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2/6/2008
NCLB - or the state's low test standards?

It’s an understatement to describe No Child Left Behind as controversial – and its renewal is certainly not assured. The law requires that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014, with associated sanctions for failure. However, acceding to states' rights, NCLB allows each individual state to set its own standards and choose its own tests.

A study by the auspicious Fordham Institute, released last October noted:

We found that Wisconsin’s definitions of proficiency in reading and mathematics are relatively less difficult than the cut scores set by other states. In other words, Wisconsin’s tests are below average in terms of difficulty…. (A “proficiency cut score” is the score a student must achieve in order to be considered proficient.)
…. the state’s cut scores generally rank among the lowest of the 26 states studied for this report, in terms of difficulty.

When I last wrote about a Fordham study a year ago, Jay Bullock, a MPS teacher and active liberal blogger, dissed the work of the Fordham. Jay calls it a “conservative” and “out-of-state” think tank that does unreliable research.

The methodology is all right here, and is respected in the research community as well-documented, scientific and specific. The study compares Wisconsin’s “proficiency” definitions with those of other states and with a reliable nationwide test, the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment. Indeed, MAPS is used by many Wisconsin school districts, including the Appleton Area School District (AASD) and highly touted by administrators and teachers alike.

Ok, study or not, AASD knows there are problems with state standards and Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) testing – and they know they have to go at least one better.

And that’s cool.

Lee Allinger, former teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and now AASD district superintendent, has shared his thoughts with his board and administrative team:

Our experience tells us that the proficiency standards for the 3rd grade portion of the WKCE are too low and do not provide us with a realistic view of how our students are performing. This is why it is essential for us to have our own assessment measures that provide us with a more realistic perspective of our students’ current level of performance, but also data that is then useable in a timely manner by our educators to inform their instructional practice…. How are we really doing in meeting our 3rd grade reading goal?

Allinger provided his board with comparative examples. DPI’s own Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam (WKCE) showed 83% of 3rd grade readers “proficient.” But other measures the Appleton District has more confidence in showed their 3rd grade readers at a 74% proficiency level for the 2006-07 school year.

How much does your school and school district brag about its WKCE scores? How much should they brag about their WKCE scores? And dang it, what should the feds do about it as they reauthorize NCLB? Or more wisely and more effectively, how should the state and the feds establish uniform, voluntary, very high bars for achievement, and then get out of our hair and allow our school districts to fail or succeed on our own?

COMMENTS

Jo,
I think it was Time that had a in depth story on this a few months back. It is true. So, what do we do? Develop national tests? Have a weighted average that incorporates a difficulty factor somehow? Wisconsin still rates rather high on national tests such as they exist (don't ask me which ones) but there is a disconnect between the NCLB program and national comparisons. The best we can get for now is a relative movement within a state. In other words , improving in your state is still improving (at least to the extent that the whole system measures improvement accurately).
Yes, but then the whole state - or at least we locally, must acknowledge that the standard is a sub-par one and aim for the very top. The problem is that it's the WKCE reports that are by law, reported. Grrrr. JE

dave allen (Wed Feb 06 07:07:09 2008)

What everybody either obscures or doesn't know, is that the educational system as it now stands, is doing EXACTLY what it was intended to do: turn out dependent, non-thinking, non-entrepreneurial "workers" (nowadays even ability to work is questionable). And as a sideline to the pharmaceutical industry, it turns out paying customers for life, in the form of "ADHD" kids, who are "diagnosed" by TEACHERS. (Watch the online film, "Tragic consequences of drugging our children" at mercola.com. It shows a Dr. under oath, unable to give diagnostic criteria for "ADHD".)

The educational system, if it doesn't produce a totally dysfunctional being, will send out someone equipped to work for someone else, not himself. Who will vote according to polls, not issues. Who will believe the re-written history "taught" by schools. Who will have a warped moral compass, answerable only to "what the crowd thinks". Read John Gatto's "Underground History of American Education", which explains this quite well. Or, if you prefer, read what Dabney, the Southern theologian of the 1800s, had to say on the topic.

PS, Dave, did you read my final comment on the "Healthy Wisconsin" blog?

emily matthews (Wed Feb 06 09:59:35 2008)

Emily Matthews points are well taken here. She seems to be a reformer and understander (wink) of what commodified education does. This is certainly a big topic and one I enjoy discussing. It's a better topic than one of Ann Coulter's old boyfriends (see previous FP entry.)

Commodified education based on No Child Left Behind test scores, according to Jonathon Kozol and others who watch this more closely, performs a re-segregation of the schools; what Greg Palast has slyly called "No Child's Behind Left."

He is a wag isn't he?

School districts 'standing or falling' and this whole topic is geared toward more privatization of one form or another. Is it really associated with the university or just a clever name to provide a faux status identification with assumed peer review? No it isn't, I checked. And the pdf itself didn't load. I'm guessing that the Fordham study will conclude that the public school system is at fault and needs the help of more chartered and home schoolers.

Regardless of the methodology the conclusions of a study mean little. We know nothing about the sample, whether it's private or public and the most significant and oft-cited problem with think tank based research: the questions themselves. This is normally skewed toward the white middle class and so becomes a class issue as well as a race issue. Segregation takes many forms.

Ms. Matthews is right on all her observations: herd mentality and lack of independent thought is geared toward producing low level functionaries (grunts) to take care of society's necessities and not asking any of society's questions.

I suppose it's fortunate that most can read the word Change as it appears behind the candidates in both small and large type. As the new generation is raised, change will not come from commodified education at the grade school or college level where the major subject is Spring Break.

Lon Ponschock (Wed Feb 06 13:28:44 2008)

Both .pdf's work for me Lon. I'll send you the links directly - maybe that will work better for you. You can read the methodology.
Instead of being bitter about your imagined encroachment of the private sector into educating our kids, perhaps it would be constructive to work toward improving the standards reached by whomever's teaching our kids.

Jo E. (Wed Feb 06 14:31:58 2008)

In the comments there is this thing about schools teaching people to be grunts, good workers, etc how very condescending and in any event gets things backwards.

If a student is not able to read how can think independently? Education is a building, if the foundation is weak then the upper structures will not be able to withstand the winds of idiocy.

If a student can not do sums how are they going to be able to build the rest of their mathematical thinking to be able to read such studies and judge for themselves if it is all valid or not?

I went to a parochial school for grades 1-8. One year I failed a math test under Sr. Mary Janet's instruction. She kept me in at recess working on my math until the next test (which I passed). It was a long time afterwards until I was taking calculus that I failed another math test.

What happens in school today? The child gets extra recess because of the blow to their self-esteem? Then they take a dumbed down test to show they "understand" math?

Society has reasonable expectation we will be good workers and be able to participate as a team member as well as leaders when called upon.
The winds of idiocy. I love it. JE

Marcus Auerlius (Wed Feb 06 16:12:00 2008)

If he CAN read, and is only allowed to read what the teacher gives him, what good is it? What happens when you as a pupil, get really caught up in the study of something,only to have your thoughts broken by the bell ringing?

Mere proficiency is good and to be expected. But long before this day, when we have high school grads that can't read, the fundamentals of what the "education system" was supposed to do, were set up. Ford was a big player in it--he wanted willing factory workers. I urge you to read the book. It's no accident that neither Einstein's nor Edison's teachers said they were no good at schoolwork. If Mozart were in today's schools, he'd be labelled a savant, or at best, musically talented...but would he have the time, what with math, science, English, social studies, phy ed, etc. to pursue his passion? Please, read the book.

emily matthews (Fri Feb 08 15:29:08 2008)

I almost afraid to read Gatto's book. But must get to it. Great suggestion.

Jo E. (Fri Feb 08 16:00:30 2008)

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