Monday
August 11, 2008
by desertjim
With the excitement of the Olympic’s opening cermony and the competing news of active warfare between Russia and Georgia both happening on Friday evening, you may not have seen this local story in the Chicago Tribune. The decision was announced on Friday to check the scores of almost one million elementary school math and reading tests from this year’s ISAT program.
The scores on this year’s math and reading tests varied widely from previous results (both higher and lower than in recent years). This was the first year that these particular versions of the reading and math tests were used. The science scores, using an older version did not show the wild fluctuations seen in math and reading. A number of school districts (including Chicago) questioned the preliminary results.
Although such wide variations in scores are new to Illinois, many states have had problems with the high stakes testing demanded under No Child Left Behind. The Baltimore Sun reports that changes in the Maryland State Assessment this year created an unusually large rise in student test scores.
A panel of testing experts concluded that changes in the Maryland test (it is shorter and more questions were written to fit the state standards) contributed to increases in scores. Howeverr, they couldn’t estimate how much of the increase was due to the test changes. If the companies hired to oversee state testing (Harcourt in Maryland, Pearson in Illinois) cannot guarantee consistency from year to year, the tests are not of any use.
NCLB demands accountability in terms of Adequate Yearly Progress. If the tests cannot be trusted to measure students on the same yardstick from year to year, AYP becomes meaningless. Perhaps it is really long past time to demand some accountability for real education reform from the US Department of Education. We need to ask for something other than standardized testing, especially when it is becoming clear that the tests may not be accurately measuring student achievement.
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