DOBSON — the Surry County Schools board of education learned about a new NC Department of Public Instruction accountability model for public schools during a two-day retreat this week.

The board learned there will be very few changes for the 2010-11 school year and most of those will take place at the high school level.

For high schools, most of the changes will come in the standardized testing department. The state is looking at eliminating some tests while adding some new requirements. The geometry end of course (EOC) test will be eliminated, meaning students will take seven EOCs instead of eight. Jeff Tunstall, director of student accountability, said at the state level there is an amendment in the House version of the budget, that is in committee, which would eliminate the US History, civics and physical science end of course tests as well. This would mean students would only be tested on measures required by the federal government.

The Occupational Course of Study (OCS) will face the most changes as the specific testing for that program has been eliminated. According to Tunstall, the federal government determined the OCS tests were not similar enough nor rigorous enough to count towards meeting Adequate Yearly Progress, the measure used to test student and school growth. Instead of taking specific tests, these students will take the regular tests for English I, algebra I and biology until a new assessment is created.

“As it stands right now, there are very little changes for next year,” said Tunstall. “ACRE is probably the biggest deal in this. North Carolina has chosen to reform the curriculum and the accountability piece at the same time.”

The Accountability and Curriculum Reform Effort, or ACRE, outlines the plan for new assessments signed by 48 states and the District of Columbia. The plan calls for national standards in English, math and science. Because these national standards will not go into effect until the 2012-13 school year, North Carolina has time to take a look at its own assessments, which it plans to change in conjunction with the national standards.

Those national standards are known as common core standards and will create common minimum standards. The new standards North Carolina are developing are known as essential standards. These standards will favorably compare to the common core standards according to Tunstall, however there is no way to assess these standards yet.

“Every state has been able to develop its own testing model and that is going to change. I think it’s a great thing,” said Dr. Ashley Hinson, superintendent.

“This marriage of accountability and curriculum is all part of common core,” said Tunstall.

The new accountability model will measure performance and growth through indicators at the elementary, middle and high school levels. The elementary and middle school indicators are similar to what is already in place. Achievement still will be measured with End of Grade tests, including tests in reading and math in third through eighth grade and science in fifth and eighth grade. The main difference is that student growth will be measured on a value-added system. This means student performance on all previous tests will be compared as opposed to just performance over the past two years. According to Tunstall, the hope is that including all previous tests will allow schools to determine if there is a problem over time or if the student is having a bad year.

The high school indicators will see the biggest change. There are four main components to the performance index for high school. Two of these components, student achievement and graduation rate, are already in place and will see minor changes. Two new components will be added.

Student achievement refers to performance on EOC assessments. The change comes with an English II EOC which measures reading and writing. Math also will eventually split into Math A and Math BC. Math A is a mix of algebra and geometry. Math BC would be two separate courses in upper level math.

“We’re still taking EOGs and EOCs right now for the foreseeable future,” said Tunstall.

The graduation rate will be calculated as a five-year cohort instead of a four-year cohort. This refers to the number of students who enter the ninth grade and graduate four years later or five years later. As part of the new graduation indicator, the state is working on developing a tracking system in which students would receive an identification number that could eventually follow them all the way through the university or community college system. With this in place, students that transfer to another district or go to a homeschool could still be tracked through graduation.

“We have such a strong four-year rate our five-year rate won’t be much different. It’s still important that we’re talking about the kids who are trying hard,” said Tunstall.

One of the new components is the post-secondary readiness index. According to this index, high school students need to take some type of national assessment, whether that be the SAT, the ACT, Accuplacer, Compass or a WorkKeys assessment to determine if they are ready for the workplace or to further their education. There are five states that require students to take the ACT and Maine gives every student the SAT. According to Tunstall, North Carolina is looking at the ACT and Accuplacer, the test used by colleges to determine which courses incoming students should be place in.

The final new component deals with academic course rigor, specifically participation in the Future-Ready Course of Study which applies starting with the sophomore class. Rigor is proven by students taking and scoring proficiently in algebra II or what would be Math BC under the new standards. This is the element that is causing concern among school systems.

“It has me wondering how it will turn out. That’s a big academic jump,” said Tunstall of the change from algebra I as the requirement to algebra II.

The switch to algebra II would be a part of the common course of study. Part of that is the American Diploma Project which would allow North Carolina to compare its scores to students across the nation because they would all take the same assessment.

The growth index components will be the same four indicators and will measure the change in the indicators over time, for example the change in participation in the Future-Ready Core and the change in the five-year cohort graduation rate.

There also has been much discussion of the weight each of the indicators should receive. The recommendation calls for student achievement to be 50 index points out of 100, post-secondary readiness to be 15 points, Future-Ready Core participation to be 10 points and the five-year cohort graduation rate to be 25 points.

“The general consensus is that the performance index and the growth index weighting is the same,” said Tunstall.

With all of the proposed changes, it will take time for the state to completely roll-out all of the new standards and assessments. The first programs to see a change will be the information and technology skills program which will have a pilot program for the new essential standards during the 2010-11 school year. The new OCS essential standards will be taught in the 2010-11 school year as well except in social studies.

“The budget is holding back all these things from coming out,” said Tunstall.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.