Update on the Common Core Standards

In 2010 the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers released a new set of national education standards called, “The Common Core State Standards Initiative.”  The Common Core Standards enumerate specific curriculum goals in the areas of English Language Arts and Mathematics. These standards were voluntarily adopted by most of the 50 states and implementation was expected to begin in 2014.

However, in recent months the new standards have become mired in political controversy. The once voluntary standards became mandatory after the Obama Administration linked adopting the Common Core to granting waivers for No Child Left Behind.  This in turn sparked a move by some states to rescind their adoption of the new standards. Educational experts have also been divided as to whether or not national standards will improve academic achievement.

As a result of this controversy and the cuts in education nationwide, many educators have been left wondering when/if the new standards will be implemented. Here at STS we’ve spent the last few years studying the Common Core.  Rest assured that if the new standards are enacted in 2014, we will be prepared with updated assessment tools that fulfill the new curriculum requirements.

To read more about the status of the Common Core Standards, click here.

Kindergarten Readiness Test (KRT) and School Readiness Test (SRT) Survey

Please help us revise the KRT/SRT to better serve your needs by answering the following questions.

Notes from the California Association for the Gifted Conference

As Vice-President of Scholastic Testing Service, Inc., I often get the opportunity to attend educational conferences. Most recently I journeyed to Palm Springs to attend the 50th Anniversary Conference of the California Association for the Gifted.  The conference had many different speakers and strands, and topics ranged from “Using the Torrance® Tests as Transforming Tools” to assisting students to read more with iPad/iPod apps and tutorials. From old-fashioned paper and pencil techniques to high-tech approaches, the teachers, administrators, and parents, too, all had the opportunity to see, touch, operate and review different strategies for helping students to learn.

I also had the opportunity to interact one on one with the educators who came by our booth. “Kindergarten Readiness Test? Doesn’t that look helpful?” said one kindergarten teacher who dropped by with her colleagues. The rest of our conversation dealt with the ways in which the Kindergarten Readiness Test (KRT) would help teachers during the first few weeks of kindergarten, or even during the spring term of pre-K instruction.

The interest in our kindergarten test, KRT was due to the very diverse backgrounds of children entering kindergarten these days—from those with no familiarity with letters, numbers and books to those children who had one or more years of preschool.  Because of the preschool emphasis on letter recognition and reading skills preparation, many students with a preschool education come to school ready to read, and some are already reading while other students have had no like experiences.

The Figural Edition of our Torrance® Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) also received kudos from the educators who stopped by. A teacher told me that, “Students really enjoy these tests, and we do too, since it allows free expression in the drawings, and there are no correct answers.” The TTCT requires students to draw pictures and title them, and then the tests are scored for eighteen different creative constructs, which are considered as highly predictive of future creative behaviors. The teacher also said, “We really like that the time limit is only 30 minutes, too. Many of the other tests take so long.”

Parents and teachers alike were also interested in the 2012 Torrance Legacy Creative Writing and Creative Visual Arts Awards co-sponsored by Scholastic Testing Service, Inc. and a coalition of organizations supportive of encouraging creativity in education. This no-cost awards program is intended for students in grades 2 – 12, grouped for ratings in grades 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9 -12. Those who stopped for information on the awards appreciated that there was no cost, that all participants receive a certificate of participation, and that the international winners are presented at the annual conference for the National Association for Gifted Children. For more information on the 2012 Awards go to http://www.ststesting.com/cw_2012.html.

All in all, there was much learning and collegial interaction at the California Association for the Gifted Conference with the nearly 1,200 adults and children who attended.

 

 

 

 

John D. Kauffman, Ph.D.
Vice President, Marketing

Torrance Legacy Creative Writing Awards

As the publisher of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), STS is committed to furthering the legacy of TTCT author and creativity research pioneer, Dr. E. Paul Torrance. Because of this commitment, STS created the Torrance Legacy Creative Writing Awards with our co-sponsors to honor Dr. Torrance by encouraging students to exercise their creativity by writing their own poems and short stories. Now in its fourth year, the awards created in his honor have inspired more than 900 students worldwide to make their own works of art.

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2012 Torrance Legacy Creative Writing Awards. Students in grades 2-12 may submit poems or short stories, which reflect one of the chosen creative themes. For students interested in the visual arts, visual arts projects are also accepted and judged separately by faculty from Knox College. For more information on the 2012 contest, please contact Joan Franklin Smutny at 847-256-1220 or email torrancewriting@centerforgifted.org.

Creative Writing Flyer Visual Arts Flyer

HSPT® Prep: A Superintendent’s Response to an HSPT® Test Prep Provider

As you may know, STS does not support or endorse any formal student test preparation for the High School Placement Test. This view is also shared by many of the schools who use HSPT® every year. See below for a clearly articulated view of HSPT® test preparation from a superintendent.

Dear Test Prep Provider,

I received a copy of your flyer from one of our principals.  The Catholic High School administrators and I have discussed your test prep program on several occasions over the past few years.

It has been my understanding from Dr. John Kauffman, STS, that he neither endorses nor recommends that students from Catholic elementary schools take a test prep course for the HSPT®.  Dr. Kauffmann believes that 8 or 9 years of Catholic school education is all that is necessary for students to do well on the HSPT®.  As a matter of fact, all of the qualified 8th grade students in our Catholic elementary schools are accepted into one of our Catholic high schools.

Additionally, I am concerned about the message this sends to our parents. Your message implies that the investment they have made in their child’s Catholic elementary school education now needs augmenting in order to get into a Catholic high school. Parents and students are anxious enough about the prospect of going to high school.  It appears to me that your HSPT® prep program is feeding on their anxiety and creating a need where none exists.

I suspect that you are well intended.  However, I will discourage our elementary school principals from offering, supporting, or endorsing your test prep program to our eighth grade students and their parents.

Sincerely yours,
Ms. Maureen Huntington
Superintendent of Catholic Schools
Archdiocese of San Francisco

The Truth About HSPT® Test Prep

For over 50 years, the STS HSPT® has assisted high schools with admissions, student placement, scholarship selection, and remediation. And every fall as eighth graders prepare to take the HSPT®, STS receives a barrage of phone calls about test preparation.

When we discuss test preparation, we emphasize that a solid elementary school education usually is enough, and that most students have had several years of standardized testing under their belts by the time they take the HSPT®.  It’s also important for parents to keep in mind that “spurious” scores from test prep courses may lead to great unhappiness if a school places the student into more rigorous classes than appropriate for their current ability/achievement levels.

We also emphasize that there are no HSPT® test preparation courses, books, or other media endorsed by STS. Additionally, the schools who administer the HSPT® depend upon secure results from students whose first acquaintance with the test is on test day. Therefore, HSPT® tests are only sent to our authorized schools.

Any student test preparation should only be focused on general achievement improvement or remediation based on the most current information from the elementary school or previous test results.  If you have comments or questions about the HSPT®  or test preparation, please contact us at sts@ststesting.com

Using TTCT to Test the Whole Mind

by Garnet Millar, Christine Dahl, and John Kauffman

As excerpted with permission from “Testing the Whole Mind – Educating the Whole Child” in the IAGC Journal 2011

 

It was in 1958 when E. Paul Torrance, “The Creativity Man,” embarked on his lifelong study of creativity.  As director of the Bureau of Educational Research in the College of Education at the University of Minnesota, he was tasked to identify and quantify intellectual giftedness during America’s post-Sputnik days.  While most of his peers focused on traditional intelligence, Torrance chose to study creativity, which he believed was at least as important – if not more so.  Before coming to Minnesota, Torrance had been a teacher, counselor, and psychologist.  Working with the U.S. Air Force, he trained air crew and pilots in ways to evade and escape the enemy.  He learned that the underlying element of survival is creativity and that risk-taking and other creative skills are essential to constructive behavior and unusual achievement.  Drawing on this experience, Torrance devised what has been called his survival definition of creativity: “Whenever one is faced with a problem for which he has no practiced or learned solution, some degree of creativity is required” (Millar, 2007, p. 37).

 

At the University of Minnesota, Torrance and his doctoral students designed and developed the Minnesota Test of Creative Thinking.  They studied the biographies of creative individuals and identified four rational factors that contributed to their achievements: fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.  One of Torrance’s great contributions to standardized testing was to ask examinees to “show me something that I have not seen before.”  Thinking of something unique and different means – quite literally – that the Torrance Tests have no correct answer.  The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) come in two forms: verbal and figural.  Students who took the test in the 1950 and 60s, the so-called “Torrance Kids,” have participated in several follow-up studies that have allowed Torrance to refine the tests and evaluate their predictive validity. 

 

During the follow-up study (Torrance, 1980), the wealth of information coming from the figural tests pointed to a more thorough definition of creativity.  Not only were creative individuals demonstrating fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration, they also showed remarkable openness to new ideas, which they processed in diverse ways.  The analysis led Torrance to identify an additional set of 13 creative strengths that fall outside the realm of pure reason:

• Emotional expressiveness
• Articulate storytelling
• Generating expressive titles
• Employing movement or action
• Combining and synthesizing
• Using rich and colorful imagery
• Fantasizing
• Having an unusual visual perspective
• Having an internal visual perspective
• Breaking through and extending boundaries
• Having a sense of humor
• Decentrism – glimpsing infinity.

 

Torrance incorporated these factors into the scoring scheme of his creativity index (C.I.) or creativity quotient (C.Q.) measured by the TTCT. Today the TTCT is translated into over 50 languages and used in many countries in the world.

 

Torrance believed that the TTCT could be used diagnostically and, even more so, that the skills of creativity were teachable.  Many creative skills are already embedded in classroom curricula, but may not be emphasized enough to develop and nurture creativity in students.  Torrance showed that creative skills themselves could serve as rubrics to evaluate and encourage students.  The tests accurately assess their intended parameters and are applicable to real life.  By this measure, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking score exceedingly well.  Not only do they identify creative abilities, they have proven to have predictive validity.  Several longitudinal studies (Torrance 1980, 2002; Millar 2007, 2010) confirm that children’s TTCT scores predict creative achievement in adults. 

 

A wise person has said that while human potential is universal, opportunity is not.  Giving students the opportunity to achieve their potential is our greatest legacy as teachers.  It is time to test and assess for both C.Q. and I.Q. and to intentionally teach creative skills along with basic knowledge.  Creative skills will give our students the edge they need to survive and thrive, now and in the future. 

 

For further information on E. Paul Torrance and the TTCT, please contact Scott Rich at Scholastic Testing Service, Inc. at srich@ststesting.com or 1-800-642-6787. 

 

Works Cited

 

Millar, G. W. (2007) E. Paul Torrance – The Creativity Man: An Authorized biography.  Bensenville, Illinois: Scholastic Testing Service, Inc.

 

Millar, G. W. (2010) The Power of Creativity: Results of the 50-Year Follow-up to the Torrance Longitudinal Study of Creative Behavior.  Bensenville, Illinois: Scholastic Testing Service, Inc.

 

Torrance, E. P. (1980). Growing Up Creatively Gifted: A 22-year Longitudinal Study of Creative Behavior.  Creative child and Adult Quarterly, 5 (1980): 148-158, 170. 

 

Torrance, E. P. (2002). The Manifesto: A Guide to Developing a Creative Career.  Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing Corp.

Torrance Legacy Awards – Deadline Approaching!

Attention creative writers and artists, only three and one half more weeks for submitting entries for the 2011 Torrance Legacy Awards—Creative Writing and Visual Arts Categories.

Entries have been received from all around the world.

Don’t let this opportunity to “showcase your talent”  and be a part of the global experience pass you by!

The deadline is August 15, 2011. Competition details are available at The Torrance Legacy website.

Choosing an Appropriate Readiness Test

Educators know that research suggests that the achievement gap found in later school years is already present when children enter school. Educators are also facing increased accountability pressures in elementary school and early education settings. Because of these dual concerns, readiness assessment is becoming increasingly important for younger and younger children.

Prior to President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) Report (Shepard, Kagan, & Wurtz 1998) defined five purposes for assessing young children, which remains highly regarded today. These goals are to:

Improve Learning – Educators assess student skills to gather information on the strengths and needs of each child in their class and help adapt their teaching, with assessment content closely tied to the classroom curriculum.

Identify Children with Special Needs – Many early care programs and public schools routinely conduct screenings of young children upon program entry. If screening suggests that a child’s development is atypical, the child is referred for a more thorough assessment to determine specific needs and eligibility for special education or related services. Screening assessments generally cover developmental milestones in multiple areas and must meet high standards of technical adequacy because they will be used to help make important decisions about children.

Evaluate Programs – Assessment of a child’s skills are often included in evaluations todetermine the effectiveness of early childhood programs. Assessments chosen for this purpose should reflect program goals and be appropriate for the children attending the program. Generally, child assessments for the purpose of program evaluation need only include a sample of children rather than all. Effectiveness is determined through assessment by showing that a representative group of children improved, which does not necessarily demonstrate success for each child.

Monitor Trends Over Time – Schools choose to conduct readiness assessments to provide a snapshot of children as they enter kindergarten and beyond. Were this snapshot taken of a new group of kindergartners every few years, then administrators can monitor readiness trends. This allows the policy makers to determine whether early childhood investments are affecting school readiness

Use for High Stakes Accountability – Because they are used to make important decisions about students, assessment for this purpose must meet rigorous standards of technical accuracy. While most state testing programs do not occur until 3^rd grade, educators may use assessments that meet the high standards of technical adequacy to test school readiness in students and evaluate teacher effectiveness.

As we enter this new era in assessment, choosing the appropriate readiness test is of ever-increasing importance. STS’s suite of screening and readiness assessments assists educators in obtaining a clear indication of a student’s abilities compared with children of a similar age. Our Comprehensive Identification Process (CIP) screening assists in identification of children who may need educational assistance to function at their highest level upon school entry; the Kindergarten Readiness Test (KRT) assists in determining readiness for beginning kindergarten; the School Readiness Test (SRT) assists in determining readiness to begin first grade; the Diagnostic Mathematics Assessment (DMA) evaluates areas of strength and weakness in math for grades one and two; and the Diagnostic Reading Assessment (DRA) helps 1^st grade teachers in assessing readiness for 2^nd grade instruction in reading/language arts. While each STS screening and readiness tool varies in purpose and design, all are intended to promote learning, and development by identifying what students already know as well as what they need help with. If your school needs assistance in matching an assessment to one or all of the purposes outlined in the NEGP report above, please contact Scott Rich at srich@ststesting.com for further information.

Ready for Kindergarten?

KRI - Parent Edition

With the arrival of spring, many schools are beginning to assess the readiness of children entering kindergarten. While kindergarten assessments take different forms from school to school, their collective purpose is to get a picture of a child’s development that will guide decisions about placement, additional services, special needs, and instruction. This is a time of great anxiety for many parents, which is marked by worry about preparing their child for school and concerns about whether their child is indeed ready to begin formal education.

Research continues to show that strong language development during early childhood is vitally important for success in school. While children don’t need to know how to read before kindergarten, they do need practice with reading skills. Parents can help prepare children for reading instruction with two main activities – talking to their child and reading aloud. As children continue to develop, those who hear a variety of words from adults recognize and understand important concepts when they begin to read. When you read to your child, you teach them how letters and words work, how to hold a book, turn pages, and how to listen and gain meaning from the written words. Children’s play is their work, and they learn by doing and experimenting. Fascinated by the world around them, they love to ask questions and talk about everything. Parents increase their curiosity by showing interest in what they are saying. At this age, children are also beginning to develop a basic understanding of numbers, shapes, colors, and spatial concepts.

It’s important to remember that development differs from one child to the next. Your child’s development may be a little faster or a little slower in a certain area. Likewise, school readiness differs from child to child, and does not need to be a source of uncertainty or worry for parents. For assistance in gauging a child’s readiness, STS’s Kindergarten Readiness Inventory Parent Edition (KRI) allows parents to assess skills such as vocabulary, phonemics, comprehension, and interpretation from the comfort of their own home.

When it comes to preparing for school or readiness assessment, parents must remember to have patience, trust their judgment and refrain from being overly critical. If we make time for our children and have fun, then the rest will follow. For further information regarding the KRI or for general questions on readiness assessment, please call Scott Rich at 800-642-6787 or email sts@ststesting.com