Questions about state's final exams

The "incomplete" grades expected to show up on Charlotte-Mecklenburg high school report cards soon may be just the start of an uproar over state exams that are causing delayed grades.

North Carolina created 30 final exams that will be used to evaluate teacher and school effectiveness  --  and which have to count for 20 percent of students' final grades in those courses. After I wrote last week about delays in translating those scores to letter grades,  I heard from a handful of teachers and parents who said the exams don't match the material being taught.

"My son is a junior in high school and this past week had to take his honors pre-calculus exam.  On that exam were four questions never covered in the curriculum," wrote Anita Gimon of Union County. "Why is there subject matter on a test not in the curriculum during the semester? This was a problem as well last year. Students who normally made 80s & 90s on their tests were averaging 40s because the test did not match the curriculum. This seems to me to be a system that sets our kids up for failure."

"My daughter took the Math 3 exam yesterday and was pretty upset afterwards," wrote Susan Flynn.  "Half of the material was familiar to her, about half was not."

"The passages from the test last year  --  the only available preparatory material released by the state  --  are incredibly difficult and would be considered challenging in an AP-level course.  I know, because I teach standard, honors, and AP English 12,"  wrote Tiffany DiMatteo, a national board certified English teacher at Myers Park High.  "It feels as though NC wants to prove that students and teachers are failing by providing a terrible test that is being poorly planned, administered, and scored."

Chuck Nusinov,  executive director of learning and teaching for CMS,  says he has checked into that kind of concern.  The tests do appear to match the curriculum introduced last year,  which reflects national Common Core and N.C. Essential Standards,  he said.  The academic standards and the exams are designed to ensure that students learn more rigorous material and express that knowledge in more sophisticated ways on tests,  he said.  That should be a good thing in the long run,  but in the short run it means scores are down.

Nusinov says the challenges and confusion are particularly strong in math,  where the state also switched from a series of algebra and geometry classes to a new progression of math classes that incorporate various skills each year.  He said CMS is working to make sure teachers know what's expected,  but he knows teachers and students are struggling with the transition.

Students took the new finals last year,  but CMS opted not to count the scores toward grades because the tests were new.  This year it's not optional.  So first-semester report cards are expected to come out with incompletes for classes with state finals,  to be replaced with letter grades that factor in those tests once the state completes its tables for converting raw scores to grades.  That's bound to come as a shock to students who are used to making higher grades and who are watching their grade-point averages for college admissions.