The Bu****es know they can't afford to lose the one "administration"
program that some consider at least a PARTIAL SUCCESS. So they are
obsessively protective of the program and quick to dismiss and
belittle any criticism of the "tests" -- which many educators say
merely turn out dull, ill-rounded, and robot-like pupils capable only
of passing an exam.
So not surprisingly, many opponents and critics of NCLB believe the
core tests have been dumbed-down to ensure the 100-percent passage
required by the program's mandate.
Considering that no U.S. education program has ever ordered or
achieved a 100-percent success rate, one would have to question the
challenge posed by tests in which all students must receive a passing
grade in order to keep their school off a "failed" list.
----------------------------------
"Skepticism Greets Big Gains"
"Critics Cite Changes; Officials Deny Exams Were Easier"
By Maria Glod
Wa****ngton Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 19, 2008; B04
State reading and math tests taken by Maryland students were shortened
and tweaked this year, leading some critics to question whether the
****fts contributed to surprisingly strong gains in achievement.
State officials said the changes to the Maryland School *****sments,
used to measure academic progress under the federal No Child Left
Behind law, had no significant impact on performance. They said an
outside panel of education experts determined that the tests were as
difficult as last year's exams or those administered in previous
years.
Scores released Tuesday attracted attention because of dramatic gains
-- some of the largest since the federal law was enacted in 2002.
Statewide, the share of students who received scores of proficient or
better jumped six percentage points in reading to 82 percent, and four
percentage points in math to 76 percent.
Ronald A. Peiffer, deputy superintendent of Maryland schools, said
students might have benefited from shorter exams, but he said the
gains reflected good teaching and learning. Each test, given over two
days, previously had taken about three hours and 45 minutes. This
year's exams were about a half-hour shorter.
Students "may have had less fatigue," Peiffer said, but he stressed
that the tests were no easier than in other years.
Peiffer said schools are focusing on students with disabilities, those
learning English and minorities. "Schools are attending to students in
ways they weren't before No Child Left Behind," he said. "All that is
part of it. I think to think anything else is disrespectful of the
work of our teachers."
But some critics of the increasing emphasis on standardized testing in
schools nationwide say even subtle differences, either intentional or
inadvertent, can have a significant impact on test scores. They argue
that states do not release enough information about test questions,
calculations about the level of difficulty and the scoring process.
"There is no way to know whether those numbers accurately reflect the
quality of learning," said Robert Schaeffer, an official of the
Cambridge, Mass.-based FairTest, which is critical of standardized
testing.
"Deciding what items are on a test, deciding what subject area is
covered, deciding whether this year's questions are the equivalent of
last year's" is "subject to human judgment," Schaeffer said.
Under federal law, schools are supposed to have 100 percent of
students pass reading and math exams by 2014.
In previous years, Maryland students had answered a battery of local
educator-crafted reading and math questions that stemmed from
classroom lessons. In addition, students tackled questions from
standardized tests used nationwide. Only a ****tion of the questions
from the nationwide exam -- those that corresponded closely with the
state curriculum -- were counted as part of a student's MSA score.
This year, the state dropped questions from the national exam.
Instead, students answered similar questions that were written by
state educators. The testing changes were re****ted yesterday in the
Baltimore Sun.
Mark Moody, a retired Maryland state director of *****sment, said
students might have been more comfortable because all questions
covered material taught in class.
"One might hypothesize, although we have no way to know, that having
some items that you're not familiar with might shake your confidence,"
Moody said.
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071802895.html
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