I. The Department of Research and Evaluation has the following responsibilities for the administration and maintenance of the District Testing Program.

A. All test and testing supplies will be ordered and maintained by the Director of Educational Research and Evaluation.

B. Distributing, administering, central scoring and norming procedures will be coordinated through the office of the Director of Educational Research and Evaluation.

C. After scoring, the results of these tests will be distributed to teachers, principals and instructional division personnel as appropriate.

D. Additional reports showing district-wide achievement levels of the grades tested will be made public through Board presentations.

E. The Director of Educational Research and Evaluation shall be responsible for maintaining files containing the results of standardized tests administered as part of the district's testing program.

F. Any release of a particular student's test result will be consistent with Board Policy 5127 (Student Records: Protection of the Rights and Privacy of Parents & Students).

G. Samples of instruments currently used in the District Testing Program will be made available to student's parents/guardians at the school or Research Office.

H. The Research and Evaluation Department will collect and maintain samples of testing instruments from the various publishers in the field.

II. Other Testing Programs

A. The district will cooperate with state and federal authorities in administering tests, compiling data and reporting test results involved in required assessments.

B. Secondary school students are encouraged to participate in various commercial precollege, vocational-technical testing programs in conjunction with high school and post high school planning. Participation will be at the student's expense.

C. Individual psychological tests will be administered by certified school psychologists only if written consent by parent or guardian is on file.

District Testing Schedule

I. Prior to the beginning of each school year, a District Testing Schedule will be issued outlining the content, dates and deadlines of the required and optional testing program.  The District Testing Schedule will be developed as follows:

A. The Research and Evaluation Department will develop a draft of the District Test Schedule based on recommendations of the District Testing Committee.

B. The District Testing Schedule will be submitted to the Assistant Superintendent for Instruction for review and approval.

C. Upon the approval of the Assistant Superintendent, the Research and Evaluation Department will construct the District Testing Schedule, noting the approval of the Assistant Superintendent and the District Test Committee and distribute it to District personnel.  The schedule will also be made available to the public.

II. The District Testing Schedule will consist of tests to be administered district-wide from the categories listed below.

A. Readiness tests for students in Kindergarten and first grade in the areas of reading and arithmetic.

B. Tests of academic aptitude that provide either directly or indirectly, information about students' intellectual level (I. Q. Scores) and/or predict performance in learning.

C. Achievement tests that emphasize measurement of performance in the basic skills.  This includes Reading, Spelling, Language and Mathematics.  Other skills areas may be included.

D. Required tests of competency; for example, The Math Competence Test that is administered first to eleventh grade students.

E. Student Learning Objectives tests that are usually scheduled by coordinators and directors.

District Testing Committee

I. A District Testing Committee will be convened each year to make recommendations to the Director of Research and Evaluation and the Assistant Superintendent for Instruction about the content and context of the District's testing and assessment program.  The membership of this committee will be determined as follows:

A. The Research and Evaluation Department will select prospective members to represent the various users of test data.  The ethnic and sex makeup of the committee will reflect the District's criteria for such committees.

B. A recommended membership list will be sent to the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction for approval.

C. The Assistant Superintendent will notify the prospective members of their selection.

D. If a prospective member declines, the Research and Evaluation Department will recommend an alternate to the Assistant Superintendent who will in turn notify the prospective members.

E. The Director of Research and Evaluation will convene the first District Test Committee meeting.

Review of Non-Scheduled Tests and/or Other Measurement Devices

I. Persons or groups who wish to administer a test or use a measurement device that is not included or scheduled in the District's regular testing program must send a written request to the Research and Evaluation Department not later than three months before the requested date for administration to allow adequate time for review.

If the tests or measurement devices are to be used for research purposes, this information should be submitted along with the "Request for Approval to Conduct Experimental Studies and Surveys in the Highline Public Schools."

II. The request must be accompanied by copies of the tests to be administered along with the following information:

A. statement of need for the test

B. content domain or objectives to be measured (if applicable)

C. an outline of the test development process (the technical manual for commercially developed tests)

D. a description of population (or group) for which the test was designed

E. evidence of the test's reliability

F. evidence of the test's validity (this may be content validity only, in which case the items must be clearly related to the objectives to be measured).

G. directions for interpretation of the results and how these data should be used

H. standardized test administration procedures

I. location of test administration

III. No tests, surveys or questionnaires that contain questions about students' personal beliefs and practices in sex, family life, morality and religion or any questions about his parent's or guardian's beliefs or practices in the same shall be administered to any student in the Highline Public Schools without the express written permission of the student's parent or guardian.  The parent permission forms will be developed by the Research and Evaluation Department.

IV. The test review process outlined below will be implemented to cover all group tests that are used or may be used within the District.  The ongoing review of the individual psychological and intelligence tests will either be integrated into this process or become a connected parallel process.

Tests for special purposes will be reviewed by subcommittees with chairpersons from the District Test Committee who have the knowledge and skills in the particular area measured.

The content and technical manuals of each test or test battery or measurement device will be reviewed by various subcommittees' of the District Test Committee (e.g., Content Review, Test Data Review, Evaluation, Bias, and Teacher Review).

A. Content specialists will judge the adequacy of content coverage, the appropriateness of the items and the test's compatibility with the ongoing District instructional program.

B. Teacher groups will review the tests relative to content, ease of administration, interpretation of results, format attractability, and clarity of administrator's manual.  The teachers will also comment on the methods the publisher utilizes to summarize results and their (the publisher's) recommendations as to the use of these results.

C. The Director for Research and Evaluation will judge the technical data as to its adequacy for the stated purposes - norms, test development process, reliability, validity, ease of scoring, conversion to the District's test data handling system; its appropriateness for use in longitudinal studies, and its part in the total testing program both present and future.

D. The Research and Evaluation Department will review the tests in regards to their use in program evaluation, longitudinal studies, development of expectancy tables, etc.

Recordkeeping

In general, testing and assessment contributes to some form of evaluation.  This proceeds from informal tests used by classroom teachers to more formal measures.  Examples of formal measures are those mandated by the District or State or other organizations that require measurements to meet certain categorical requirements.

l. Classroom testing and assessment are essential to the evaluation of student performance for the purpose of providing adequate and appropriate educational experiences.

A. Classroom teachers are encouraged and authorized to develop tests designed to assess student achievement of the goals established for the class.

B. These tests and records of scores on these tests are maintained by the teacher for the duration of the class term (quarter, semester or year) and are not to be placed in the student's permanent record.

C. Teacher-constructed tests shall be made available for examination by parents at their request.

II. The Research and Evaluation Department shall maintain appropriate records of formal testing, assessment and other data gathering conducted in the District.

A. Test records, results of surveys and other assessments will be maintained in the research office for current and recent data gathering events.

B. Test history files will be maintained in local archives as long as their data are considered to be of value to the District.

C. Records are maintained in "hard copy" form (paper print-outs), computer tapes and computer discs.

D. A file of tests or measurement device specimens used to collect maintained data will be maintained by the Research and Evaluation Department for review by staff, researchers and citizens upon written request.

III. The Research and Evaluation Department will provide data from the test history file to   District staff on an approved need-to-know basis.

A. Requests for data should usually be made in writing and approved by the Director of Research and Evaluation or his designee.  The requests should be submitted well in advance of the need for reports or on-site examination of the files.

B. Requests for group achievement, aptitude or ability data of an individual student from that student's parent or legal guardian must be accompanied by a written signed request that includes the student's full name, birth date, address, school and grade level.

C. Test data on individual students are available to the student's principal, counselor or teacher on request.

D. The Research and Evaluation Department will provide potential users of test records with information about the test and how to interpret the results.

Highline School District 401
Adopted by the Superintendent: August 1984