Anonymous wrote:

The price tag on SBAC tests in California alone is $1 billion.

This. Is this the best use of resources to improve our children?

Now imagine that multiplied by 50 for each state so that each can do their own thing, versus just having one national test costing 50 times less to develop and maintain.

Anonymous wrote:

The scary way Common Core test ‘cut scores’ are selected

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/w...-test-cut-scores-are-selected/


It's interesting how Kentucky and New York set their cut scores to very different settings. Kids score about the same on NAEP, but what was considered passing on the Common Core tests was quite different in the two states.

I thought that one of the main reasons for having the same standards and tests nationwide was so that states could be "compared". ???

See what happens when there's too much local control?

The price tag on SBAC tests in California alone is $1 billion.

This. Is this the best use of resources to improve our children?

http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/03/28/common-core-failure/70590436/

Interesting take on a fourth grade CC test and how the writers ruined it.

It’s been just over 30 years since war was declared on America’s public schools. The opening salvo came with 1983’s A Nation at Risk, the Ronald Reagan-era Department of Education report that alleged that lax schools and ineffective teachers constituted a dire threat to national security.

Yet three decades later, and in spite the opening of a second front comprised of school vouchers, a 2.57-million student charter school network, and a classroom culture tied to test preparation, the nation’s education outcomes have barely budged, and rather than narrowing the education gap, the chasm between rich and poor appears only to be significantly widening.

From the above article

This is an interesting article. What if the test scores are simply reflecting our continuing decline of the middle class?

http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/what-if-education-reform-got-it-all-wrong-in-the-first-place

Anonymous wrote:

What kind of spin are you going to use in the fall when kids have failed these tests nationwide?

Your knee pads are going to be worn out by then.

I'm not the PP, but my response is -- I'll worry about it if it happens. There have been plenty of other anti-Common Core predictions that did not become reality.

Of course it works this way. It works this way everywhere there is a test that must be passed in order to graduate from high school---a "barrier" test. Suddenly kids who never passed a standardized test pass the barrier tests. Statistics are important and the high school graduation rate is a big one.

WAPO reported today that rates went up for AA and Hispanics. Is this why?

It's at the primary level where teachers can often make the most impact in terms of getting kids on the right track for foundational language literacy and math skills. So much can and does go wrong in the upper grades when they don't have a sound foundation - they are perpetually struggling if they don't get that strong foundation. But I guess if we don't actually acknowledge that it's important to assess, understand and remediate early on, then we will never solve anything.


Okay. Then, let's be sure and assess the parents, too. You do understand that the lack of supervision and support from parents not only affects the kids before they come to school, but later, as well. That's one of the things that goes wrong after the primary years and during the primary years. Trouble with this testing and NCLB is that it is only the school at fault.

Look, you don't get it. It is always the teachers' fault. There is always a LOCAL problem. It could not be the fault of anything else. And if anyone is entirely faultless, it is the federal Department of Education. They are like gods up there---untouchable and always right. And if you question them, you are a right wing wacko Tea Party nut job.

Interesting insights from a retired Mass. principal on cut scores and their manipulation in 2013. 10th grade set at a whole different level, because that's the test tied to graduation:

http://neary-principal.blogspot.com/

analyzing our MCAS results from last spring and decided, just for the fun of it, to see how many of our students would have been considered to be "advanced" and "proficient" if the "cut scores" for the 4th and 5th grade tests were chosen in the same way as the cut scores for the 10th grade tests. ("Cut scores" are the scores which indicate the division between two categories -- for example, between "proficient" and "needs improvement.") The results were very interesting -- had our scores been calculated in the same manner as the 10th grade scores, 97% of our students, in both 4th and 5th grade, would have been considered "advanced and proficient" on the ELA tests, and 100% of 4th graders and 94% of 5th graders would have been considered "advanced and proficient" on the math tests. Since that's not how the scores for the grades below 10th grade are calculated, though, our actual percentages, while good, were quite a bit below that.

Of course it works this way. It works this way everywhere there is a test that must be passed in order to graduate from high school---a "barrier" test. Suddenly kids who never passed a standardized test pass the barrier tests. Statistics are important and the high school graduation rate is a big one.

It's all a ridiculous exercise.

The scary way Common Core test ‘cut scores’ are selected

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/w...-test-cut-scores-are-selected/


It's interesting how Kentucky and New York set their cut scores to very different settings. Kids score about the same on NAEP, but what was considered passing on the Common Core tests was quite different in the two states.

I thought that one of the main reasons for having the same standards and tests nationwide was so that states could be "compared". ???

It's at the primary level where teachers can often make the most impact in terms of getting kids on the right track for foundational language literacy and math skills. So much can and does go wrong in the upper grades when they don't have a sound foundation - they are perpetually struggling if they don't get that strong foundation. But I guess if we don't actually acknowledge that it's important to assess, understand and remediate early on, then we will never solve anything.

Okay. Then, let's be sure and assess the parents, too. You do understand that the lack of supervision and support from parents not only affects the kids before they come to school, but later, as well. That's one of the things that goes wrong after the primary years and during the primary years. Trouble with this testing and NCLB is that it is only the school at fault.

Interesting insights from a retired Mass. principal on cut scores and their manipulation in 2013. 10th grade set at a whole different level, because that's the test tied to graduation:

http://neary-principal.blogspot.com/

analyzing our MCAS results from last spring and decided, just for the fun of it, to see how many of our students would have been considered to be "advanced" and "proficient" if the "cut scores" for the 4th and 5th grade tests were chosen in the same way as the cut scores for the 10th grade tests. ("Cut scores" are the scores which indicate the division between two categories -- for example, between "proficient" and "needs improvement.") The results were very interesting -- had our scores been calculated in the same manner as the 10th grade scores, 97% of our students, in both 4th and 5th grade, would have been considered "advanced and proficient" on the ELA tests, and 100% of 4th graders and 94% of 5th graders would have been considered "advanced and proficient" on the math tests. Since that's not how the scores for the grades below 10th grade are calculated, though, our actual percentages, while good, were quite a bit below that.

Anonymous wrote:Ah, yes, the grand conspiracy theory to make all kids fail.

Bigfoot and Chemtrails.

Better stock up on tinfoil.

What kind of spin are you going to use in the fall when kids have failed these tests nationwide?

Your knee pads are going to be worn out by then.

Ah, yes, the grand conspiracy theory to make all kids fail.

Bigfoot and Chemtrails.

Better stock up on tinfoil.