Matthew Di Carlo takes a close look at the latest test scores released in Florida.
His bottom line: don’t believe the press release.
For one thing, the test specifications have changed, and the scores are not really comparable to prior years.
Di Carlo points out:
“Accordingly, the technical documentation for the FCAT notes (in bold-faced type) that “caution should be used when comparing 2013 FCAT 2.0 Writing data to FCAT writing data from previous years.”
But that kind of caution is in short supply when state officials want bragging rights.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is the problem of nonstandardized testing. The results are not comparable across tests.
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“This is the problem of nonstandardized testing.”
It’s the problem of ALL standardized testing as there is no uniformity whatsoever to testing conditions (and can never be) for all students no matter how hard they try to control the testing environment. Way too many variables plague each testing site, whether it is the class environment, time of day, computer accesss, etc. . . .
There are no comparable tests for anyone anytime whether standardized or non-standardized. And those “comparisons” should not be made anyway as to compare results student to student, class to class, school to school, district to district, state to state does an injustice to students, teachers, and districts causes causes harm for many innocent children in many different ways.
Oh, but that’s what’s always been done. That’s the status quo (and not the rock band)! Yep go along to get along while causing, in many cases, irreparable harm to students. Educational malpractice at its finest!!!
One day, some day we may change our absurd ways! I can only hope and dream on that Quixotic vision.
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A valid point — without some measure of standardization, there is no apples to apples, and the data are meaningless. But how much stock do we put in the data? And how to balance the need to teach children with the need to assess how well we are doing so? That’s the high-wire act… That’s the question I try to address here, in Apollo vs. Dionysus, Is Teacher Evaluation an Art or a Science? : http://askingquestionsblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/apollo-vs-dionysus-is-teaching-and.html
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Teaching is, as I believe Harlan U. has stated, a craft and an art with some semi (by semi I mean not hard type mathematical based sciences like physics, chemistry, etc. . . ) scientific research (developmental psych, developmental disability recognition, etc. . . ) in the background.
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“Accordingly, the technical documentation for the FCAT notes. . . ”
Psychometrics = eugenics (of students’ desire to learn) = phrenology = blood letting (the students’ blood that is).
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Florida’s individual districts are even worse. When a change in the metric results in better “looking” scores, they congratulate themselves on the progress resultant of everyone’s hard work. When the ever-changing scoring landscape makes results look worse, the State is to blame for their incompetence in test management.
More than enough hypocrisy to go around. No one seems to care if true learning gains are made.
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Agreed. Unfortunately, “true learning gains” are maddeningly hard, nigh impossible perhaps, to quantify.
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Viral campaigns of mass deception are a standard component of contemporary business models — the more we see business models supplanting educational models the bigger and more widespread the lies will become.
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We tried to warn you, Floridians. Tony Bennett will do/say anything to make him and his schemes look good. Indiana will be cleaning up his messes for years!
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So just change the test so that all students pass and we can claim 100% success. Voila – we met the requirements of NCLB one year early! Then we can get back to educating children.
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Ooooh, like jury nullification! I like it!
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