Monday, May 24, 2010

Teaching to the Test -- or Just Using a Different One Education voiceofsandiego.org

Education

The Education Newsblitz: Including Kids with Disabilities
The newsblitz never works for the weekend. It yearns to come back:

School Board Forum: Tell Us What You ThoughtOne image
Our school board candidates forum last night was phenomenal, thanks to all of you! We were amazed by the turnout and the energy in what is supposedly a sleepy race. I had to tell the crowd not to applaud a few times -- which is a heck of a lot better than having to tell them not to fall asleep.
Unfortunately, I forgot last night to thank reader and former school board member Frances O'Neill Zimmerman, who convinced me that we needed to do something like this. Thanks for the great idea!
If you didn't make it, we'll have the audio available on the website soon. In the meantime, you can check out this Twitter feed for commentary from parent Paul Bowers. I'm still sorting through the audio and my notes, but here are some quick impressions and points from the forum:
Your Thoughts on the Testing Conundrum
My readers are so smart. We've already been talking to school district officials about why San Diego scores on a national exam only grew slightly while state test scores jumped. Now you've chimed in with your thoughts:
•Sue Moore, a homeschooling mom who has a doctorate in educational leadership, argues the biggest problem with making sense of test scores, especially the state tests, is "the massaging of raw scores." Let me explain: What I and other reporters usually call state scores are actually a derived score from multiple tests that students take in California schools.
Moore says it's such a nightmare to understand -- and the way that data are reported has changed so often -- that it makes it difficult to draw valid comparisons from one year to the next.
Teaching to the Test -- or Just Using a Different One?
I sure was. Ron Rode, the research czar for San Diego Unified, gave us one theory: The national test just sets the bar higher than the state tests do. That's one explanation. Here are others from folks I chatted with:
• Nellie Meyer, the interim deputy superintendent for San Diego Unified, offered an intriguing version of Rode's theory. Not only is the national test more challenging, it measures different, deeper skills, such as interpreting and synthesizing a written text. So students could shine on a state test that measures simpler thinking at the same time they show few gains on the national exam.
Interestingly, this is exactly what the school board has been pushing for San Diego Unified to do: Focus more on creativity and critical thinking instead of the simpler skills that tests tend to measure.
"We need to stretch students' thinking," Meyer said.