test
Tag: flunk drop out retention social promotion graduation rate exit exam left behind Light's retention scaleTESTING AND ASSESSMENT
TESTING AND ASSESSMENT
Help Kids on Standardized Tests
Standards and Assessment
How Do Students Compare?
Report Card Info
Preschool Assessment
High School Assessment
Special Ed Assessment
RETENTION - SOCIAL PROMOTION - COSTS OF EXIT EXAM - HOW LONG DO CHILDREN HAVE A RIGHT TO STAY IN SCHOOL?
ASSESSMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY WHO IS EVALUATING THE EVALUATORS?
CHEATING AND FALSE REPORTING BY THE DEPT. OF EDUCATION
FEDERAL READING PROGRAM IGNORED LAW & ETHICAL STANDARDS - Cheaters - Reading First was a cornerstone of NCLB
What horrible things are going on in your state?
STATE EXAM - HOW DID YOUR SCHOOL DO? How do I find information about my child's school? Most State Education Pages are providing the public with either sample tests or released questions from previous exams.
NCLB USES A FLAWED MEASURING STICK TO JUDGE SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
The federal law No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is using the wrong measuring stick to identify failing schools, says Harvard University's Paul E. Peterson in the new issue of Education Next. To make the laws accountability system work, he proposes two fixes: (1) Using a more accurate method to measure schools academic progress; and (2) Holding students, teachers, and administrators -- not just schools -- accountable for improvement. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, has announced that Congress will consider changes to NCLBs method of measuring schools progress this fall. Currently, NCLB looks not at how much individual students learn from one year to the next but at whether a schools students are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward full proficiency -- a standard each state sets individually -- by 2014. Peterson proposes moving to an A to F scale that focuses strictly on student growth. This was not possible when NCLB was originally enacted because most states had no way of tracking student progress over time. However, since 2002, states including North Carolina, Texas, and Florida have put such systems into place. Peterson recommends that Congress mandate tracking systems in all states as a way of identifying those schools that are effective and those that are not. States that have both tracking systems and high proficiency standards could have the option of using the A to F scale as another way of showing that its schools are making AYP. As the distortions brought about by NCLBs current method of measuring progress intensify, states will be motivated to move to the new system sooner rather than later.
AFTER-SCHOOL OFFERINGS DECLINE IN URBAN SCHOOLS
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=645089
As another school year approaches, many of the extracurricular activities that have long interested Milwaukee students are relics of the past. Although there are notable exceptions, gone are the days when city high schools had an array of sports, a drama club, a school musical, a band, an orchestra, a choir, an active yearbook and an assortment of other organizations. The gap in test scores and graduation rates between the city and suburban high schools has attracted the most attention from policy-makers and the media in recent years. But others worry that there's another gap that's just as meaningful: the difference in the richness and breadth of the high school experience available to children in cities and suburbs as urban districts slice after-school activities and clubs. "No one is measuring the importance of extracurriculars in keeping kids in school," said David Powell, a Vincent High School teacher who has worked to build strong forensics teams. "You go to Marquette (University) High School, to Brookfield East and other schools with high ACT scores, and there is a high value, and a powerful emphasis, on academic extracurriculars." There's no single reason why the decline in extracurricular activities has been more severe in cities, reports Sarah Carr in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Some blame budget cuts or the back-to-basics emphasis of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Others point to the shift toward smaller high schools, which often cannot offer a full range of activities. Regardless of the cause, educators and students worry that the glue that held some kids to school has disappeared.
2007 Nine states (AR, IN, KY, MD, MA, NJ, OH, PA, and RI) have agreed to share an Algebra II end-of-course assessment from Pearson Educational Management. The test should be ready for implementation next spring 2008, although not every state will use it immediately. The only other such test-sharing agreement is among four New England states (ME, NH, RI, and VT), spanning third- through eighth-grade.
2007 ACT's latest national curriculum survey highlights the persistent gap between what high schools are teaching and what colleges want incoming students to know. Specifically, high schools tend to offer less in-depth instruction of a broader range of skills and topics, while colleges often seek students with a more in-depth understanding of a selected number of fundamental skills. Why the disconnect? According to ACT, the primary problem is state academic content standards, which teachers are required to follow. Therefore, many states are creating P-16/20 councils to coordinate goals and expectations across all the levels of education.
2007 Information Literacy Test video will introduce you to the important features of the iSkills assessment including sample tasks from both the Core and Advanced Levels of the Assessment.
DRAMATIC RISE IN CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS FALLING BEHIND ON NCLB GOALS
The architects of the federal No Child Left Behind Act hoped that showering schools with extra money and expert advice over several years would make them succeed. But a new study shows that only 10 out of hundreds of low-scoring California schools facing severe consequences under No Child Left Behind have improved enough to get off of a state watch list this year. At the same time, the number of schools facing such consequences for failing to get enough students scoring at their grade level has jumped from 401 last year to 701 this year, says the Center on Education Policy, in its latest look at how the federal law is working in California. Federal law offers five options for schools identified for corrective action: reopening as a charter school, replacing teachers and the principal, hiring an outside agency to run the school, being taken over by the state, or "any other major restructuring." Nanette Asimov reports in the San Francisco Chronicle that the California Department of Education has refused to take over any schools, saying it is too poor and overworked for the job.
Protests Over State Testing Widespread
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26346-2001May14.html
Test-weary protesters in nearly a dozen states hoisted placards outside state capitols and hosted debates in high school auditoriums last week as they kicked off what organizers touted as "a month of resistance to testing." In what is becoming a springtime ritual during prime testing season, parents, teachers, and students have been voicing their objections to states' growing reliance on tests to gauge student achievement and the impending high stakes that could make it harder for many students to move on to the next grade or earn a diploma.Most of the demonstrations drew relatively small crowds—70 protesters in Detroit, 100 in Northampton, Mass., 300 in Los Angeles—but the largest, at the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y., saw more than 1,500 marchers against the regents' exams.
Resources and Advice For New Teachers
Monty Neil, the executive director of FairTest,
a Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit group that opposes most standardized testing and advocates what it says are fairer methods of student assessment.
THE #1 DIFFERENCE IN CHILDREN'S SCHOLASTIC SUCCESS
Research done by US military schools has shown success depends on parental involvement. You can model their success by simply inviting your parents into your school and ask them to be active in the classroom. Make parents feel welcomed anytime they can come, and call their employers asking them to give parents time to come. Parents who are supported by the work place and encouraged to actively participate in the classroom will improve test scores more than any other single activity.
2007 SURVEY OF EXTERNAL SUPPORT FOR K-12 SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Despite the fact that nearly every school and district in the K-12 market experiences some level of support from the surrounding community, very little research has been done in the area of community/school partnerships. This survey by DeHavilland Associates offers insights into how community/school partnerships are structured and what types of relationships schools and districts have established. Key findings from this survey include: (1) When asked to rank the importance of current partners to their efforts, respondents put individual businesses first, parent organizations second, and booster clubs third; (2) When asked to rank the partners with whom they'd most like to develop relationships, business coalitions came in first, followed by individual businesses and regional/national foundations; (3) Most school districts do not have established systematic procedures to recruit and monitor partnerships; (4) There were clear differences in the responses of suburban, urban, and rural schools and districts. Those in suburban areas note generally higher levels of support from community-based partners; those in urban areas receive greater support from institutional partners (nonprofits, foundations, and postsecondary institutions); and those in rural areas record below-average levels of support from every partner with the exception of booster clubs; and (5) 46 percent of school districts report receiving support from a local education fund or school foundation.
The New Mexico Public Education Department has created, "Working Together: School-Family-Community Partnerships, A Toolkit for New Mexico School Communities." The purpose of the Toolkit is to assist educators and education partners with information, resources and strategies to help strengthen parent and community involvement.
REPORT CARDS
CITY AND STATE CHEATERS
This paper describes factors leading to corruption in K12 standardized testing, such as cheating by teachers, administrators, and students, "teaching to the test" (often cutting out creative curriculum elements), and exclusion of low performers from the test process. From the Education Policy Studies Laboratory, Arizona State University.
Testing High Stakes Tests: Can We Believe the Results of Accountability Tests?
N.Y.C. Probe Levels Test-Cheating Charges
More than 50 New York City educators face dismissal after an independent auditor accused them of helping students cheat on standardized tests given by the city and the state.
SAT Problems Even Larger Than Reported NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/education/23sat.html "Everybody appears to be telling half-truths, and that erodes confidence in the College Board," said Bruce J. Poch, vice president and dean of admissions at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. "It looks like they hired the people who used to do the books for Enron. My next question is what other surprise we're going to hear about next."
2007 The U.S. Education Department reported nationwide, 73% of 12th-grade students achieved a "basic" reading score in 2005, down from 80% in 1992, according to the NAEP a sampling test the government calls the "nation's report card." Sixty-one percent scored at or above the basic level in math.Could these disappointing results be blamed on stupid, malformed tests and the are making so much money for the companies who publish them?
COMPARE State-To-State Performance
A STATE-BY-STATE REPORT CARD ON EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has issued a state-by-state report card on educational effectiveness that shows Americas K12 schools are failing their students and putting Americas future competitiveness at risk. The report graded all 50 states and Washington, D.C., on nine broad categories including academic achievement, return on investment, truth in advertising, rigor of standards, and data quality. The report and accompanying recommendations for reform were prepared with John Podesta, CEO of the Center for American Progress and former Clinton White House chief of staff, and Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. Education is critical to the American dream. Unemployment rates for those without a high school degree are 8.1 percent compared with 2.2 percent for college graduates. Yet, approximately 40 percent of all U.S. college students take at least one remedial course, and most students who take remedial courses never earn a college degree.
Reports of Disaggregated State, School System (LEA) and School Performance Data for 2003 - 2005
Average scale score in READING for 4th-graders in public schools, by race/ethnicity and state or jurisdiction: Selected years, 1994 to 2003.
The MATHEMATICS scores of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students were higher in 1999 than in 1973
SAT essays scored on quantity, not quality, teacher says Perelman studied every graded sample SAT essay that the College Board made public. He looked at the 15 samples in the ScoreWrite book that the College Board distributed to high schools nationwide to prepare students for the new writing section. He reviewed the 23 graded essays on the College Board Web site meant as a guide for students and the 16 writing "anchor" samples the College Board used to train graders to mark essays. He was stunned by how complete the correlation was between length and score. "I have never found a quantifiable predictor in 25 years of grading that was anywhere near as strong as this one," he said. "If you just graded them based on length without ever reading them, you'd be right over 90 percent of the time." The shortest essays, typically 100 words, got the lowest grade of one. The longest, about 400 words, got the top grade of six. In between, there was virtually a direct match between length and grade. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/223569_esat10.html
The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest)
Advocacy organization working to end the abuses, misuses and flaws of standardized testing and ensure that evaluation of students and workers is fair, open, and educationally sound. We place special emphasis on eliminating the racial, class, gender, and cultural barriers to equal opportunity posed by standardized tests, and preventing their damage to the quality of education. Based on four Goals and Principles, we provide information, technical assistance and advocacy on a broad range of testing concerns, focusing on three areas: K-12, university admissions, and employment tests, including teacher testing. FairTest publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Examiner, plus a full catalog of materials on both K- 12 and university testing to aid teachers, administrators, students, parents and researchers. See our order form on this Web site! FairTest also has numerous fact sheets available to educate you on standardized testing and alternative assessment.
Monty Neil, the executive director of FairTest,
a Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit group that opposes most standardized testing and advocates what it says are fairer methods of student assessment. Advocacy Resources by State
UNWARRANTED INTRUSION
According to Harvard professor Richard Elmore, the federal government is now accelerating the worst trend of the current accountability movement by making performance-based accountability mean testing, and testing alone. In this interesting reality check, Elmore states that the standards and accountability movement is in danger of becoming the testing and accountability movement. He charges politicians with trying to take credit for improving schools with without committing themselves to serious increases in funding.
"PencilsDown"
is an attempt to use the Web to form a grassroots community opposed to the higher, meaner standards of testing," Stager said. The site's first goal is to learn how much standardized testing costs in every state, and whether or not parents are allowed to keep their kids from being tested.
Students Against Testing - BOYCOTT THE TEST Organize a student boycott of the standardized tests at your school and leave the tests blank - here's how!
High-Stakes Testing for Dentists?? What Dentists and Teachers Have in Common
Computer-Savvy Students Perform Poorly on Handwritten Composition Tests 7/2000
