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04 Dec 2006 - 21:19
I have now mentioned ad nauseum the fact that my district no longer gives standardized tests that would provide actionable intelligence to parents or anyone else. We have no idea what our kids' scores mean. Nor does the school have any idea what our kids' scores mean. This is the state's fault, not the school's. The new ELA test is a mess — even the score reports are a mess. Some kids got score reports with one score on one side, a different score on the flip side. At this point the school doubts the validity of either the test or the scoring or both. Not sure. We certainly have no idea whatdecline growth in our children's scores means. Judging by the conversations I'm having, more than a few students seem to have experienced decline growth last year.
But of course there's no way of knowing, because all data in Irvington goes straight to the Data Warehouse.
It's Top Secret!
I'm serious about this. Ed and I have requested subscores for gender and race. The school is not going to give them to us. At some point they'll have to; it's the law. At some point the state of New York will give the data to us — or, alternatively, at some point I'll put on my Girl Reporter cap and go out and get the info myself,then spray paint it on the school wall right next to the statistics about wife-beating.
WAIT!
WAIT!
DID I SAY THAT!
DID I SAY SPRAY PAINT?
Surely not.
[pause]
I will not be spray painting state test subscores on the middle school walls.
Anyway, the main reason I want the gender data is that if there is a large gap between boys and girls on the new ELA test, which I suspect there is (lots of writing on the test; writing typically skews test results to girls) I would be inclined to view the results as incorrect. But since the school has opted to stonewall I will carry on being upset about my son'sdecline growth in ELA scores, and I will carry on encouraging other parents of boys to be upset about their sons' decline growth in ELA scores, too.
This is why political consultants the world around recognize stonewalling as the brilliant form of damage control it so obviously is!
Of course, I can kind of see why the school might not like me getting my hands on the subscores for race. Especially when you take a look at our local achievement gap in years gone by. Irvington is no KIPP.
defensive testing The point is: I need information. Where exactly does Christopher stand? Enter the ITBS, a test favored by E.D. Hirsch. You can order the ITBS from two places:
The ITBS is one long test. About 6 hours worth; 13 separate tests.
wow The science test was so hard I couldn't score it (informally score it, I mean — the tests are scored by computer after you return them). The maps and diagrams test was impossible. Everything else was doable. Ultimately I'll have scores on each separate scale that tell me where Christopher ranks in terms of his fellow-students throughout the country. For the time being, I'm assuming Christopher is fine on reading comprehension. That scale had 46 questions; he missed 6. So we'll see.
what the middle school is doing right The one terrific moment vis a vis our school happened when Christopher took the usage and expression test. He looked at the first couple of questions and said, "Ms. K taught us all this stuff last year." (And she taught it in one semester, too, in his case.) He missed 3 out of 41 That's teaching. The schools here have tremendous teaching talent. What they don't have is a decent curriculum and a focus on academic achievement.
Math was somewhat disheartening. My take is that Christopher is exactly where Ed keeps saying he is: his procedural skills aren't bad, but his comprehension is poor.
I think I'll probably start giving Christopher the ITBS once a year. That's what Jerry Moore at My Short Pencil does.
* I know this thanks to Nick's Mama.
-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Dec 2006 Back to main page.
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I grew up in Michigan where Iowa Tests were given every two years: 4th, 6th and 8th grades. Then in high school there was something called the SCAT-STEP tests given in 10th and 12th. I recall that most of the country relied on the ITBS; don't know about the SCAT-STEP. I remember the ITBS being quite thorough and it took a week of mornings to administer. Glad to hear it's still well-regarded. I haven't seen the questions lately but am willing to bet the math questions are a lot more challenging than what is on the NAEP. -- BarryGarelick - 05 Dec 2006
It's incredibly long &, IMO, thorough. Ed read every question in the social studies. He thought a couple were overly factual, i.e. too trivial. One or two, he felt, didn't really make sense. But that was out of 44 questions. He thought the test was good. I COULDN'T EVEN DO THE SCIENCE TEST! -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Dec 2006
NCLB lets you see how your school is doing compared to other schools, but it doesn't let you see how your child is doing compared to other children. I agree with Catherine ... there's too much focus on school performance and not enough on individual student performance. I also took the Iowa's as a child. I think it gave parents more useful information than state proficiency tests. -- RobynW - 05 Dec 2006
Catherine: How are the ITBS math questions? -- BarryGarelick - 05 Dec 2006
How are the ITBS math questions? let's see..... The computation section was HARD. It was a zillion questions - too many to do in the time allotted, and they warn the student he won't be able to finish. Nothing complicated, but definitely age-appropriate for U.S. kids (every form of fraction & decimal computation; long division, too). There was an estimation section (Christopher did very poorly on that, I thought, proving Ed's contention that he's getting essentially no conceptual understanding at all). The problem solving was quite simple compared to anything one would see in a Singapore 7th grade test, but not horrifying for the U.S. OK, that's wildly unspecific. I'd say the math section was what you'd see in Singapore in....perhaps the 4th grade. This is the 7th grade test. (I'll check - it's conceivable the 7th grade test is as complicated as a Singapore 5th grade test.) It was fine for Singapore gr4, however, if you know what I mean. The problems were well-stated, I thought; genuinely tested the skills involved; etc. It's a serious test that would be given at a much younger age elsewhere. -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
Christopher also declined to a 3 on the state math test! This is a kid taking algebra in 6th grade! Scoring a 3! Save the whales! Actually, his 3 is probably indistinguishable from his bottom of the barrel 4 in 5th grade; the two scores are 6 points apart (plus it's a different test altogether.....) Still, it's ridiculous. This is a SUPER-accelerated course, and we've got kids scoring 3s. IT IS LUDICROUS. There's only so much reteaching I can do; I have to get him through this course; I can't let him simply flunk (and he wouldn't want to do that anyway. At this point, he has a Major Vote, not a Minor Vote.) So...he has to do this course; he has to waste his time doing 10 homework problems, taking a test, then forgetting the material until next year, when he "sees it again." Here's the funny thing. He did extremely well on a couple of the subscales. He got 90 out of 100 on number and operations, 99 out of 100 on "geometry strand," 99 out of 100 on "statistics and probability strand" - and then (you'll love this, Barry), 67 out of 100 on algebra strand, AND A BOFFO 67 OUT OF 100 ON MEASUREMENT STRAND! WE STILL CANNOT DO MEASUREMENT! -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
oh - actually, he was "above the target range" on "algebra strand" -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
good grief "Measurement Strand" cost him his 4 this time. He's above the target range on every strand except freaking Measurement. sigh -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
WE ARE GOING TO DO HUGE BOATLOADS OF MEASUREMENT BETWEEN NOW AND THE NEXT STATE TEST -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
JUST AS SOON AS I FIND OUT WHAT MEASUREMENT IS ACCORDING TO NEW YORK STATE -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
"Students determine what can be measured and how, using appropriate methods and formulas. They u se units to give meaning to measurements and understand that all measurement contains error and are able to determine its significance. They also develop strategies for estimating measurements." -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
I'm sure I've got a worksheet or two to cover that. -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
Barry I found some sample pages from ITBS 6th grade test: ITBS practice booklet Understands Probability (pdf file) single step word problems (pdf file) central tendency (pdf file) teach to the test! (parents' worst fears realized!) Diagnostic Prescriptive Formula (pdf file) -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
The teacher's pages are hilarious. This is EXACTLY what parents think is going on inside schools. I love the injunction to "practice, practice, practice." I believe I'm going to vote 'yay' on re-up NCLB..... -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
Iowa Test of Basic Skills
I have now mentioned ad nauseum the fact that my district no longer gives standardized tests that would provide actionable intelligence to parents or anyone else. We have no idea what our kids' scores mean. Nor does the school have any idea what our kids' scores mean. This is the state's fault, not the school's. The new ELA test is a mess — even the score reports are a mess. Some kids got score reports with one score on one side, a different score on the flip side. At this point the school doubts the validity of either the test or the scoring or both. Not sure. We certainly have no idea what
I'm serious about this. Ed and I have requested subscores for gender and race. The school is not going to give them to us. At some point they'll have to; it's the law. At some point the state of New York will give the data to us — or, alternatively, at some point I'll put on my Girl Reporter cap and go out and get the info myself,
[pause]
I will not be spray painting state test subscores on the middle school walls.
Anyway, the main reason I want the gender data is that if there is a large gap between boys and girls on the new ELA test, which I suspect there is (lots of writing on the test; writing typically skews test results to girls) I would be inclined to view the results as incorrect. But since the school has opted to stonewall I will carry on being upset about my son's
Of course, I can kind of see why the school might not like me getting my hands on the subscores for race. Especially when you take a look at our local achievement gap in years gone by. Irvington is no KIPP.
defensive testing The point is: I need information. Where exactly does Christopher stand? Enter the ITBS, a test favored by E.D. Hirsch. You can order the ITBS from two places:
The ITBS is one long test. About 6 hours worth; 13 separate tests.
- vocabulary
- reading comprehension
- spelling
- capitalization
- punctuation
- usage and expression
- math concepts and estimation
- math problem solving and data interpretation
- math computation
- social studies
- science
- maps and diagrams
- reference materials
wow The science test was so hard I couldn't score it (informally score it, I mean — the tests are scored by computer after you return them). The maps and diagrams test was impossible. Everything else was doable. Ultimately I'll have scores on each separate scale that tell me where Christopher ranks in terms of his fellow-students throughout the country. For the time being, I'm assuming Christopher is fine on reading comprehension. That scale had 46 questions; he missed 6. So we'll see.
what the middle school is doing right The one terrific moment vis a vis our school happened when Christopher took the usage and expression test. He looked at the first couple of questions and said, "Ms. K taught us all this stuff last year." (And she taught it in one semester, too, in his case.) He missed 3 out of 41 That's teaching. The schools here have tremendous teaching talent. What they don't have is a decent curriculum and a focus on academic achievement.
Math was somewhat disheartening. My take is that Christopher is exactly where Ed keeps saying he is: his procedural skills aren't bad, but his comprehension is poor.
- mathematics problem solving and data interpretation MISSED: 3 out of 35 (91% correct)
- mathematics computation - hmmm... I didn't record my scoring .... he wasn't great on computation (back to KUMON?)
- mathematics concepts and estimation MISSED: 14 out of 52 (73% correct)
I think I'll probably start giving Christopher the ITBS once a year. That's what Jerry Moore at My Short Pencil does.
* I know this thanks to Nick's Mama.
-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Dec 2006 Back to main page.
Comments
After entering a comment, users can login anonymously as KtmGuest (password: guest) when prompted.Please consider registering as a regular user.
Look here for syntax help.
I grew up in Michigan where Iowa Tests were given every two years: 4th, 6th and 8th grades. Then in high school there was something called the SCAT-STEP tests given in 10th and 12th. I recall that most of the country relied on the ITBS; don't know about the SCAT-STEP. I remember the ITBS being quite thorough and it took a week of mornings to administer. Glad to hear it's still well-regarded. I haven't seen the questions lately but am willing to bet the math questions are a lot more challenging than what is on the NAEP. -- BarryGarelick - 05 Dec 2006
It's incredibly long &, IMO, thorough. Ed read every question in the social studies. He thought a couple were overly factual, i.e. too trivial. One or two, he felt, didn't really make sense. But that was out of 44 questions. He thought the test was good. I COULDN'T EVEN DO THE SCIENCE TEST! -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Dec 2006
NCLB lets you see how your school is doing compared to other schools, but it doesn't let you see how your child is doing compared to other children. I agree with Catherine ... there's too much focus on school performance and not enough on individual student performance. I also took the Iowa's as a child. I think it gave parents more useful information than state proficiency tests. -- RobynW - 05 Dec 2006
Catherine: How are the ITBS math questions? -- BarryGarelick - 05 Dec 2006
How are the ITBS math questions? let's see..... The computation section was HARD. It was a zillion questions - too many to do in the time allotted, and they warn the student he won't be able to finish. Nothing complicated, but definitely age-appropriate for U.S. kids (every form of fraction & decimal computation; long division, too). There was an estimation section (Christopher did very poorly on that, I thought, proving Ed's contention that he's getting essentially no conceptual understanding at all). The problem solving was quite simple compared to anything one would see in a Singapore 7th grade test, but not horrifying for the U.S. OK, that's wildly unspecific. I'd say the math section was what you'd see in Singapore in....perhaps the 4th grade. This is the 7th grade test. (I'll check - it's conceivable the 7th grade test is as complicated as a Singapore 5th grade test.) It was fine for Singapore gr4, however, if you know what I mean. The problems were well-stated, I thought; genuinely tested the skills involved; etc. It's a serious test that would be given at a much younger age elsewhere. -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
Christopher also declined to a 3 on the state math test! This is a kid taking algebra in 6th grade! Scoring a 3! Save the whales! Actually, his 3 is probably indistinguishable from his bottom of the barrel 4 in 5th grade; the two scores are 6 points apart (plus it's a different test altogether.....) Still, it's ridiculous. This is a SUPER-accelerated course, and we've got kids scoring 3s. IT IS LUDICROUS. There's only so much reteaching I can do; I have to get him through this course; I can't let him simply flunk (and he wouldn't want to do that anyway. At this point, he has a Major Vote, not a Minor Vote.) So...he has to do this course; he has to waste his time doing 10 homework problems, taking a test, then forgetting the material until next year, when he "sees it again." Here's the funny thing. He did extremely well on a couple of the subscales. He got 90 out of 100 on number and operations, 99 out of 100 on "geometry strand," 99 out of 100 on "statistics and probability strand" - and then (you'll love this, Barry), 67 out of 100 on algebra strand, AND A BOFFO 67 OUT OF 100 ON MEASUREMENT STRAND! WE STILL CANNOT DO MEASUREMENT! -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
oh - actually, he was "above the target range" on "algebra strand" -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
good grief "Measurement Strand" cost him his 4 this time. He's above the target range on every strand except freaking Measurement. sigh -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
WE ARE GOING TO DO HUGE BOATLOADS OF MEASUREMENT BETWEEN NOW AND THE NEXT STATE TEST -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
JUST AS SOON AS I FIND OUT WHAT MEASUREMENT IS ACCORDING TO NEW YORK STATE -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
"Students determine what can be measured and how, using appropriate methods and formulas. They u se units to give meaning to measurements and understand that all measurement contains error and are able to determine its significance. They also develop strategies for estimating measurements." -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
I'm sure I've got a worksheet or two to cover that. -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
Barry I found some sample pages from ITBS 6th grade test: ITBS practice booklet Understands Probability (pdf file) single step word problems (pdf file) central tendency (pdf file) teach to the test! (parents' worst fears realized!) Diagnostic Prescriptive Formula (pdf file) -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
The teacher's pages are hilarious. This is EXACTLY what parents think is going on inside schools. I love the injunction to "practice, practice, practice." I believe I'm going to vote 'yay' on re-up NCLB..... -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Dec 2006
| WebLogForm | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Iowa Test of Basic Skills |
| TopicType: | WebLog |
| SubjectArea: | AssessmentTests, ParentsTeachingKids |
| LogDate: | 200612041520 |