You can’t blame New York parents for feeling baffled and angry at state education officials.
From 2006-2010, the state told them that their children were making incredible gains on the state tests.
Many people thought that the gains were so high that it couldn’t be true.
So state education officials brought in Professor Daniel Koretz of Harvard and Professor Jennifer Jennings of New York University to review the tests and the scores. They reported that the tests had become too predictable, that too few standards were tested, and that the results were inflated. So in 2010, scores dropped across the state as the scores were adjusted.
Then came the switch to Common Core, and the scores across the state collapsed in 2013. Two-thirds of all students “failed” to reach what the state called proficiency. Parents were furious, especially in districts where the graduation rate was well over 90%, and most students were accepted at good colleges. How did their children go from success to failure in such a short time? How could their children be both college-bound yet not, in the state’s telling, “college ready.”
Well, the main reason scores collapsed was that the state education department insisted on aligning New York’s “proficiency” mark with that of the federal NAEP. This was a huge error. NAEP proficiency is a mark of “solid academic achievement.” It is not a grade-level mark; it is not a passing mark. Typically, only 35-40% of students in every state reach NAEP proficient. In my seven years on the governing board of NAEP, I considered it to be akin to an A or a B+. The only state where as many as 50% of students achieve NAEP proficient is Massachusetts.
So if the Common Core tests are not only harder but have a grading scale that is sure to “fail” more than 50% of all students—including 80% of black and Hispanic students, 97% of English learners, and 95% of students with disabilities–what will the state do with all those kids who are not college and career ready?
Want to know more about how the New York State Education Department has fiddled with the test scores? As activist Leonie Haimson says, “do not trust data from the New York State Education Department.”
Blogger Perdido Street calls for an investigation.
Blogger Lace to the Top expresses frustration at the fluctuation in scores.
Many parents are angry at the state and angry at Pearson for concealing 50% of the questions and for the poor quality of many of the questions that were released.
What a mess!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This raises an old issue we’ve discussed ages ago: NAEPs scores. They suffer fro the same tendency to seek cut-offs that downgrade US education, rather than portray a n honest picture. It’s time to re”norm” them too, to reflect a less biased subjective view of what’s okay.
Confusion! I think I responded. But anyhow. This raises an old issue we discussed some years ago, Diane. NAEP is not all its cooked up to be. It’s one useful value is that it is a sampling instrument that provides us with a constant over may years and is unlikely to be corrupted by prepping. But it fails us by its unrealistic and inappropriate cut-off scores, for which it has been criticized by testing experts we both respect. They too are subjectively biased in their use of proficiency cut off that actually measures some we might call, “superior?” It wouldn’t require even redoing the test–but rather reporting perhaps too sets of scores, one that truly reflects proficiency ad the other “advanced/superior”????
I recently read that Pearson owns both the NEAP and PISA. Is this true?
Those government machinations were mere ologarchial strikes to destroy the existing public school infrastructure. They were making it up as they went along. They weren’t worried about the repercussions down the road-which were obvious to many.
And Arne proclaims a one year “rest” from testing. Hah…this is so that he and his gang can regroup their efforts to take down public schools and test our students to death…for profit.
If NY parents are so baffled and confused, which is perfectly and legitimately their right, then I would like them to clarify their confusion at the polls by not voting for hideous, grotesque, angry, deplorable, and repulsive Andrew Cuomo and by voting for Zephyr Teachout . . .
Parents: Voice yourselves, vote, and be vigilante. The three Vs . . . . .
They’re not doing a very good job explaining the testing in this state.
I didn’t know PARCC was actually two sets of tests, they plan on adding a third component (voluntary, so far) and then there seems to be the potential for one more after that and then there’s the whole “diagnostic assessments” category of the testing system.
Is it getting bigger or was it always planned as a whole system?
I do like that they admit that they can’t promise states won’t use this test to determine whether people graduate from high school, because of course they can’t promise that. That’s state law. They won’t have any control over the tests are used by states, is the truth. Not in high school and not in lower grades. There’s nothing stopping any state from using this test anyway they want. I don’t know if it will be used for the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, for example, to retain third graders, and either does PARCC.
Click to access PARCCFAQ_9-18-2013.pdf
New York state has suspended PARCC testing “indefinitely”. Lack of technological infrastructure and related costs was the main reason given by the BOR/NYSED.
All CC aligned tests here are traditional format, pencil and paper tests written by Pearson.
We don’t do PARCC testing on computers. NY has suspended it commitment to the PARCC consortium. Only one round of testing in April/May.
Thanks for bringing up a very important point regarding PARCC testing. A point that seems to be flying under the radar. TWO rounds of testing are required, two other optional rounds are available. The first is in March/April after 75% of instruction the second is in May/June after 95% of instruction. Hope the air conditioners are working for round 2.
They estimate that BOTH rounds will take 9 hours for the youngest kids, but what was your experience in NY? Did you do both rounds?
I can’t speak for New York, of course, but in Utah the CC tests take 10 hours starting in 3rd grade. This year they are splitting the tests with the essays in February and the rest in April and May. My district has also added world language and social studies testing for at least grades 7 and up. I have to go to a meeting about this at the end of the month and will know more then, but I do know that the social studies testing alone will be about 7.5 additional hours.
They can’t promised that they won’t be used for high stakes decisions, but they can vehemently oppose their use in such a way.
I think parents want to know if the tests are high stakes for students because that obviously makes a huge difference regarding test validity.
They have to know how the tests will be used or they can’t make a good decision.
If I announce I’m going to put in a new driving exam that is much more difficult than the old one, but I tell you it’s “only to determine where you are in your driving expertise and to rank driving instructors” that’s a much different proposition than “the test will be much more difficult and you’re probably keeping your learner’s permit unless you pass”.
There’s a big piece of information missing with the roll-out of these tests. “How will they be used? ”
Utah has apparently decided to use them to rank a huge number of public schools as failing. Were people in Utah told that was a possibility? What does it mean for the kids in those schools?
No, Chiara, people in Utah were NOT told that a huge proportion of schools might fail. I think there will be an uproar as these “grades,” and well as students’ individual scores, come out in October. At least, I HOPE that there is an uproar. Utahns tend to be a pretty laid-back bunch, so I hope that this will actually get Utahns to freak out.
The original school grades were in a bell curve, so it really didn’t matter how a school did, because there were always going to be a few “A” schools, a few “F” schools, and a lot in between. But unless they curve the crap out of these scores this year, no one will be getting “As.” And if they DO curve the thing, the media won’t report that. They’ve been happily reporting that all of these kids are “below proficient,” but NO ONE will define what proficient IS.
NAEP scores are about the only ones I trust, since they are proctored by a disinterested party and have no stakes. Unfortunately, near the end of the Bush administration, I noticed something on the NAEP website I had never noticed before. It had a tool for building practice tests from released items so teachers could have their students rehearse the tests. Those released items are still available. I still trust the NEAP, but I suspect there is much more score pollution inflating recent results than there used to be.
As for setting the proficiency bar too high, we had that same problem in Washington State years ago. We developed the EALR’s, based on what our high achieving students could do. Since we wished all of our students could do these things, these became the standards.
It took many years of dumbing down, changing cut scores, and teaching to the test to bring our WASL scores into an acceptable range. I can’t wait to live through that all over again with Smarter Balanced.
Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. They’ll be taking many of us who know better along for the ride as well.
Why would you trust them if they “have no stakes”. What would lead you to believe that US students would give it there all when the NEAP test, for intents and purposes. does not count?
None of our tests have real stakes for students until high school. There is never a guarantee that kids will do their best. With a large enough sample, student effort should be about the same from year to year. The test may underestimate student capabilities, but it should do it fairly consistently. No stakes tests won’t encourage cheating or other efforts to manipulate scores by teachers and administrators. Therefor we don’t get the huge amounts of score pollution we see driving up state test scores.
Michael,
When I was on the NAEP board, we worried about 12th graders’ lack of motivation to do well on no-stakes test. 4th graders try their best. They don’t know that the tests will not be part of their grade. Seniors know.
Another state doing early testing using CC data, Utah, is also experiencing the same thing. Between 56% and 71% of students “failed” the new testing this year, depending on subject and grade level. The state board of education this week expressed concerns that most schools will be graded with Ds or Fs this year because of the tests, yet our governor, who has no education experience or a college degree, says we need to report these grades anyway. If a teacher was to “fail” more than half of his or her students, she or he would be fired. But it’s okay for the state to label so many students and schools as failing? And the individual scores have yet to come out. Something will hit the fan when that happens, I believe.
http://www.standard.net/Education/2014/09/06/School-grades-going-down-to-raise-the-bar.html
That was inevitable. The national people pushing this never had any control over what states would do with the test results.
I think they’ll regret telling parents that the tests aren’t “high stakes for kids”. They don’t know if the tests will be high stakes for kids. That’s up to our wacky state lawmakers, their lobbyists and whatever fad comes along that ALEC is pushing, like the Third Grade Reading Guarantee 🙂
I think the state decision makers in Utah, at least, knew EXACTLY what these test scores would do. They want parents to think that their schools are “failing,” so that there will be a push for vouchers. Utah voters overwhelmingly turned down vouchers in 2006, and the legislature has been trying to punish teachers and public schools ever since. A bunch of the state legislators either are employed by, or have family employed by, charter managements companies, who are making a killing. I know that’s happening elsewhere, too.
Bottom line- all of this testing is so that big business can say that our public schools are failing. This will then allow the privatization of the process and voila, there is now billions to be made on the backs of our children!
When Campbell Brown appeared on John Stewart she mentioned the only-around-30% pass rate as something that “doesn’t compute” with most teachers in New York being found effective in evaluations. True Campbell! But not in the way you think it is….
Campbell Brown is clueless. The 30% pass rate only applies to math and ELA teachers in grades 3 to 8. The majority of NY teachers (about 70%) do not fall into this data set. The other reason it “does not compute” is because these CC math and ELA scores still only account for 20% of a teacher’s overall HEDI rating. She should do her homework before shooting off her mouth. Hopefully she’ll crawl back under her rock sooner rather than later.
Brown should be invited to take the 8th grade math and ELA tests. Her scores should appear on the 42nd street billboard for all to see.
I think they’re way over-stating the percentage of people who get fired in the private sector.
They have to compare teachers to some other set of employees if they want to discuss this. Their basic argument is bad teachers don’t get fired because of evil labor “bosses”. Well, how many people get fired in a private sector organization or entity year over year? What are we talking about here? Does she really think it’s 70%?
I think it comes from an ideological assumption that the private sector workforce is vastly superior to the public sector workforce. That hasn’t been my experience and I’m in the “private sector”. There’s a small group of people at the top, a big group of people in the middle, and a small group of people who get fired. That’s the private sector.
Maybe they’re using the charter sector, where turnover is 50%? If they’re doing that, they have to pull out “involuntary separation” because that means “fired or laid-off”. High turnover doesn’t necessarily mean “more competitive so better employees” either. Fast food has turnover that can exceed 100% a year. Is that what’s she’s shooting for?
This whole discussion is without context. What group of employees are they comparing teachers who belong to unions TO? I don’t know, physicians, nurses, lawyers, McDonald’s employees, cable tv personalities?
Once again, corporations trying to tell people what they do and do not need to know is akin to corporations being given the ability to elect officials; it tends to best serve the corporations. The fact they have actually narrowed the focus so dramatically to math and ELA demonstrates a compete lack of understanding of differentiation (something that they have been selling us for years). They measure ELA, but don’t measure a student’s ability to navigate two languages. Our ELL population would far exceed a test like that, but that is not considered a critical skill. Or what about music composition? You must be able to dissect poetry, but composing music is void of value in our current educational system? And please don’t get me started on why it is we don’t measure a student’s ability to understand health and nutrition. I am equally astounded by some of the things they do consider critical knowledge in today’s middle level math programs. I actually never did much with mean and median until I was doing quantitative research in a doctoral program. But today’s 7th graders need to be proficient in something I never used until my late forties or they are considered underachieving.
Do we need to ensure students are able to think critically, communicate with a wide range of audiences, get along with others, solve problems and observe and understand the universe? Absolutely. But isn’t that why schools have mission statements, graduate expectations and proficiency based curricula? If we allowed schools to focus on truly teaching our students to meet those, maybe we’d find that all kids actually can be successful.
I’ve seen middle school teachers do very clear lessons on mean using manipulatives to introduce topic, then move on to pencil & paper. There are many real-life tie-ins. Actually, it makes sense to introduce those topics early so future citizens can interpret the “statistics” blithely tossed by public figures. Dr Janet Scheer, who was a respected math teacher educator in NYC, used to speak of “educating children for their future not our past.” Just because your experience didn’t require it doesn’t mean it’s not worth teaching. But I’ve always had reservations about what students must do on standardized tests; as working adults we’re free to open book/dictionary to refresh distinction between mean/median or ask colleague .
Reblogged this on HTA News & Views and commented:
Hamburg has a high grad rate and sends many students to top-notch colleges. Yet Commish King and the rest of the corporate-style reformers are trying to tell parents that their children are not on the path to “College and Career Readiness”. Who do you believe?
I suggest we push for NYSED and Pearson to release data about the test items–specifically, what percent of students passed each item on the test. This should include the released and the non-released items. Anyone with an understanding of test construction and analysis should be able to study this data to determine if the questions were bad or good indicators of student learning. We already know that the many questions only covered a very few standards, and we know most questions really tested test-taking ability more than subject matter mastery. I’m curious to see if there is a pattern to the missed questions. I am also curious to see if the questions that were selected to be released were the ones that more students got right than the ones that weren’t released.