Gary Rubinstein was intrigued to read a tweet by John White of Louisiana boasting about the dramatic improvements in education.
Gary decided to look more closely at the data. Not surprisingly, he found that White was playing games with numbers, which seems to be a habit in Brooklyn schools.
Gary discovered this significant fact; “In the Times-Picayune article they indicated “the percentage of students passing the exam dropped from 44 percent to 33 percent: 3,501 of the 10,529 test-takers.” So in 2012, 41% (the article had this number wrong) of students who took at least one AP test passed at least one, while in 2013 this number dropped to 33%. So they are celebrating, basically, that 4,000 new students TOOK the AP. Of those 4,000 students, only 19% passed an AP.”
So White was celebrating the number of students who took the AP, not the proportion who passed.
But wait: the lowest proportion of students who took and passed the exam was in the Recovery School District. Not quite 6% in that much-celebrated state-run district managed to pass. At SCI Academy, and the top charter school in the RSD had only 11% of its students earn a 3 or better on the AP.
So much for the New Orleans “miracle.”
If you want to read the Louisiana take on this shape-shifting scandal, read Crazy Crawfish here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The mentality expressed in White’s opinion supports my growing concern that advertising and legalistic values are gradually overwhelming objective facts. What the hypsters and the counselors report as the situation (as they see it or wish it) takes precedent over the actually facts. If this is allowed to go on much longer, I fear for the long term success of education, as a public service, and the nation, as an example of the product of statesmanship.
We’re living in ANIMAL FARM.
If that’s the case, it’s time to lock up few pigs.
LOL!!!!
At private high schools, students aren’t permitted to even take A.P. exams unless they’ve already taken and passed A.P. courses in the subject area being tested.
Makes sense, right?
Well, John White and the TFA-affiliated folks had the bright idea of making masses of totally unprepared Louisiana students take A.P. tests in subjects in which they’ve never even taken courses, let alone achieved a passing grade. The result: almost all of them fail miserably—probably just randomly bubbling in, and leaving the constructed response essay portion blank.
A idiotic exercise, right?
No, because a miniscule few did pass while the rest (96% or more, depending on the school) failed, John White, TFA CEO Ms. Villanueva-Beard, and others tout this a “major success.”
Why would they claim such nonsense?
Well, this is because that even though that cohort of students failed the test miserably, they were “exposed to more rigor” in the process of taking the test, and thus benefited from this “exposure”.
Welcome to Louisiana!
How about first “exposing” them to the actual courses in the subject matter that the A.P. is testing, and then see if they can achieve proficiency… and then let them take the test?
Throwing paraplegics and quadraplegics—or even people capable of swimming, but who have never been in the water—into the deep end of a swimming pool, certainly “exposes” them to more “rigor”, but is it a good idea?
According the John White and TFA folks like Ms. Beard, the answer is “YES.”
Tony, you wrote that “John White and the TFA-affiliated folks had the bright idea of making masses of totally unprepared Louisiana students take A.P. tests in subjects in which they’ve never even taken courses, let alone achieved a passing grade.”
Are you sure about this? Below is the link to the New Orleans newspaper story. It says the state encouraged more schools to offer the courses.
I have no independent knowledge of what happened – do you know for sure that someone forced students who had not taken AP courses to take the exams?
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2013/07/louisiana_students_earn_most_a.html
89% of the students at Sci Academy failed the AP exam–while the state average was a pass rate of over 40%.
Let’s put this in perspective: This is the same charter school that has been boasting that they have discovered miracle accelerated learning methods. One report cites the schools internal testing data in the following excerpt:
“Most (ninth grade) students began the year reading at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. In the first five-week period that the school tracked data, students averaged approximately one grade level of growth, and by the end of the year, students had averaged almost three years worth of reading improvement.”
http://bit.ly/mCoJ2i
Yet by the time students reached their senior year, the miracle stopped. Not only do 89% fail their AP exams, but the schools average ACT score of 19 is below the minimum ACT score to qualify for admission to any Louisiana four-year public university.
The real victims in this marketing hype are the hard working students who truly believed that the school had prepared them for Harvard and Yale–or any four-year college for that matter,. .
Diane:
Off topic: Have you written a post about NYC using charters to teach public schools how to be successful at the tune of $4million +? This money is nothing but a big advertisement-propaganda for charters.
I am so awaiting your take on this. I know my classes would also be successful if it didn’t include SETTS students and ESLs. Also it would have helped to get those students who would bring down tests scores out of my classroom as easily as a charter can.
That’s their secret to success. But nice to know there is money for programs like this but nothing for our students.
I hope that the parents of the RSD get involved if they aren’t already and protest.
Schoolgal, I know exactly what you are saying. The schools in my archdiocese start standardized testing in 2nd grade. My school accepts many students who would have an IEP if they went to the public school they are districted for. I really don’t mind having these students at our school, but it is frustrating when my school is requested to work on improving test scores and is compared to other schools in the archdiocese who serve students in higher income families and do not admit some of the students that my school accepts.
Sheesh! Even the Catholic schools are buying into this testing mess?????!!!!!
Yes…some places may be required to if they participate in their state’s voucher or tax credit programs. Some of those places may even be required to give the same test that that state’s public school students take. Right, now, my Archdiocese’s testing policy is not too bad; testing the 2nd graders is the worst part. (They are too young, get too stressed out by the testing and the second grade test form is so different from the form in the rest of the grades that comparing a third grader’s score to the score they made in second grade is like comparing apples to oranges.) Our students (2nd-8th grades) just take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in the spring. Our Superintendent and other officials in the Catholic Department of Education in my Archdiocese like us to move each student one year forward and they especially love value added. However, test results have nothing to do with our contracts. As we now grapple with my states new Accountability Act and as we continue to implement Common Core, I pray we won’t go any deeper into the test crazy waters. If nothing else, unless they change, the ITBS doesn’t match Common Core, so I figure that we will at least have to change our test at some point, although I have not heard that it will change for this up-coming school year. It used to be that only 4th and 7th graders were tested…then everyone 3rd-8th grades, then everyone 2nd-8th grades. So, yes, even Catholic Schools to some extent have bought into this testing mess.