Deposition Shows How Much We Are in the Dark About Smarter Balanced
I was reading the deposition in David Delk v. Ohio County (WV) Board of Education, a lawsuit currently before the Circuit Court of Ohio County, WV. Delk is an attorney and the father of a third grader in Ohio County Schools. He filed a FOIA request to see the questions on the Smarter Balanced after results were released. His request was denied and he then sued. The person being disposed is Sue Ellen McGuire who is the assessment director for Ohio County Schools.
The following jumped out at me.
Q. And who is the vendor for this test?A. American Institutes for Research, AIR.Q. And do you have an understanding how those people who read the assessments are trained?A. I do not, sir.Q. Do you have any idea what their background is?A. I do not, sir. Q. Do you have any idea what their level of education is?A. I do not, sir.Q. Do you know whether it’s a part-time or temporary job? A. I have no idea, sir. Q. Do you have any idea what the job pays? A. I have no idea, sir.
So humans are grading the written sections of the assessment and we essentially know nothing about how they trained and what kind of background is required. Nice.
Then right after talking about who is grading they discuss cut scores.
Q. Does Ohio County Schools have any indication or knowledge what level of performance is required to hit the various cut levels on the assessment?A. Ohio County Schools has no knowledge of that.Q. Does the West Virginia Department of Education have that information, to your knowledge?A. I would say they probably do not.This report uses a scale score, and the scale scores would be a conversion of the student’s raw score to a common scale. So they may or may not know, and I would beDeposition Shows How Much We Are in the Dark About Smarter Balanced | Truth in American Education: