Online science exams will test schools' tech capacities

This spring, Minnesota students in fifth grade, eighth grade and high school will for the first time take a statewide online test -- in science.

The tests will help state officials gauge just how well Minnesota kids perform as emphasis on math and science increases.

Sample questions that the state Department of Education officials shared Monday showed nifty voice-over questions and multicolored graphics, complete with animated demonstrations of how light affects photosynthesis. (The questions shown Monday will not be on the actual tests.)

The online test is likely to tax districts' technological chops, as thousands of schools will have to channel an estimated 190,000 students through computer labs in less than a month's time. But the test also is expected to put Minnesota at the forefront of states turning to a new, high-tech system of assessment.

Officials eventually want to go to fully online testing for accuracy and speedier results.

"I believe we have one of the most robust science assessments in the nation," said Deputy Education Commissioner Chas Anderson.

The test, which students will take between April 28 and May 23, will not be used to determine whether schools are doing a decent job under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Reading and math tests, still administered with good old-fashioned pencil and paper, will continue to do that heavy lifting.

More than 400,000 Minnesota students in grades 3-8 and high school will take the reading and math tests this spring. Students in 10th grade will take the reading test and students in 11th grade will take the math test. Those tests begin in many school districts next week.

Students in 525 traditional school districts and charter schools will take the online science test. But state officials acknowledge even a test limited to students in three grades could strain schools' capabilities.

"Can you get this many kids through the computer lab in this amount of time?" said Dirk Mattson, director of Research and Assessment at the Department of Education. "That's the question."

To help head off large-scale glitches and online traffic jams, Mattson said the state has been working with schools to map out their online capabilities, how many students they will be testing and how many computers they have to do the job. In addition, the state and the test contractor, Pearson, are monitoring school districts' ability to collect the online tests from their schools and transmit them to the state in a timely way.

Mattson said schools have worked out detailed testing schedules to avoid large-scale traffic jams that could delay or derail efforts to test all kids.

A number of students across the state last spring "field-tested" the science tests. Also, students with limited English have been taking online tests in math for about a year now. But the science test will be the state's first large-scale online-only test.

High school students taking the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments II in reading and math this spring will also be taking a test-within-a-test to determine whether they can graduate. That test, called the Graduation Required Assessment for Diploma (GRAD), will be embedded in the MCA-IIs. Students must pass the GRAD tests to earn their diploma; those who don't will be allowed to retake the test online several times a year.

Several years ago, officials hoped that tests would be completely online by 2009. But slow progress ramping up school technology has dampened ambitions. Mattson said there is no timetable for moving reading and math tests online.

"It's really about students-to-computers ratio," he said. "That's really where we've been kind of stuck."

James Walsh • 651-298-1541