-Caveat Lector- {{Oh, good! Our educational system isn't a disaster after all. Well, not to worry if it is for the govt will take care of us all. Why do we need to know all these silly things, anyway? If these kids grow up unable to read adequately or even think for themselves, well, they will be all the more dependent on the federal government. Besides, if it is important, our government will TELL us, probably on TV so they do not really need to read, anyway. And that's the object of our public educational system, keep them dumb and dependent. Oh, yes, and to build "self esteem" so they will not realize how ignorant and dependent they are. AKE}} Test scores' fuzzy math Are grading standards too high? By Jay Mathews THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON, May 15 - The results from the national test were a shock: Nearly 40 percent of U.S. fourth-graders scored below the basic level of competency in reading. The 1992 scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the fourth-graders' performance in years thereafter prompted columnist Michael Kelly to predict for those struggling young readers "the joyous prospects of bike-messengering, table-busing, weed-pulling, hamburger-flipping and broom-pushing - episodically relieved by unemployment and descents into deep poverty." Such sharp contrasts in achievement for such an important age group make some education researchers and analysts concerned about the tests and how they are presented to the public. YET A YEAR before that 1992 test, fourth graders scored near the top of the list of 30 countries on a different reading test, the equally respectable International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement exam. The same has happened in science and mathematics. About 36 percent of U.S. fourth-graders scored below basic levels in math and 33 percent below basic in science on the 1996 NAEP test. But the year before, those allegedly TV-addled fourth-graders were above the international average in math and just below Korea and Japan at the top of the list in science in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Testing experts - accustomed to confusion and contradiction - caution that every assessment involves different assumptions and different questions given to different children. But such sharp contrasts in achievement for such an important age group - fourth grade is when children are expected to start reading on their own - make some education researchers and analysts concerned about the tests and how they are presented to the public. CRITICS: GRADING SCALE TOO STRICT For some, the problem is the NAEP test's grading scale, which they say is unrealistically strict. The tests, supervised by the congressionally appointed National Assessment Governing Board, are billed as "The Nation's Report Card." If so, they sometimes produce the kind of ill-feeling and controversy as a string of D-pluses from a cranky physics teacher. Gerald W. Bracey, a Fairfax County-based educational psychologist, said the way the test is graded - with levels set at advanced, proficient, basic and below basic - makes little sense. He noted that the levels are based on the opinions of adult judges who were asked to give their impression of which questions students should be able to answer, rather than by examining how students actually perform on the tests. If the levels are set too high, that could leave journalists, public officials and parents with an overly negative impression, said Lyle V. Jones, a research professor in quantitative psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Advertisement At the same time, U.S. fourth-graders look good when compared with their overseas counterparts because other countries do not set as high a standard for younger pupils, testing experts say. But when the U.S. students get older, their achievement levels no longer look as good in comparison. Sharif Shakrani, deputy executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, said that as a native of Lebanon, he has a sense of the deficiencies of primary education abroad. U.S. students "have access to narrative materials to read, and some other countries do not have access to much of that," he said. Also, "American teachers are more qualified for teaching reading than in most other countries." In science and mathematics, his specialties, Shakrani said he believes that U.S. fourth-graders may do relatively well on international tests because "the same content is taught to all students." Ina V.S. Mullis, co-director of the International Study Center at Boston College, said that "in actuality, we have more science instruction in elementary school than other countries," so U.S. fourth-graders have an advantage. Results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study show that U.S. students lose ground in grades 8 and 12. This may be, in part, Shakrani said, because of the "massive tracking system" in U.S. schools that shifts many students into watered-down divisions of algebra and chemistry. But the most widely accepted explanation for fourth-graders' less-impressive performance on the NAEP tests is that the tests are hard and stiffly graded. Test supporters say this is good, because U.S. schools cannot improve while using a limp measuring stick. SUPPORTERS: HIGH STANDARDS NEEDED "The NAEP does set a really high standard for the nation to achieve," said Michael T. Nettles, professor of education at the University of Michigan and vice chairman of the test's governing board. But, he said, he does not think the standard is too high and feels the emphasis should be on helping more children meet it. "For those children who are below basic we have quite a lot of work to do to move them toward proficient," he said. U.S. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige said fourth-graders who score below basic on the NAEP test may be able to read something, "but they cannot read at the level of expectation we have for kids in the fourth grade." Shakrani said that the international math and science test given to fourth-graders asks students to do basic tasks-add, subtract, multiply and divide. The NAEP test adds word problems, dreaded by many in that age group. "We may ask the question, 'If you have 21 toys and you were able to purchase 31 more, how many will you have in total?' " Shakrani said. The international reading test given in 1991 was much the same way, Mullis said. "It was anchored pretty much in basic comprehension skills," she said, while the NAEP test demanded some analysis of what students had read. Mullis said she is part of a group that is supervising a new international reading test, whose results should be ready in a year. The group will meet in Hungary this week to discuss how to score reliably across national and linguistic lines. It plans to include more analytical questions than existed 10 years ago. "I don't know about the 40 percent, whether there are many more or fewer fourth-graders who can't read," Mullis said, "but there are a lot of elementary students in the United States who do not read adequately." ~Amelia~ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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