Kristin,
Thanks for this post. So many people don't realize how little the test
scores mean, especially the media. We are bombarded with sound bites
about underperforming schools and non-proficient students and people
just suck it up because it seems to feed some underlying (and sometimes
not so underlying) disrespect of teachers, schools, and education in
general. They grab on to these numbers and yell, "See??? Bad Schools!!
Bad Teachers!! Accountability!!! Standards!!! and the average
person on the street..... and, I'm sorry to say, many teachers.....
don't even realize where these numbers come from. And they never, ever,
ever seem to question the **Almighty Test** which is given a pass even
though there are many documented instances in the last several years of
mistakes in scoring, mistakes in reporting, etc. And when was the last
time you heard anyone in the media state to the public that the test
MAKERS do not advocate using test scores to make high-stakes decisions?
It's all so disgusting.
Renee
On Jul 20, 2007, at 6:55 PM, Kristin Kaczmarek wrote:
I have to weigh on this one!! The CAT6 is a
norm-referenced test, which means that 50% of the
students taking it HAVE TO FAIL. The test is designed
to do this. Here is a little more info.
Can all the children score above average?
"Politicians often call for all students to score
above the national average. This is not possible.
NRTs (norm-referenced tests) are constructed so that
half the population is below the mid-point or average
score. Expecting all students to be above the fiftieth
percentile is like expecting all teams in a basketball
league to win more than half their games. However,
because the tests are used for years and because
schools teach to them, there are times when far more
than half the students score above average." -
http://www.fairtest.org/facts/nratests.html
We have to be very careful when talking about tests.
Some states like CA use norm-referenced tests, which
means you will always have 50% or so fail. While
other states use standards-based or
criteria-referenced tests which do not force failing.
This is the real reason why NCLB is a problem. We are
not comparing the same things when we compare states!
I urge everyone to read and understand about the
test(s) their district or state gives, so that we can
truly understand what the scores of our students mean
and don't mean!!!
Kristin
--- Joan Matuga wrote:
However, look at these results for the state tests
for students in my school: 38% of students in
second grade, 51% in third grade, 34% in fourth
grade, 44% in fifth grade, and 28% in sixth grade
are basic or below basic on the state tests. These
% are far, far, far, above the state % for
proficient and advanced. The % figures for the
state of California for basic and below basic are as
follows for Language Arts: Gr2: 53%; Gr3 63%;
Gr4: 51%; Gr5: 57%; Gr6: 59%. These % scare
me.
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