John White’s Illegitimate 2013-to-2014 LEAP/iLEAP Comparisons
Whenever Louisiana State Superintendent John White gets his hands on test scores, there will be problems.
He withheld release of the 2014 Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) and Integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (iLEAP) scores on Friday, May 16, 2014, without explanation.
Today, he defended his decision before district superintendents by telling that compared to previous years, this year’s scores were not late.
Districts across the state came to expect to deliver LEAP and iLEAP scores to parents on Friday, May 16, 2014 because that was the Friday in May in which LEAP and iLEAP scores are usually released. White even acknowledged in a letter that the scores would be released later than in previous years:
In recent years, the Department has released these results May 17 or 18.
Friday, May 17, 2013.
Friday, May 18, 2012.
Thus, the commonly-held expectation that LEAP and iLEAP scores would be released on Friday, May 16, 2014, was logical, and White knew it.
In that letter, White makes another statement, one that solidifies the reality that any comparison of 2014 LEAP and iLEAP scores with those of prior years is useless:
An important step [toward connecting Common Core and its PARCC assessment] has been the one-time LEAP and iLEAP tests aligned to those new expectations (Common Core). [Emphasis added.]
I won’t pretend for a minute that White has actually carried out any sophisticated psychometric procedures to develop tests that are “aligned” with the Common Core he refuses to call by name (instead resorting to the vanilla term, “new expectations)