More on adjusting state tests
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 1:48 pm by Robert Lowry
Last week, we reported on State Education Commissioner David Steiner’s travels to explain plans to adjust “cut scores” on the state’s grade 3 through 8 assessments.
The Commissioner’s travels have continued, to Rochester, Binghamton, the Rural School Association, and perhaps elsewhere. He also spoke to an assembly of leaders of our organization last week.
New York City papers today are reporting on an analysis done for the State Board of Regents as they prepare to discuss the cut scores at the beginning of next week. Presumably the analysis will eventually be posted among the materials for the Regents July19, 20 meetings.
Cut scores are used to differentiate levels of performance on a standardized test, such as passing, meeting standards, or demonstrating proficiency or mastery.
There is trepidation over how results from the tests will portray schools if, as expected, cut scores are adjusted to make meeting standards harder. The article in today’s State Island Advance supports those worries.
On the other hand, an editorial in last Friday’s Buffalo News casts this exercise in a more favorable light — as state government recognizing problems with its tests and acting to fix them. The editorial observes,
The best part of the upsetting story is that Steiner knows that an assessment test is not supposed to be a game of “Gotcha!” It is not meant to be a way to pin a label on a student, a school or a district and call it a day.
It continues,
Steiner wisely compares a school system’s assessment test to a doctor’s thermometer. Using it can tell you that something is wrong and requires attention. It doesn’t tell you what is wrong, or how to fix it.
Similarly, turning assessment tests, even high school Regents exams, into high-stakes, make-it-or-break-it definitions of individual success or failure puts far too much emphasis on these snapshots at the expense of overall curriculum design. And it turns the testing process into an adversarial relationship rather than the collaborative exercise it must be.
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July 19th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Bob,
Is the council putting together some talking points for superintendents to have when communicating with the press, their Boards, staff and parents. As mentioned at the Delegates meeting, it is going to be very confusing when these scores literally hit home into the hands of parents. The letterhead says advocates, this is one time we need to be.
Thanks