This passage comes to us from "the education team at The Journal News," which has started a new education blog.

The reason the steady decline in scores leaps off the page, btw, is that the state Department of Education put out press releases saying so.

So we turned to the question of a middle school slump in Irvington.

It seems to be the consensus view of the administration and the Board (the Board president, at least) that there isn't one. Irvington students do fine until 8th grade, when they experience a sudden drop.

I wasn't following the presentation as closely as I could have by then; Ralph may have cited consistently high TONYSS scores in Grades 5, 6, & 7 over the years, although I didn't hear him if he did.

The TONYSS situation is a big mess anyway as far as I'm concerned. The TONYSS (Test of New York State Standards) is a privately created and marketed test NY schools used to administer in off-years (grades 5, 6, & 7). We parents were never given any comparison data whatsoever; the scales weren't explained; no sample questions were available, etc. The TONYSS are a complete mystery to me and everyone I know.

So even if he did cite off-year TONYSS scores, it wouldn't have cleared anything up for me.

The 8th grade test, Ralph said, was for some reason "more difficult" than any of the other tests & thus tells us nothing of value about our schools or our kids. We know this because, as he said, "Look at the Regents [exit] scores. They're very high. Everyone goes down in 8th grade. In 11th grade they're back." That last is a direct quote. “In 11th grade they’re back.”

"I can attest to that," the board president said, breaking in. His kids' scores had gone down in the 8th grade and then bounced back in the 11th. It is a universal phenomenon; it happens to everyone.

"The 8th grade test is unnecessarily difficult," Ralph agreed.

And that was that.

When the audience was finally allowed to ask questions one parent said, "Shouldn't the state be looking at itself? Shouldn't the state be asking itself why it's giving kids a test this difficult that isn't in line with the other tests?"

Ralph was mild and forebearing. He had nothing bad to say about the state, or the tests, or the 504C kids who moved into the district and depressed our scores. It was left to the audience to work up a case of indignation against the state and its outlier test. Which I suppose we did.



the bounce

Ralph being the fellow who told the PTSA president that "parents" were complaining about my Singapore math class as he closed it down, I think I'll just go ahead and say that a great deal of his presentation strikes me as nonsense on stilts.

Especially the bit about the bouncing scores.

Scores do not bounce.

Reading scores in particular do not bounce.

The Regents' test, which determines whether a student does or does not earn a diploma, is not comparable to the 8th grade test, which prior to NCLB determined nothing.

It is extremely difficult politically to impose tough exit exams, as Ed learned when he worked on exit exams in history/social studies in CA. When large numbers of 17 year olds are denied a high school diploma because they failed an exit exam, there’s an uproar.

When large numbers of 13 year olds hose the 8th grade test there isn't.

That's the difference.

Here is Chester Finn on cut scores in exit exams:

As if the official passing score of 55 on the state's Regents exams were not low enough, the Buffalo News reported this week that students needed to answer just 33 percent of the questions correctly to achieve that score on the Regents exam in biology, and 45 percent of the questions in math.

[snip]

Should a state be ashamed of setting a passing score this low? Not necessarily, so long as the assessment is good and the "cut score" isn't going to remain low forever. Developing a tough test but setting the initial passing bar low can be a shrewd reform strategy, provided the bar is then continually raised. A state that has high expectations for students spelled out in rigorous academic standards--and solid tests aligned with these standards--has taken important steps toward standards-based reform. Yet--regrettably but realistically--many of today's students are not prepared to meet high standards. This leaves states with three tough options: 1) flunk lots of students, 2) offer easy tests that most students can pass, or 3) offer challenging tests but set cut scores low at the outset, then ratchet them up. Option three may be the most likely to lead to improved instruction. New York claims that next year the cut score goes up to 65. Some doubt that this will actually happen. Watch this space.

source: Gadfly 2001