Maryland offers up bogus reading scores

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/maryland-offers-up-bogus-reading-scores/2013/11/25/0827ea68-561f-11e3-ba82-16ed03681809_story.html

WaPo editorial. Some choice quotes:

LET’S NOT sugarcoat it: Maryland schools have artificially inflated their performance on a key standardized reading test by excusing students with learning disabilities and weak English skills from the exam. The policy is so out of whack with the rest of the nation that Maryland schools are excusing students from the test at a rate five times higher than the national average and more than double that of any other state.

The effect has been to drive up Maryland’s reading scores and rankings in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test known as “the nation’s report card” that is administered in odd-numbered years to a sampling of fourth- and eighth-graders.

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and the man he has endorsed to succeed him, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, are fond of boasting that Maryland’s schools are ranked No. 1 in the nation. They base this assertion on an annual survey by the magazine Education Week, in which the state has come out on top for several years running.

At best, it’s a facile ranking and an empty political claim. While Maryland has many excellent schools, it also has plenty that are mediocre and poor. And by a number of widely accepted measures — SAT scores, ACT scores, four-year graduation rates and, we would argue, a fair reading of national reading scores — Maryland is quite a distance from No. 1.

O'Malley and Brown: devious, politically ambitious clowns.

[Anonymous]

O'Malley and Brown ordered Maryland schools to do it this way?

[Anonymous]

The choice of whether or not to offer a Read Aloud accommodation on standardized tests is a controversial one. There are good arguments on both sides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The choice of whether or not to offer a Read Aloud accommodation on standardized tests is a controversial one. There are good arguments on both sides.

Could be, but when the exception rate is twice that of the next highest state and 6 times the average something seems amiss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The choice of whether or not to offer a Read Aloud accommodation on standardized tests is a controversial one. There are good arguments on both sides.

Could be, but when the exception rate is twice that of the next highest state and 6 times the average something seems amiss.

The reason for that is that NAEP doesn't allow Read Aloud, so that kids' whose IEP call for it are exempted from the test. In DC and other jurisdictions where the accommodation isn't allowed there aren't students who have it on their IEPs, therefore more kids get tested.

You can argue that MD should or shouldn't have Read Aloud. There are good arguments both ways. But hopefully the decision is made based on what's in the best interest of students, not what leads to higher ore more accurate NAEP scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The choice of whether or not to offer a Read Aloud accommodation on standardized tests is a controversial one. There are good arguments on both sides.

Could be, but when the exception rate is twice that of the next highest state and 6 times the average something seems amiss.

The reason for that is that NAEP doesn't allow Read Aloud, so that kids' whose IEP call for it are exempted from the test. In DC and other jurisdictions where the accommodation isn't allowed there aren't students who have it on their IEPs, therefore more kids get tested.

You can argue that MD should or shouldn't have Read Aloud. There are good arguments both ways. But hopefully the decision is made based on what's in the best interest of students, not what leads to higher ore more accurate NAEP scores.

OK, but why is MDs read aloud rate SO much higher than I other states? Do you think we're the only state to do it right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The choice of whether or not to offer a Read Aloud accommodation on standardized tests is a controversial one. There are good arguments on both sides.

Could be, but when the exception rate is twice that of the next highest state and 6 times the average something seems amiss.

The reason for that is that NAEP doesn't allow Read Aloud, so that kids' whose IEP call for it are exempted from the test. In DC and other jurisdictions where the accommodation isn't allowed there aren't students who have it on their IEPs, therefore more kids get tested.

You can argue that MD should or shouldn't have Read Aloud. There are good arguments both ways. But hopefully the decision is made based on what's in the best interest of students, not what leads to higher ore more accurate NAEP scores.

OK, but why is MDs read aloud rate SO much higher than I other states? Do you think we're the only state to do it right?

The majority of states don't allow the read aloud accommodation at all.

Do I (the PP) think that we're the only state to do it right. No, I actually don't support the read aloud accommodation, but I can see that there are good arguments on both sides. I think that hopefully we'll see some new testing formats that solve this issue. What I don't think is that MD should make the decision about whether or not to continue the read aloud accommodation based on the NAEP. I think the decision should be made based on the question of what is best for kids.

[Anonymous]

I think I read that 10 states offer the read aloud option. It is hard to argue that you are measuring reading when there is no reading involved for those students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I read that 10 states offer the read aloud option. It is hard to argue that you are measuring reading when there is no reading involved for those students.

The whole point of the NAEP testing was that it was supposed to give us a good measure across the nation, by giving all children the same test, regardless of whatever state assessment tests are used.
If individual states make exceptions above and beyond what the rest of the states are doing, it makes their results less valid.
It basically put a big asterisk next to these states.
I think it's particularly problematic for a state like Maryland, which has a huge population of ESOL students. It creates a false impression that they adequately serving these kids when in reality we don't know because they've eliminated so many of them from the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I read that 10 states offer the read aloud option. It is hard to argue that you are measuring reading when there is no reading involved for those students.

Which is why NAEP (not MD) excluded those students from the assessment.

In my ideal world, the computer would be set up so thay students first take an adaptive assessment that looks at how they do with written material. Students who weren't successful with grade level material, regardless of IEP or ELL status would be given a followup assessment of their grade level material with the read aloud. That would actually yield useful info.

[Anonymous]

OP - can your child read?
CHILL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - can your child read?
CHILL!

Now that's a high bar!

[Anonymous]

Ordinarily I'm a raging Democrat, but I have never been a fan of O'Malley/Brown. O'Malley is too anxious to be president.