Nine States Agree on Algebra II Test
More than 200,000 students across nine states will take the same Algebra II standardized test next year, including about 25,000 who may have to pass the exam in order to graduate, the nonprofit organization Achieve announced today. Each of the nine states-Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island-expects to use the test beginning next year. Arkansas may have the most aggressive plans: The state is considering making a passing score a graduation requirement for all students enrolled in Algebra II, said Julie Johnson Thompson, the state's department of education's spokesperson. (There currently are about 25,000 students in the course.) Other states are also considering using the test to determine which students receive financial aid for college and in what course level they are placed.
While the news might send shivers down the spines of high school students, it represents a victory for activists who have been trying to build a national test for more than 15 years. Under the No Child Left Behind law, every state must test its students in reading and math, but each state develops and administers its own test. The result has been wide variation from state to state on what the acceptable student skill level is.
A federal test that all states could use might help standardize the skill levels, control costs, and improve quality. Both Sen. Edward Kennedy and Sen. Christopher Dodd have proposed plans for such voluntary national standards, but state fears about too much federal intervention have killed similar efforts in the past.
That's why Achieve, the education organization that brought the nine states together for the Algebra II test, says the best path to creating a national test is one that proceeds without the federal government altogether. This Algebra II test is one example of how such consensus can be built from the ground level, says Achieve President Michael Cohen. "It's nine states--it's not 50--but no one's ever done this before," Cohen says. "We're showing it's possible for states to agree on what students should learn and how to measure it."
Algebra II was chosen as the first subject for a consensus test in part because of its potential implications for college success. Department of Education research shows completing a course in Algebra II more than doubles a student's chance of earning a four-year college degree, with minority students receiving a particular boost. Yet only 13 states make Algebra II a graduation requirement, and reformers suspect that many Algebra II classrooms don't actually teach high-quality Algebra II.
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