy requires at least 25% of a student's grade in any course that has an EOC test to be based on the score on that EOC test. Starting with incoming 9th graders in the Fall of 2006, a new state policy requires high school students to pass five selected EOC tests in order to receive a diploma. Specifically, students who score in Achievement Level I or II on the Algebra I, English I, Biology, Civics and Economics, and/or U. S. History EOC tests may be in danger of not graduating until they retake and pass those tests.
10. How are schools recognized and rewarded under the ABCs Accountability Program?
Since 1996, schools have been rewarded each year by the state based on (1) the percent of tests on which students score at Achievement Level III or IV and (2) how much growth individual students show on these tests from one year to the next. The state sets standards for both of these measurements that are used to help determine the overall performance of the schools in terms of student achievement.
If the students in a school show "expected" or "high" levels of growth on state tests from year to year, the school may be given an award by the state recognizing their performance, and teachers and teacher assistants get a bonus of up to $1,500 each. Depending on how much growth students demonstrate, and on how many students score in Achievement Level III or IV, schools are given labels. The table below outlines the main labels that the state assigns to each school based on how well their students perform on state tests:
If your child's school has the label of… |
then it means that… |
| School of Excellence | Students met or exceeded their growth target last year on state tests, and they scored in Achievement Level III or IV on at least 90% of the tests they took. |
| School of Distinction | Students met or exceeded their growth target last year on state tests, and they scored in Achievement Level III or IV on 80-89% of the tests they took. |
| School of Progress | Students met or exceeded their growth target last year on state tests, and they scored in Achievement Level III or IV on 60-79% of the tests they took. |
11. How are the growth targets set for students and schools?
Although the ABCs Accountability Program is designed to evaluate schools, it begins with the scores of each individual student on each test to make that evaluation. Statistical formulas are then applied to those test scores to evaluate how much progress students in the school have made for that year. These formulas determine whether each student makes "a year's worth of growth in a year's worth of time" on each of the state tests they take. The extent to which students accomplish this (i.e., meet their growth targets) determines whether the school as a whole makes "expected" or "high" growth.
Although these formulas calculate growth student by student and test by test, the accumulation of growth is averaged across the entire school. Regardless of how high or low a student scored the year before, s/he is expected to show a certain amount of growth on the current year's tests. If a student scores high compared to her/his peers one year, then s/he is expected to score high compared her her/his peers the next year as well. For example, if a student scores higher than 90% of the students in the state on their 4th grade End-of-Grade Reading test this year, then s/he would be expected (roughly) to score higher than 90% of her/his peers again the next year on the 5th grade End-of-Grade Reading test. In other words, students are expected to progress at about the same rate each year so that they maintain their position in the group from year to year. The term that the state uses for this is called "Academic Change" (AC). Students who maintain or improve their position in the group from one year to the next are assigned an AC score of 0 or above; students who fall back relative to their peers are given a negative AC score.
These individual AC scores are then averaged across the entire school. If the average AC score across all the students in a school is equal 0 or more (i.e., one year's worth of growth), then the school is said to have made "expected" growth. If a school makes expected growth and 60% or more of the students in the school have AC scores of 0 or higher, then the school is said to have made "high" growth.
12. Is there anything new in the ABCs Accountability Program this year?
New End-of-Grade Reading tests were introduced in 2007-08, replacing the tests that had been used since 2002-03. New End-of-Course tests in Biology, Physics, Physical Science, and Chemistry were also introduced in 2007-08.
13. Last year my child's school made "high" growth – how is that different from "expected" growth?
High growth is a higher standard than expected growth. If a school makes "expected" growth and has 60% of their students with Academic Change scores greater than or equal to 0, the school makes "high" growth.
14. What if my child's school does not make "expected growth"?
If schools do not make "expected growth", they will not receive any recognition labels or any monetary rewards. In addition, schools where "expected growth" is not earned and where students score in Achievement Level III or IV less than 60% of the time are labeled by the state as a "Priority School" or "Low Performing School". These schools are given extra help by the state to improve learning and teaching for their students.
15. Which is more important – the number of students scoring in Achievement Level III or IV in a school, or whether the school makes expected or high growth?
Both are important in evaluating a school. The percentage of scores in Level III or IV measures how many students in the school are performing "on grade level" that particular year. Schools with high percentages on this measure have very few students who are "behind" in terms of what they should know and be able to do.
The growth measure looks at how much progress students make between the start of the year and the end of the year regardless of whether they are performing on grade level or not. Therefore, a school can have students making lots of growth each year, but their percentage of scores in Level III or IV may or may not be high.
16. I've heard some things about "No Child Left Behind" and "Adequate Yearly Progress". Where do they fit into this?
Adequate Yearly Progress, or "AYP", is another way of looking at how well schools are raising achievement. Unlike the state's original growth and proficiency standards, which are set in state law, AYP comes from a federal law passed in 2001 known as the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act. In order to make AYP, a school must have a certain percentage of students scoring in Achievement Level III or IV each year not just overall, but also for specific subgroups of students within the school. In each public school, there may be up to ten student subgroups that must meet the prescribed targets in both reading and math:
- the school as a whole (all students);
- American Indian students;
- Asian students;
- Black students;
- Hispanic students;
- Multiracial students;
- White students;
- Economically Disadvantaged students (i.e., students who receive free or reduced-price lunches);
- Limited English Proficient students; and
- Students with disabilities.
The number of subgroups in a school will vary – the more diverse the school, the more subgroups the school will have. Regardless of the number of subgroups in the school, every one of those subgroups must have a certain percentage of test scores that are in Achievement Level III or IV in order for the school to be designated as having made AYP. If even one subgroup fails to meet the standard in either reading or math, then the whole school does not make AYP. Schools that meet the "School of Excellence" criteria listed in the table under Question #10 above and make AYP are given the additional title of "Honor School of Excellence".
Every three years, the percentage of students in each of these subgroups that needs to score in Achievement Level III or IV increases so that, by 2014, each group must have 100% of students achieving at or above grade level. For some schools that receive special federal funding to serve low-income students, failure to make AYP can result in students being allowed to transfer to other schools, students receiving extra tutoring services, or other more serious consequences, such as replacing the entire staff, depending on how many consecutive years the school fails to make AYP.
17. How is Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) different from the state's definition of growth?
Although it uses the word "Progress", AYP is really a performance standard, not a growth standard. It is based only on the percentage of students who score at or above a certain level each year in a school, regardless of whether those students are the same students from one year to the next. The state's growth standards, however, are based on the progress made by individual students from one year to the next. Although schools with high numbers of students who are "below grade level" have as good of a chance as any other school at meeting the state's growth standards, those schools have a much harder time making AYP, often because many of their students come to them already behind where they should be academically.
18. Where can I go if I want to learn more about the ABCs Accountability Program?
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has more information on the ABCs Accountability Program on the following websites:
http://abcs.ncpublicschools.org/abcs/
http://abcs.ncpublicschools.org/
Evaluación Escolar del Programa ABCs de Carolina del Norte
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COMING SOON.
¿Dónde puedo obtener más información sobre el Programa de Rendición de Cuentas ABCs?
El Departamento de Instrucción Pública de Carolina del Norte tiene más información sobre el Programa de Rendición de Cuentas ABCs en los siguientes sitios Web:
http://abcs.ncpublicschools.org/abcs/
Además, los resultados del Programa de Rendición de Cuentas ABCs obtenidos en años pasados para cada escuela del estado se encuentran en los siguientes sitios Web:
http://abcs.ncpublicschools.org