Schools are making big changes to classroom instruction to prepare for a more difficult annual assessment — part of a "next generation" of tests — that will require complex critical thinking skills and allow Hawaii, for the first time, to see how its students measure up against children elsewhere on yearly proficiency exams.

The new tests, which are based on the more rigorous national "common core" standards, will carry high stakes starting in the 2014-15 school year. Pilot tests will be administered next school year, and students statewide will take a dry-run test in the 2013-14 school year, although the results will not be made publicly available.

Cara Tanimura, director of the Department of Education’s systems accountability office, said the new assessment will require additional training for teachers and more resources for schools. "We’re acutely aware that there’s a lot of anxiety (about the new test)," she said, adding, "We also believe that if we want to get kids ready for competition and a global society, then this is the direction we need to go."

Schools are ramping up for the tougher assessment as they also begin prepping students for the kickoff of annual testing this school year. Testing begins next month, and for a second year, students will take the assessment online and up to three times.

The new assessment is still being designed by a 29-state consortium, but some preliminary details on what students will be expected to do have been made available.

The new test will be online, and students will probably be able to take it twice.

For Hawaii the biggest difference with the new test is that it will have complex, "performance tasks," which could require students to read and analyze documents and then use those materials to make conclusions, probably with essay-like answers.

Hawaii’s current test only has multiple-choice and short-response questions.

Darrel Galera, principal of Moanalua High School, one of Hawaii’s highest-performing high schools, gave a pilot "performance task" similar to what will likely be on the new test to about 100 of his above-average seniors last school year.

More than 40 of the seniors, Galera said, thought they didn’t do well on the assessment. School staff did not get the final results, which were used as part of the development process of the new assessment. Galera, though, did get to take a look at the test and said it was comparable to a college-level or Advanced Placement exam.

"This is so significantly different" from the current test, he said. "We need to be informed about the new assessments. The sense of urgency needs to be much higher. It’s coming up so quickly, and we know that change in the school takes time."

Galera added his school is working to change classroom instruction and exams to incorporate more "performance tasks," critical thinking and project-based problem solving. "We can see we’re not teaching and assessing in the way that the new tests will require us," he said. "As a school we have to look at what we’re doing."

That exercise is also going on at other schools as principals, teachers and other support staff update their lessons to match up with the common core standards and prepare for the more difficult assessments.

Teri Ushijima, Aiea-Moanalua-Radford complex-area superintendent, said the difference is "tremendous" between the current assessment and the new one. "If it is what we think it’s going to be, it is much more rigorous," she said.

Ushijima said schools in her area are taking steps to prepare for the new exam.

At Aiea Intermediate three computer labs are being set aside solely for testing. Principal Tom Kurashige said the labs, which are new this year, will be used for the current annual assessment but also for teacher-developed exams that will be modeled after early examples of the "performance tasks" that will be on the new assessment.

Kurashige said he is trying to encourage teachers to use the labs often.

"We have to adjust our teaching and the way we assess in our regular classes," Kurashige said. "Teachers will have to ratchet it up in terms of teaching. Students will have to ratchet it up in terms of learning. It is a very high level of critical thinking."

Aiea Intermediate also has a group of teachers going through the current Hawaii standards for students, comparing them with the common core standards and thinking up ways to work more critical thinking, analysis and testing into classroom lessons.

"We’re trying to be steps ahead," said English teacher Evangeline Cabang.

Hawaii, 43 other states and the District of Columbia have adopted the nationally standardized common core benchmarks, which are aimed at delving deeper into key principles and better preparing students for a more competitive work force.

The higher standards, which Hawaii officials hope will help boost student achievement, are among a host of education reforms the state is pushing forward as it also faces a shrinking budget and rising proficiency expectations for schools.

Though some schools are incorporating the common core standards into all classrooms, the new benchmarks officially apply this year only for reading and math in kindergarten through second grade, along with Algebra 2 classes and language arts for the 11th and 12th grades. In 2013 all grades will officially move to the new standards, though students will be tested that year on the Hawaii benchmarks.

Right now each state has its own standards — and its own test —making comparisons between states on student performance next to impossible. The new assessments will mean states will have a better idea where their students stand.

Under the decade-old federal No Child Left Behind law, students nationwide are assessed annually in reading and math, and schools that don’t meet increasing goals for student performance face sanctions. The federal government recently announced states could apply for waivers to those goals if they agree to other reforms.

(Officials stressed that schools would still have to show progress on annual tests.)

Hawaii is ahead of the curve when it comes to the new tests in one key area: It already administers its annual test online. Tanimura said Hawaii is among a handful of states that have "adaptive" online testing, which gives students harder questions if they are answering correctly or easier ones if they are getting questions wrong.

Adaptive testing allows for better pinpointing of where a student is academically.

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT UNDERGOING MAKEOVER

Some 95,000 students statewide in third through eighth and 10th grades will begin taking the annual Hawaii State Assessment next month. (They can take it up to three times during a testing window from October to May.)

But a new, more rigorous annual assessment for students based on the national "common core" standards will be rolled out over the next three years that will test critical thinking and higher-order problem-solving skills in math and reading.

Here’s what the roll-out of the new test will look like:

» 2011-12 school year: By the end of this school year, a draft design of the new test based on common core standards is expected to be unveiled.

» 2012-13 school year: Pilot testing of the new assessment will begin.

» 2013-14 school year: All Hawaii students will take the new test for the first time, but results will not count.

» 2014-15 school year: Students will switch to the new test, and, for the first time, Hawaii will be able to compare student performance with that in other states. Some 43 other states and the District of Columbia have adopted the "common core" standards.

THE NEW TEST:

» Will be based on more rigorous, nationally standardized "common core" standards.

» Can be taken online, and students will probably be able to take it twice.

» Is expected to be given in the last three months of the school year.

» Will include multiple-choice, constructive-response and long-answer "performance tasks."

Performance tasks could require students to analyze several documents, use critical thinking and reasoning to arrive at conclusions and even write long-form essays based on prompts.

The test Hawaii will use is being developed by the Smarter Balanced Consortium, one of two groups developing assessments based on the common core standards.

Source: State Department of Education