The Providence Student Union has taken a stand against the NECAP graduation test. Last Saturday, a few dozen local leaders took the test, any said it was too hard for them, and they are nervously waiting for their scores.
When students take action, everything changes!
Here is the news:
“Providence City Council education committee opposes NECAP as graduation requirement”
March 18, 2013
By Linda Borg
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The City Council’s education committee is asking the Rhode Island Department of Education to abandon using the New England Common Assessment Program as a requirement for high school graduation.
In a resolution to be submitted before the City Council, the committee’s chair, Sam Zurier, calls the state test “unfair” because it doesn’t allow some children “a reasonable chance to succeed, and imposes devastating consequences on many children who,
through no fault of their own, are not ready to achieve the required test scores.”
The letter asks the education department to reconsider the “high-stakes testing” policy, which would take effect with this year’s juniors.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This latest news is both haunting and inspiring.
The kids have done a great job, but I’d also note we’ve had a good full-court press here. The local dissident data geeks have gotten good technical arguments to the right people too.
Wonderful news! All those who require testing need to take those tests themselves. I say congress should be tested on their knowledge of not only the high-stakes tests in their respective states, but also their knowledge of Our Constitution. Then they should be sorted, ranked, and labelled. Their salaries should be based on how well they each upholds the Constitution of this country.
What does being a high school graduate mean? Is there any level of, say reading comprehension, that should be common to all high school graduates? Any level of mathmatical competency?
Nobody wants to be so blunt, but the real reason this has become so controversial is that the 11th grade NECAP math is simply too difficult, compared to similar tests. Based on cross-state comparisons (including VT and NH), it is at least 25% harder to hit the graduation target on the NECAP than it is on the rigorous Massachusetts MCAS.
It is also very difficult to prep for and completely resistant to whole-school reform strategies. We’ve had high schools in Providence that have literally increased 40-50% in reading proficiency rates, improved in almost every other observable way, and gotten no improvement whatsoever in NECAP math proficiency.
I’m not going to say it is impossible or that RI schools are doing a perfect job, but at the end of the day, there is a major issue with the use of this specific test for this specific purpose, regardless of your overall philosophy about the role of testing.
It may be that the exam sets too high a standard, but what standard is appropriate? If the concern is that this standard “..imposes devastating consequences on many children who, through no fault of their own, are not ready to achieve the required test scores”, is there ANY standard that will not fall victim to this criticism?
“What does being a high school graduate mean?”
Good question.
What did it mean when you graduated?
When your parents graduated?
How about your grand parents?
Was there any level of reading or math common to all high schools and all graduates (even special ed, tech prep, or other none college prep type diplomas)in the days before “big tests”?
Did you (your generation) turn out OK? How about the previous couple of generations? Was the country doing well?
When I graduated from high school ,the sole addmission requirement at the university where I now teach was that a student was a high school graduate. I take that to mean that graduating from high school meant that a student was able to do college level academics. My university has increased the admission requirements since because graduating from high school no longer means that a student can do college level academics.
“I take that to mean that graduating from high school meant that a student was able to do college level academics.”
The previous policies of your institution aside, I don’t think a HS diploma should (or was ever intended to) automatically = college ready.
Do (did) some schools offer open enrollment? Sure. But I don’t see A as = B here.
“My university has increased the admission requirements since because graduating from high school no longer means that a student can do college level academics.”
I don’t think it ever really did or was supposed to.
Of course we did have a much larger drop out rate back in the day.
If only the kids who wanted to go to college or who were enjoying school and or were successful at school stayed in school and the rest quit to get jobs (as was very common back in my parents day…there used to be plenty of jobs good that did not require a HS diploma), perhaps the average HS graduate was more interested in and able to “do” college.
Some people might criticize any standard, but that’s not what is happening here.
is that any or many, it’s ambiguous?