The state of Connecticut finally released the results of the Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment.
As expected, most students in Connecticut “failed.”
As I previously explained, the developers of the tests chose a passing mark that was designed to fail most students.
On the federal NAEP, Connecticut is one of the highest scoring states in the nation. Its failure rates were not as bad as in other states. But even so, a majority of students in every grade did not reach “proficient.”
Failure by design.
Time for parents in Connecticut to opt out in 2016.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Astonishing… we’re seeing the same percentages of “failures” across the country. What a coinkydink. How is it that almost all sovereign states in this great union have close to 70% of their kids lacking in proficiency? It can’t be the air… or the drinking water… or the mountains… or oceans…. or the teachers…. Hmmmmmmm…..
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And the rollout of these scores is one reason why the promoters of the Common Core are saturating the news media in every which way with varieties of spin to prop up the Common Core and associated tests. The standards that are so perfect they had to be used verbatim by everyone.
And that included the test designers who, from the get -go of their federal funding, promised Arne Duncan that the PARCC and the SBAC scores would be comparable. So that is another reason why all of our kids who took those tests are failing… Handy way to close more public schools.
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YUP.
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The CCSS and the PARCC and Smarter Balance assessments are presumably designed to address and test “college and career readiness.” Who could be against students being ready for college and/or a career? But whether that lofty goal is common, definable in its precise meaning, and actually measurable is another matter. Is there a real test performance threshold that is applicable across such a complex goal? Is there any evidence that the thresholds set by the two consortia are any better predictors of college and career success than NAEP, SAT, ACT or high school grades?
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We absolutely have to stop saying “college and career” in the same breath. They are two different things, both with plenty of different meanings. Is a “career” strictly a “professional” level career that requires some sort of college? If so, by definition, one can’t be “college and career ready” because you’re not ready for the career until after the college (and, possibly, grad school). Or is “career” any sort of gainful employment? Is Wal-Mart cashier a “career”? Welder? Truck driver? Construction worker? Secretary? In which case, why are we equating “college ready” with “career ready” when most such “careers” don’t require college? (But most such “careers” do require a high school diploma, which we are denying to people who are otherwise perfectly capable of holding a job, thereby denying them a way to make a living.)
And what is “college ready”? Ready for Harvard? The Sorbonne? A state university? A city or community college? A trade apprenticeship?
With the way the cut scores are being set, “college and career ready” really means ready for at least a state university. If we base high school graduation requirements on a college ready standard, what are we going to do with all the people who aren’t college ready and therefore can’t graduate and therefore can’t get a job?
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Well, I guess I am guilty of that which I have argued against, using the framing of those with whom I disagree. (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/11/19/how-to-reframe-the-educational-reform-debate/) College and Career is one of those deceiving catch phrases. Supporters of equitable democratic education need a new framing. I agree that coming up with one measure across such a broad range is a foolish undertaking… unless, of course, that isn’t the real goal of the metrics. Of course, education should prepare students for the potential for success across a wide range of post-secondary undertakings. Of course, adults should not decide prematurely who is ready for what. Of course, the problem is not that astrophysics requires different knowledge and capabilities than stocking shelves at Walmart. The problem is that who does what is decided for kids and a job at Walmart does not pay a living wage.
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“We absolutely have to stop saying “college and career” in the same breath. They are two different things, both with plenty of different meanings.”
My experience has been that, at least in my district, “career” is pretty clearly code for “community college”. We cut all the programs that prepared students to enter skilled trades right out of high school.
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In my experience at the high school I taught at, “college and career readiness” meant students had to hit certain benchmarks on the state-mandated ACT test.
Additionally, students who performed well (for the sake of a number, let’s say that a composite score of 22 and above qualified to be “college/career ready) who all decided to attend local state universities were all told their decisions to choose these universities were poor ones, because “they could do better”. These are all students who are very hard-working and will become anything they want. I am so happy I had the opportunity to motivate and teach these kiddos actual content they signed up to learn, as it will prove to help my kids in college (and I know it has, because these kiddos have tested out of remedial courses – not because their test scores were deemed them “college/career ready”, but because they worked hard to learn all course content expectations).
What’s the true measure of “college and career readiness”? Well, it depends on the college and it depends on the career. I quit teaching, a career I loved and was/still am passionate about to pursue engineering. What’s common with many of the new-hire engineers at the engineering company I work for? It wasn’t our scores on the ACT (and since we’re all relatively young and close in age, we had these conversations). Our ACT scores were anywhere from the low 20s to the low 30s. More importantly, we are all motivated people who had a knack for math and science, had high GPAs, studied to get the grades we needed, networked, and all attended local state universities. Another common thing is that we all attended decent public high schools that didn’t water down standards too much and weren’t “data-driven”. We were expected to learn what was required, and, for the most part, did. Obviously there may have been some curving, etc., but our schools were far from perfect. Of course some teachers were better than others, other teachers were more helpful than others, etc., but our courses weren’t too watered down to the point where we weren’t receiving the education we needed to thrive at university. Another common thing is that none of us took remedial courses either. Interestingly, many of us came from college-educated parents, too, with the exception of me. I came from a mother who didn’t work and a step-father who worked on the assembly line for Ford.
I have many friends who dropped out of high school and attended local alternative high schools who chose to work in local trades after graduation (plumbing, automotive assembly work, etc.) who are all doing very well. What is common with these friends? They are hard working people who weren’t that interested in “advanced courses”, taking the ACT, etc. They liked working with their hands and wanted to get a job after graduating high school. These friends of mine also came from parents who also worked in the trades and who weren’t college educated. By the way, some of these folks did well on the ACT, earned decent grades, and are very intelligent.
Obviously my accounts are biased, based on my experiences, but what is common between both groups of people above? Working hard and the interest in pursuing whatever it is they pursued.
I guess the whole point I’m making is that a standardized test score, whether it’s the ACT, some Common Core assessment, etc., won’t determine much, and it certainly doesn’t determine “college/career readiness”. Schools need to be restructured to meet the needs of all our students and help foster and develop talents. This “data-driven” and testing culture, in general, is not helping to develop students to be productive members of our society. That’s the point of a public education, isn’t it?
Sorry for the book 🙂
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Perhaps they should give a typing/keyboarding test to pass for career and college readiness. Perhaps they should give a basic math test, adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplying, to pass for career readiness, and a spelling test and a reading/comprehension test. This doesn’t even go into social studies, history, science, etc. They have made the tests, from what I hear, so ridiculously difficult to comprehend and pass, that they aren’t measuring anything except the failure they are intend to create/measure.
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In a better world than the one that we inhabit, the asking of such questions would be an Emperor’s New Clothes sort of moment. Keep asking, Arthur.
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Bob. Where have you been? 🙂
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Arthur,
“Who could be against students being ready for college and/or a career?”
I could be because that status-college and career readiness” may or not meet the purpose of public education. We need to discern the fundamental purpose of education. And that is not necessarily that easy of a thing to do as it entails looking at each state’s constitution to distinguish and ascertain said purpose.
I doubt, or I should say, I know that no constitution states anything approaching “career and college ready”.
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to redo all the work I have done on those constitutional purposes as my one computer died and my techie hasn’t been able to retrieve it-along with a lot of other writings. Ay ay ay! Memo to self-Always back my stuff up somewhere other than on the hard drive.
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Diane, based on that report which goes from a 52% failure rate in 3rd grade to a 69% failure rate in 11th, it appears Connecticut teachers are subtracting value! Negative VAMs. Time to fire every one of those teachers!!!!
Just kidding. Well maybe fire 5% of them, no?
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What are you saying fire teachers? Blasphemy. That is against the law around here!!!
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No, the blasphemy is the war against the REAL public schools and the real public school teachers. The blasphemy is the demonization, scapegoating and swift boating of unionized public school teachers. Of course you will never admit to that blasphemy because of your obvious biases.
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Raj, I sincerely wish you knew what it is like for a dedicated teacher to immerse students in worthwhile lessons/activities; determine appropriate homework; handle parent communication/report cards/record keeping; and maintain student interest & discipline during 6 to 7 student contact hours a day. With suitable pacing for 10-month school year as you planned.
Did you attend K-12 public schools in the US? Do you have children who did?
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Just a few days ago Raj claimed that he was never rude to the people here. I suppose sarcasm doesn’t count, eh?
The good news is we won’t be hearing the “I am above the rest of you” argument any time soon from him.
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Fire ’em all. Do an experiment where we have “no teachers”.
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Which 5%? You just don’t get it do you vsgp.
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I’m with you, let’s follow the example of Nevada, Arizona & Kansas. Replace all of them with uncertified, babysitters. THAT will improve everything!!!!
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Keep firing. Pretty soon all teachers will be above average.
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I always thought that teachers were above average just like kids in Lake Woebegone.
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It is the goofiness of Reformers. Somehow firing a percent of teachers every year produces a quality workforce. Since the VAM methodologies are nearly random, it becomes a job lottery. Good luck competing globally when learning is a game of chance.
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I’ve met many quality teachers, and many poor ones. What will bring quality teachers into school districts is better pay. Every great teacher I have ever met who started teaching careers are now in different industries. What made them leave? Their 33k – 37k starting salaries, no raises, and having to pay higher and higher premiums for health insurance. Oh – and don’t forget the 5% – 10% cuts.
Is pay the only factor? Absolutely not. If the pay were on par with other industries, there would not be such a shortage of teachers (especially in the inner city districts) and schools would have more of a candidate pool to choose that “perfect” teacher. I’m overgeneralizing here, obviously 🙂
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“. . . above average.” Or below in the ground!
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No surprise that Westport, Darien, Weston, Wilton, New Canaan all scored well above average. They must have the BEST teachers. How about placing them in a school in Bridgeport?
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concerned mom, I’m not sure I follow. Those scores are achievement scores. VAMs measure growth among similar students. If you have VAM scores for these districts, then we might be able to make comparisons.
However, my understanding is that due to the new tests, more data was needed for a couple of years to make reliable (and yes I mean reliable) growth scores. Until that time comes, the “pass” rates primarily indicate how affluent those districts are.
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Bingo. I love it when people say “Affluent Parent Index” for API instead of the official “Academic Performance Index”.
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VGSP,
“However, my understanding is that due to the new tests, more data was needed for a couple of years to make reliable (and yes I mean reliable) growth scores.”
Brian,
That reliability is inexorably linked with validity, the two can’t be separated. Since the tests have already been proven to be INVALID by Wilson, there can’t be any reliability.
Plain and simple, the way it should be, eh, Brian!?!
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Best teachers? Or students motivated by parents? Or both?
So many variables! These kiddos are obviously college and career ready 😀
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The metrics make no sense. There is zero evidence that setting the proficiency level so mind bogglingly high is the bare minimum (or even the right skills being measured ) for college readiness.
Without that we are denying people academic advancement who could very well be ready – what college subscribes to these standards as being the bare minimum and is willing to exclude students based on these tests?
What about tying student loans to them? That can’t be far off the radar either.
With so much evidence of how discriminatory these tests are, we should hold so many failures as suspect.
The bar could be lowered to allow more to pass while still keeping an eye on how students are doing because you wouldn’t run into a huge ceiling effect.
When you force so many failures knowing full well the students haven’t had a decade of the full curriculum plus the questions about the validity, the cut scores and conversion charts become political tools being wielded against educators and students in the guise of objective measurement.
Mathturbation should join the OED next
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I’ve always told myself that parenthetical thoughts are important and need to be read along and understood with the rest of the text. Keeping that in mind M wrote:
“(or even the right skills being measured )”
First off there is nothing being “measured” in these educational malpractices. And those “right skills” suffer all sorts of construct validity problems/issues in regard to being what they are supposed to be assessing.
As you rightly referred to SDP’s term, it is Mental Mathturbation (a derivative of mental masturbation, a term that I’ve used that has gotten me in big deep do-do in the past!)
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in the first sentence “myself” is supposed to be “my students”.
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I have the greatest idea. Lets measure by weight. All kids between ages X to X in whatever grade, based on their heights, should weigh X. If they weigh spot on, they pass. If they weigh less or more, they fail. Seems about right to me.
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That or a height measurement that our Director of Elementary Education spoke of decades ago when a Nation at Risk came out. Put the bar at an average level or some such thing and those who could not measure up failed.
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So good luck every other state, if Connecticut is considered one of the best and brightest, what can the rest of us expect? And if they fire every teacher with a failing class good luck getting new teachers with this giant teacher shortage!
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I don’t think it matters for public schools. There’s been zero interest in the new standards in Ohio – how they actually operate in public schools, advantages, disadvantages – and there will continue to be zero interest in the new standards.
Ed reform was always all about the test scores and nothing changed with the Common Core testing.
Let the test score analysis wars begin. Now we can do cool stuff like pit “low performing outer ring suburban children” against “high performing rural district children” and so on and so forth, in some final epic battle for “resources”.
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Weren’t we assured by these people they wouldn’t do exactly what they’re doing?
“Fewer than 40 percent of students statewide got a passing grade in math on a new, tough test linked to the Common Core curriculum standards results released Friday show.
The news in language arts was better, with 55.4 percent of students statewide meeting or exceeding the achievement levels set on the much anticipated and controversial test known as the Smarter Balance Assessment, or SBAC.”
A passing grade!
In 6 months they’ll be wondering why the public ranks kids on a 1-4 scale, and everyone involved with this will deny responsibility. Arne Duncan will be outraged and sternly scold us that we have ONCE AGAIN failed to meet his expectations 🙂
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Common-Core-test-results-way-down-statewide-6471264.php
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As I; have posted before, I personally could care less about these test scores. Because a child can parrot that which the government says is truth does not necessarily mean he has any idea of the concepts pertaining thereof nor even the veracity of that which politicians in or out of the education field proclaim as truth.. [I HATED to see what Tony Bennett, Indiana’s head educational political honcho ideas of what should be on test scores no matter how many doctorates he had.]
Again, people have twisted academic achievement – however and at what level – with education. They are NOT synonymous terms. History’s greatest teachers, minds, have concentrated not on written test scores but on the SEARCH FOR ultimate good, truth, beauty, on integrity etc. Who am I as a HUMAN being, not as a widget capable of doing the bidding of a corporate CEO.
Are society’s greatest needs now high test scores or even high academic achievement but greater integrity, ability for critical thinking, humanitarian ideals such as our history’s greatest minds have ;proclaimed? Can ANY written test score identify these traits? When I view what is happening in the world today my choice becomes obvious.
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Test scores, teacher rankings, school letter grades – it really is a superficial, simple minded view of education to the Reformers. Nice and easy to read without the annoying effort required to really understand learning and classrooms. I am convinced most Americans could care less about schools as long as they are cheap.
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Now we can use these yet scores to…. raise test scores. Hmmm. Insanity continues. It really is just a sad, sad game to Reformers.
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No matter where they bring developmentally-inappropriate exams and flawed assessment model, all they get is “SITYS.” People will say, SCREW US, CT CC!”
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All the experts predicted that about two thirds or so of students would fail the inappropriate tests with the rigged cut scores. Their predictions are fairly accurate so Connecticut parents should look out for what is in the best interests of their children and opt out.
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No wonder test developers are receiving an F for their poor understanding of what they products are all about.
Perhaps they read this and re-learn what tests can and cannot measure, and how their ostentatiously promoted designs are inherently flawed.
http://www.jiem.co.jp/en/concept/
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Ken,
Considering that JIEM is a company that is in the thrall of the educational measurement idiology* what they say stays well within the boundaries of that idiology. Shouldn’t expect any different, eh!
*idiology (n.) 1. Any ideology based on errors and falsehoods 2. The ideology of idiots.
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Duane,
Point taken. The company is doing test-development business. However, one big difference is that they are not dumb enough to market egregiously defected products like Pearson does. They are at least smarter than dime-a-dozen staff and employees working at giant test company.
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My people have experience with this issue dating back decades, if not centuries, if not millennia. There’s no fighting it. Colleagues, just let them tattoo your score on your forearm and send you to the concentration camp. Big Data rules.
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I’ve noticed many contradictions to Godwin’s Law on the site “to discuss a better education for all”. Perhaps it’s time that Godwin’s law is rightfully rejected and be ridiculed for the idiology that it is.
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Time for the children or grandchildren of our elected officials to take these tests, and the private school kids. Better yet, let’s just have ALL of the politicians take them! Enough is ENOUGH!
It’s simply mind boggling how “stupid” our kids have apparently become, overnight!
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“Better yet, let’s just have ALL of the politicians take them!”
A la Henny Youngman, eh!!
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So I submit an honest, proper review of a product to one of the big box hardware stores. The popular product was terribly defective and unsafe. No surprise, the review was rejected. This is typical “run the schools like a business” mentality we see in education. Reject transparency, skew the data towards a positive spin for Reformers, negative spin towards teachers and students, bob and weave. Big data based on flawed tests. Does anybody with sense really believe Donald Trump cares about strengthening the middle class? Or Kasich and Cuomo want “excellent teachers”? Or some billionaire is concerned about the next generation? Or a two hour test reflects a year’s worth of teaching? Are voters that gullible?
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I don’t know about other countries but in this country we love, love, love numerical rankings. That kind of (reductive) analysis is WILDLY popular. It’s everywhere- top ten lists, best places to live, best college majors, the obsession with polling on anything and everything- if there’s a way to attach a number and generate a ranked list, we do it.
It’s one of the reasons I question the “data will save us all” crowd.
If generating numbers and making lists made a great country, this country would be Number One on all indicators – we do it constantly and we apply it to everything.
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Next year in CT, the SBAC is being replaced by none other than the new, CC-aligned SAT. I’m sure that David “I don’t give a s**t” Coleman is thrilled.
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There will always be a bottom 5% and the reformers love that – keep firing, keep replacing with temp TFAs, keep closing public schools and opening charters. When they’re done firing 5% of the teachers that count (TFA doesn’t count you know), there will only be charters staffed with uncertified temp workers. Kaching for the administrators and corporate school owners. The work of the reformers will be done.
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Donna, do you understand the difference between what a “normal distribution” and a “Poisson distribution” is? A Poisson is what is likely to result when you fire the bottom 5%. After that, no need to keep firing. At least not the existing teachers if they keep performing.
Is that really your argument? Seriously?
Come on, Diane, at least let this one through.
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I am happy to report that 76% of the high school students in Regional District 19, in which I live, opted out of the SBAC. It even made the front page of our local newspaper.
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Excellent. The school where my wife teaches not far from you was right behind you in opt out numbers.
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I get so angry when I read this stuff. My daughter with special needs is struggling to pass regents in NY state to get a high school diploma
I think there are 3 important points to remember
1) People who have truly made their mark on the world would have failed the common core because it does not tap into critical or creative thinking. Think Thomas Edison who the story goes was asked to leave school because of his slowness or Albert Einstein who failed algebra or many of the people with various learning challenges who had skills that the exam doesn’t test.
2) I read a New York Times article about Eva Moscowitz”s Success Academy. She prides herself on her high scores. She gets that by constant test prep, humiliating kids publicly who don’t do well and by having a large attrition rate. What I got from the description of the school is that children are trained to think that there is one right answer that they must discover in order to please an external authority. Perfect training for corporate drones.
3) I agree that it should be publicly pointed out that the expensive private schools don’t don’t use common core and are exempted from testing. Bill Gate’s and Arne Duncan’s kids don’t go to schools that use it..
What’s the problem here? Isn’t the common core great at helping kids get college ready? If so, why don’t these knowledgeable and wealthy people want their kids to get the benefit of it? Could it be that their kids are not smart enough to pass it? Are they trying to keep from the American public that the children of the elite are a group of Dullards? (You know there is a lot of in bringing) OR maybe they’re lying and Common Core is not so good.
A modest Proposal: remove exemption from private schools about annual standardized testing and the Common Cores. Test all kids .
I think that a list of all state legislators, congressman, senators, governors mayors and top education officials and top corporate reformers who have school aged children should be promulgated. The list should signify whether not children attend public, private or charter schools, whether their school administers annual standardized tests and uses Common Core and whether they are supporters of Corporate reform . There should be questions if there are contradictions with their position and their educational choices.
Just my thoughts
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