2019 Medley #17: Back to school 2019, Part 2 The Test Fails
Testing and Accountability
THE TEST FAILS
Accountability is the big news in Indiana as school starts this year. It seems that our students didn’t do well on the new iLearn test which replaced ISTEP and was administred last Spring.
Steve Hinnefeld, who blogs at Schools Matter, reported (see The stakes are the problem, below),
Just under half of all students in grades 3-8 were proficient in English/language arts, and just under half were proficient in mathematics, according to the assessment. Some 37% were proficient in both.
Why? Our students did fine on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) often called The Nation’s Report Card. At least three/fourths of our students in grades four and eight were At or above Basic in reading and the same in math (for a discussion of the difference between Basic and Proficient on the NAEP see If NAEP “Proficient” Means “Grade Level Proficiency,” Then America’s Private Schools Are in Trouble by blogger Mercedes Schneider. Also see Scale Scores and Achievement Levels).
The problem is, apparently, the test itself. Superintendents from across the state (including the State Superintendent of Public Instruction) have recognized this CONTINUE READING: 2019 Medley #17: Back to school 2019, Part 2 The Test Fails | Live Long and Prosper
