The state will include “open-ended” questions on its new standardized tests in math and reading because they will encourage teachers to emphasize problem solving at every grade level, Illinois Supt. of Education Robert Schiller said Wednesday.
As the state completes an overhaul of its testing system to meet federal reform requirements, Schiller said he remains committed to including at least one question on each test where students must write out their answers and explain how they solved the problem.
“What we are asking on a state test is what teachers will be cognizant of when they are teaching,” Schiller said. “We want to continue the use of open response. It has the opportunity to enhance and enrich instruction … and to drive higher-order thinking skills.”
Partly because of the high cost of scoring written responses, there was widespread concern that officials would scrap open-ended questions as the state moves away from its current tests and toward adapting one of three national achievement tests.
Math educators, in particular, argued that excluding these questions would represent an abandonment of the reasoning and problem-solving skills that have been stressed in math classes over the last decade.
Randy Pippen, one of 10 veteran math teachers asked by the state to review its proposed test design, said he was encouraged by Schiller’s decision. He and other educators on the review committee were concerned about the proposed format, which they argued relies too heavily on basic computation at the expense of harder-to-test analytical skills.
“It’s a good step forward because we know what is tested is what is taught,” said Pippen, curriculum director for Lisle School District 202 and a former president of the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics. “Obviously, the quality of the test question is important, whether it’s multiple-choice or open response. But the impression we got from the state is they were looking to reduce costs, and open-response questions are expensive.”
Schiller said he never considered eliminating the questions entirely but did debate how many to include and whether they should be included at every grade.
The state’s current elementary exam, the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests, includes two open-ended questions in both reading and math, which is tested in 3rd, 5th and 8th grades. The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to start testing every student in grades 3 to 8 in these two core subjects by 2005-06.
State officials estimate that it would cost an extra $2 million to $3 million to include one open question for every grade on these two tests. By contrast, the state’s social science test, which is all multiple-choice and is scored automatically by computers, would cost about $600,000 to administer and score.
The state tests–which also include the Prairie State Achievement Exams for 11th-graders–cost Illinois about $15 million a year.
