From The Washington Post...

Link to Original Story

The Answer Sheet
Valerie Strauss

The story behind rise in Texas test scores

Good news: Texas schoolchildren performed better on the 2010 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills this year than they did last, according to preliminary results released this month.

Bad news: It turns out that students could pass the test answering fewer questions correctly than in 2009.

For those who want the world to run by the results of standardized tests, the Houston Chronicle’s story behind the story of the gains on the TAKS should be a cautionary lesson in relying too much on test scores and reform driven by “data.” Numbers can lie, and often do, in any field, including education; just ask those folks who believed Bernard Madoff’s investment numbers.

The Chronicle’s story says that the Texas Education Agency changed the rules on the annual test. Students needed to answer fewer questions correctly on most sections, and, in some cases could pass by answering fewer than half of the questions.

Texas education officials told the Chronicle that the questions that were asked were actually harder, so the test was no less difficult than in the past.

Sure.

These are the grades and subjects that are annually tested in Texas public schools:

*Grades 3-9 reading
*Grades 3-10 and exit-level mathematics
*Grades 4 and 7 writing
*Grade 10 and exit-level English language arts (ELA)
*Grades 5, 8, 10 and exit-level science
*Grades 8, 10 and exit-level social studies

According to the agency’s Web site, 82 percent of juniors passed all tests taken, compared with 75 percent in 2009, and of those who didn’t pass all exams this year, most failed only one test.

Among this year’s junior class, 98 percent passed the social studies test, 93 passed the English language arts test, 91 percent passed the science test and 89 passed the math test. Students made particularly strong gains in mathematics and science over 2009 performance levels: Passing rates represent gains of one point in social studies, one point in English, six points in science and eight points in mathematics over 2009 passing levels.

Younger students also did well. Sophomores: The passing rates were 90 percent on English language arts, 74 percent on mathematics, 93 percent on social studies and 74 percent on science. Freshmen: The passing rates were 92 percent on the reading test and 70 percent on the math test. And on and on; down through the grades; in fifth grade, 85 percent of the students passed reading on the first try and 86 percent passed the math test on the first try. Eighty-eight percent of students passed the science test.

With these numbers, you’d think Texas would have one of the country’s most highly touted school systems. It doesn't.

Texas students ranked 34th among 52 states and jurisdictions on test results released earlier this year on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a standardized test given every two years around the country that is sometimes called the “nation’s report card.”

So much for "data."

I don't have much to add, my gal Valerie always does such a good and thorough job!

But...

Did another post last week...entitled "In Defense of Cheating". (Just checked...both posts were the same day, back-to-back episodes!)

The big uproar...the big scandal...how all those incompetent, miscreant teachers would stoop to cheating...for a few dollars more. The writer of the article was appalled...that educators would falsify student test results, implying some horrible damage to the wide-eyed, innocent child!

Yet...

What about the "educators" at the state level in Texas (and elsewhere)...who routinely use their official positions to "revise" the state tests, directly affecting the scores and "performance" of the state's students when the results are reported to the federal government? Some might call THAT cheating.

I would!

Yet, these same state officials will join the masses in pointing fingers at the "lesser educators"...the "lowly teachers"...and demand that "data" collected from these bastardized test scores be used to evaluate, pay, and/or fire teachers.

Guess it's the old "Rank Has Its Privileges"!

In a word...