Idaho board cuts ninth-grade testing
BOISE – Idaho’s State Board of Education voted Thursday to amend its $22 million testing contract and eliminate this spring’s Idaho Standards Achievement Test for ninth-graders throughout the state.
“I want a balanced budget. I don’t want to be in this situation ever again,” declared board President Milford Terrell.
In a special meeting, the board voted 5-1 to amend its contract with Data Recognition Corp. of Maple Grove, Minn., to eliminate funding for ninth-grade Idaho Standards Achievement tests, and voted unanimously to waive requiring ISAT testing for ninth-graders for this spring only.
If the board hasn’t come up with a new plan before next fall, it’d have to waive the rule again to cancel the fall ninth-grade ISAT, for which there would be no funding in the contract. The test previously was required, at least twice a year, for students in second through 10th grades, with passing the 10th-grade test required for graduation from high school. The board canceled second-grade testing this fall because of budget shortfalls, which it also cited for eliminating the spring ninth-grade test.
State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna was the lone dissenter in the vote, saying he didn’t want to eliminate the funding for the life of the contract, which runs for four years with two possible two-year extensions. He preferred to cut it just for this year. “I understand the predicament the board’s in,” Luna said. But, he said, “The ninth-grade test is a critical test given the year before we expect students to pass a graduation test.”
Board member Sue Thilo, of Coeur d’Alene, said, “I look at this as a temporary move – necessary, but temporary – and we do need to immediately roll up our sleeves and look for a way to reinstate ninth-grade testing at the earliest possible date.”
Luna is co-chairing a board subcommittee that’s examining Idaho’s testing requirements amid complaints that too much school time is spent on tests. That panel expects to have results from a survey of school districts by March.
Terrell said the board may come up with a different approach after further study, such as bringing back ninth-grade spring testing but eliminating fall tests for all grades as a cost trade-off. But, Terrell said, “There can be no extra money. … We have a closed budget at this point.”
After the board’s special meeting, he told reporters, “This president will sure take a strong look at where we’re at before we ever sign contracts, I’ll tell you that.”
The board office is facing such a severe budget shortfall because of testing costs that it’s holding vacant all four of its top executive positions: executive director, deputy director/chief policy officer, chief fiscal officer and chief academic officer. Employees with other full-time jobs, including acting executive director Mike Rush, who is administrator of the state’s Division of Professional-Technical Education, are filling in.
Last week, the board announced it had eliminated the 9th-grade ISAT tests due to budget shortfalls, after members discussed the issue during a closed meeting in apparent violation of the Idaho Open Meeting Law. The Spokesman-Review filed a complaint with the Idaho attorney general’s office, which is investigating; on Wednesday, the Idaho Allied Dailies, an association of 16 newspapers, filed a similar complaint.
Rush emphasized that the board hadn’t made a decision before Thursday’s special meeting, which was called on one day’s notice, and said the earlier announcement was in error. “This is your first opportunity as a board to hear my findings, conclusions and decisions regarding these negotiations and related outcomes,” he told the board.
Idaho’s open meeting law allows closed sessions only to discuss specified topics; budget shortfalls and testing programs aren’t on the list. Terrell said he thought the board had acted properly, but declined to discuss the closed session during the investigation.