Lists | [no subject] : ARN-L : June 2003

[Carol Holst <kceh@airmail.net>]

 Agency tests moneymaking waters with TAKS

 TEA may ask out-of-state users to pay for flagship test

 06/16/2003

 Eagle-eyed visitors to the Texas Education Agency's Web site may have
 noticed a recent change.
 
 The state's standardized test is no longer just the TAKS. It's the
 TAKS(tm).
 
 Trademarking its flagship test is the state's first step toward turning
 it into a commodity, sellable to schools in other states. It cost
 millions for Texas to develop the TAKS, or Texas Assessment of Knowledge
 and Skills -- now it wants to recoup some of that money.
 
 "We are taking a more aggressive approach to protecting our intellectual
 property," said Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, an agency spokeswoman.
 
 For several years, the agency has put old versions of TAKS and its
 predecessor, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS, on its
 Web site, where they're available for easy download. A teacher in
 another state could simply print a copy of the TAAS and use it.
 
 In December, Manuel Rodriguez, superintendent of public schools in
 Roswell, N.M., did just that. He was looking for a new way to see how
 his district's 9,300 students were performing. An Odessa native who used
 to work in the Houston schools, Dr. Rodriguez was familiar with the
 TAAS. So his schools downloaded tests from the TEA Web site and gave
 them to students.
 
 "We wanted an external benchmark to compare our kids against," he said.
 
 But a Roswell resident tipped off TEA, which sent its lawyers after Dr.
 Rodriguez. They told him he was violating the state's copyright. He
 agreed not to give the TAAS again.
 
 Dr. Rodriguez argued that he'd done nothing wrong, because the only
 restriction listed on the TEA Web site when he visited it was a ban on
 using the TAAS for "commercial purposes." But that changed when new
 language went up on the site this month.
 
 State policy still allows Texas public schools to use the TAKS and TAAS
 without restriction. But private companies in Texas -- and anyone out of
 state, public or private -- must get written approval from TEA before
 using or republishing any portion of the tests. That approval "may
 involve the payment of a licensing fee or a royalty fee," the Web site
 says.
 
 TEA officials said the fees have not been set. Dealing with serious
 budget cuts, TEA is happy to find whatever revenue it can. The state's
 testing program -- developing, printing, distributing, grading -- costs
 about $50 million a year.
 
 The move may be unprecedented.
 
 "This is the first time, to my knowledge, that a state with its own
 custom-built assessment has decided to be a test vendor," said John
 Olson, director of assessments for the Council of Chief State School
 Officers.
 
 In one way, the timing couldn't be better for Texas. The No Child Left
 Behind Act, signed into federal law last year, requires all 50 states to
 give tests at seven grade levels in reading and math by 2006. Science
 tests follow two years later.
 
 Texas is one of the few states that already have all of those tests in
 place. Other states are scrambling to write their own tests or buy them
 from testing companies.
 
 A tough sell?
 
 But persuading an entire state to adopt the TAKS or TAAS -- and by
 extension the Texas curriculum on which they're based -- could be
 difficult. Most have their own state curriculum in place and are likely 
to
 build or buy tests that are closely aligned with what's taught in their
 classrooms.
 
 "States are very protective of their own curriculum and their own
 standards," said Kathy Christie, a policy analyst for the Education
 Commission of the States, a nonprofit policy group based in Denver.
 "They don't want to say that our standards are the same as some other
 states, even if they are pretty close."
 
 Texas might have better luck with people such as Dr. Rodriguez --
 superintendents, principals or even teachers looking for a diagnostic
 test to see how students are doing. Almost all TAAS questions are
 multiple-choice, which could make them quick to grade and attractive to
 schools.
 
 "Districts and schools and states use that sort of test all the time,"
 Ms. Christie said. "Certainly, there's a huge market out there for
 diagnostic assessments."
 
 Texas has gone down this route before, with the Texas Primary Reading
 Inventory. The early-literacy test is given to students in grades K-2,
 and it has been acclaimed by researchers for identifying weaknesses in a
 child's reading skills.
 
 Not long after TEA built the test in 1997, it started getting requests
 from schools around the country. At first, the test materials were sold
 at cost. But sensing a potential market, officials raised the prices.
 Now, a classroom's worth of TPRI materials is available for purchase
 online for $225. It has generated more than $70,000 in profits for TEA
 in the last two years.
 
 "It's a hot property," Ms. Ratcliffe said.
 
 Texas now actively markets the TPRI with ads in trade publications. Ms.
 Ratcliffe said the agency didn't have any immediate plans to market TAKS
 or TAAS similarly.
 
 Dr. Rodriguez, the Roswell superintendent, said he wouldn't be willing
 to pay to use the TAAS or TAKS in his schools. But he understands TEA's
 decision.
 
 "I wasn't disappointed," he said. "I'm a Texan at heart. They have all
 rights to protect their properties."
 
 E-mail jbenton@dallasnews.com