DCCAS Question

[Anonymous]

What counts as passing? Do you add together the profficient and advanced?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the % passing is the sum of the advanced and the proficient scores. Each year the bar gets a little higher in order to make AYP. The percent that need to score advanced + proficient is currently somewhere in the 70% or 80% range. Also the cutoff between scoring basic and proficient is somewhere around 70%. So, to make AYP, ~70% of the individual students need to score in proficient/advanced categories.

Note that this is not the same as a 70% average score for the class. Assume the cutoff between basic and proficient is 70% AND the percent above cutoff needed to make AYP is also 70%. A group of 100 students could have 70 students that score 80% and 30 students that score 10%, for a weighted average score of 59%. That groups makes AYP. Because 70% of the individual students are above the threshold.

A group of 100 students could have 65 that score 71% and 35 that score 69%, for a weighted average score of 70.3%. That groups does not make AYP because there are only 65 students in the advanced/proficient bin.

This is the reason that the focus is on moving kids from the basic into the proficient bin. There is no credit given for increasing the score of a child who is already proficient. There is no credit given for increasing the score of a child who stays in the basic category. So, assuming 70% is the score breakpoint between basic & proficient, a child whose score increases from 10% to 68%, no help. From 72% to 89% , no help. From 69% to 71%, yes, the system now gets an increased score.

[Anonymous]

proficient

[Anonymous]

Your explanation is clear but the whole system just seems screwy to me. Couldn't smart people have devised a better way of doing this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your explanation is clear but the whole system just seems screwy to me. Couldn't smart people have devised a better way of doing this?

Funny! NCLB and the AYP system were created by George W Bush & Co. need I say more?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your explanation is clear but the whole system just seems screwy to me. Couldn't smart people have devised a better way of doing this?

Funny! NCLB and the AYP system were created by George W Bush & Co. need I say more?????

Actually it was a bipartisan effort led in part by Ted Kennedy. That doesn't make it any better.