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Should high school seniors who haven’t passed the AIMS test — the state’s standardized test — get a boost if they have good grades and have attended tutoring programs?
A majority of the state Legislature says yes. Gov. Janet Napolitano said yes by signing the bill on Thursday.
Their answers come with the approval of HB2008, which would allow for good grades to help boost students who haven’t passed the test.
It wouldn’t be the first time the state has allowed such a bonus. It was done during the AIMS, which stands for Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, test’s first two years.
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Now, the bill at hand would revive it, with a ceiling of 25 percent on individual subject components of the test in 2008-2009, 15 percent in 2009-2010, and 5 percent in 2010-2011 and thereafter.
But what about this year’s students? Because of a vote margin in the House not being wide enough, the bill wouldn’t immediately take effect. And in that, it leaves in question an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 students statewide.
The question becomes, in part, what’s fair? It seems these students have ridden the ups and downs of the AIMS test efforts. They’ve been told it’s required to graduate, yet when it comes time to graduate and they may not have passed, they may not have to be held accountable for the testing.
It’s late in this school year to make a change. Graduations across the state occur over the next week or so, and kids have been making plans to go to college, get a job, or join the military.
Napolitano pointed that out when she said she planned to OK the bill, thus making it law. She pointed out that the kids should get their diplomas.
Diplomas are an important tool. It gets seniors into jobs and college. It’s a recognition of achievement or reaching a certain standard. Critics argue that watering down the AIMS test requirement doesn’t help set the standard high.
The problem is that changes to requirements and the AIMS test itself continue on. With these changes, there doesn’t seem to be fairness for what kids are really aiming for. And with changes such as the grade boost, a majority of the legislators doesn’t trust the test, or they want to make sure Arizona’s kids get diplomas and hopefully make something of themselves by earning it.
Accountability is important, but at what price does it come?
Legislators set the standards, but they need to refrain from continuing to adjust the standards. And if they think there is a need for change, they shouldn’t stop at just looking at how to get students diplomas. They should look deeper into the system and find out why some students are not making the grade on the AIMS test. Maybe they would find an answer that would make improvements to the school system, and thus the type of education our state’s young people receive.
On the Net
For more information on the AIMS test, log onto the Arizona Department of Education’s Web site at www.ade.az.gov.
Tim Richardson wrote on May 16, 2008 9:16 AM:
AIMS was sold to us as a Lincoln Town Car of accountability and a tool for constant tuning of the education system.
What we got was a Neon.
Putting larger wheels on the Neon will never make it a Town Car.
They need to stop the patch work and institute a top to bottom measurement system that works in a timely fashion to make early corrections to the system. "