Last spring, AZ Merit testing at Mingus Union High School was a fiasco, according to school leaders.
A technological glitch led to the failure of the computers on which students were taking the test and scores weren’t recorded. MUHS’ grade from the Arizona Board of Education dropped from a B to a D.
The testing problems led to an investigation into the conduct of then-MUHSD Superintendent Penny Hargrove, eventually resulting in Hargrove’s dismissal by the MUHSD Governing Board.
This year, the MUHSD administration is seeking to avoid repeating the issues that led to last year’s problems.
At a meeting of the MUHSD Governing Board on Feb. 13, MUHS Principal and Acting Superintendent Genie Gee introduced Shannon Anderson, a Mingus math teacher who has been assigned to handle this year’s testing process with an intention of fixing some of the issues that happened last year.
“Rather than doing [the] whole group all at once testing as we had attempted last year, we’re moving that back into the classrooms with our teachers,” Anderson said at the meeting. “Our [English Language Arts] and our math tests will take place on a block schedule with their current teachers.”
“It will allow us to test far fewer students at once,” Anderson said. Based on preliminary estimates, there will be fewer than 250 students testing at a time, hope- fully averting the computer overload that affected last year’s AZMerit testing, when there were over 800 students logging in at the same time.
“That, I hope, will eliminate any possibility of technology issues, but we have run some systems tests and I’m sure we’ll run at least one more before we start testing.”
Testing fewer pupils at once will mean a longer testing schedule. Whereas last year the school tried to fit everything into just one week, the plan this year is to run testing over the course of a month, from Wednesday, March 27, to Friday, April 26, with the last week set aside purely for makeup tests.
Beyond the issues with the testing itself, a major problem in last year’s troubled AZ Merit process came from lack of communication between district administrators and the school board once problems arose, as well as a failure of administrators to contact the Arizona Board of Education to try to fix the mistake, both of which were detailed in the report on Hargrove’s conduct that led to her dismissal.
“I believe that open communication is the key,” Anderson wrote in an email. “Any issue that arises will be reported to Ms. Gee, our principal, and I am happy to communicate with our school board as well. I am the person to contact the state if we have any testing issues. I will be ready to do so if any issues arise this year. Though I do not anticipate any with moving back to a testing plan that has been successful in the past.”
The school board expressed confidence in Anderson after she presented the school’s testing plan at the Feb. 13 meeting.
“I believe that Miss Anderson has started to put into place a system of checks and balances, as well as looking at testing stressors to our students,” MUHSD Board President Lori Drake wrote in an email. “I am confident of her progress. I plan on asking for updates to be reported to the Board regarding testing. That way the board as well as the community will be well informed.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or by email at jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
