Mobile County Public School System leaders faced questions this week from a teachers’ union representative concerned that a new approach to quarterly testing is adding hours of uncompensated work to educators’ schedules.
Jesse McDaniel, who represents Mobile teachers for the Alabama Education Association, addressed the MCPSS Board of School Commissioners during its March 24 meeting, telling members he had fielded complaints from more than a dozen teachers about the extra planning time required to build individualized End of Quarter Tests, known as EQTs, at each of the district’s 54 elementary schools.
“I had a couple of teachers give me a call and raise a concern with each elementary school being required to develop its own EQT test, whereas in the past the tests have been created by academic affairs or the central office,” McDaniel told the board. “There’s been no expression of what the value of this is to measuring the district as a whole, and I fail to understand how that is being done best when each facility is having to develop its own test.”
McDaniel said the district has not provided special workdays or additional planning periods for teachers to design the new tests, leaving many to complete the work after school hours or on weekends.
“This time is important to our faculty and staff,” he said. “I would ask the board to please reconsider how these tests are being developed. If they’re going to be developed school by school, perhaps that could be done on a voluntary basis or special planning time could be allotted.”
The EQTs are given each quarter across the district to gauge whether students are keeping pace with state and district learning standards throughout the school year. This year’s shift toward school-level test design coincided with a broader transition to the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards, the state’s version of the Common Core State Standards that the Alabama Legislature adopted in 2010 and which are still being phased in across classrooms.
That transition proved rocky in its early stages. The first-quarter EQT results were ultimately thrown out this school year after the district saw significant drops in math and language arts scores tied to the new standards. Teachers began building their own math EQTs starting in the third quarter, according to a district spokesperson, part of an effort to better align the tests with what was actually being taught in classrooms.
Superintendent Martha Peek told the board that most of the feedback the district has received about the change has been positive, even as she acknowledged the added workload has frustrated some educators.
“The EQTs this year are moving into the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards and we needed to align our EQTs more closely to those standards,” Peek said. “Some principals and teachers asked to have the latitude to develop their own EQTs.”
“Anytime you do something new there’s pros and cons,” she added. “Evidently some people are having a problem with the extra time, but overall the responses we’ve gotten are positive. Most teachers and principals have liked the opportunity to really study and know the standards better.”
Chief Academic Officer Karen Mohr said giving teachers ownership over test design was intended to ease pressure on classroom staff, not add to it, by letting them build assessments around the material they know their students have covered.
“Teachers study the standards to identify what students should know and should be able to do with the information,” Mohr said. “Teachers develop the EQT to align with a standard. The EQTs are submitted to ensure the level of rigor and accuracy in assessing a standard.”
Peek characterized the shift as ultimately about giving schools more autonomy and a stronger voice in how student learning is measured, rather than relying solely on tests handed down from the central office.
Third-quarter EQTs across the Mobile County system were completed in late March. It remains to be seen whether the board will revisit how the tests are developed for the remainder of the school year or take up McDaniel’s request for dedicated planning time or a voluntary approach at future meetings.