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Thursday, January 10, 2013

Schools Matter: Make sure the common core doesn’t get credit for test score inflation

Schools Matter: Make sure the common core doesn’t get credit for test score inflation:


Make sure the common core doesn’t get credit for test score inflation

Make sure the common core doesn’t get credit for test score inflation
S Krashen

Please don’t get too excited when initial common core tests appear to produce low scores. New tests typically result in low scores, and then scores rise for the next few years as teachers and students get used to the test format and content, and teachers learn how to teach to the test (Linn, Gaue and Sanders, 1990). I predict that the Common core will get credit for this bogus “improvement.” The improvement will stop after a few years, but by then the apparent success of the common core will be considered “proven.”

This is exactly what happened after California dismantled bilingual education. In 1998, the same year Proposition 227 passed, a new test, the SAT9, was introduced. Scores went up for everybody the first year, and 227 got the