US Education: Students Pass State Tests But Earn D's on Federal Test

[Astronuc]

I was looking for an appropriate thread in which to post this but didn't find one where this wouldn't get buried. The are allusions to education problems in the US, particularly with respect to the quality. This is very disturbing in my opinion.

Students Ace State Tests, but Earn D's From U.S.
By SAM DILLON, November 26, 2005

After Tennessee tested its eighth-grade students in math this year, state officials at a jubilant news conference called the results a "cause for celebration." Eighty-seven percent of students performed at or above the proficiency level.

But when the federal government made public the findings of its own tests last month, the results were startlingly different: only 21 percent of Tennessee's eighth graders were considered proficient in math.

Such discrepancies have intensified the national debate over testing and accountability, with some educators saying that numerous states have created easy exams to avoid the sanctions that President Bush's centerpiece education law, No Child Left Behind, imposes on consistently low-scoring schools.

A comparison of state test results against the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal test mandated by the No Child Left Behind law, shows that wide discrepancies between the state and federal findings were commonplace.

In Mississippi, 89 percent of fourth graders performed at or above proficiency on state reading tests, while only 18 percent of fourth graders demonstrated proficiency on the federal test. Oklahoma, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Alaska, Texas and more than a dozen other states all showed students doing far better on their own reading and math tests than on the federal one.

The chasm is significant because of the compromises behind the No Child Left Behind law. The law requires states to participate in the National Assessment - known to educators as NAEP (pronounced nape) - the most important federal measure of student proficiency.

But in a bow to states' rights, states are allowed to use their own tests in meeting the law's central mandate - that schools increase the percentage of students demonstrating proficiency each year. The law requires 100 percent of the nation's students to reach proficiency - as each state defines it - by 2014.

Between now and 2014 could mean half a generation getting substandard education, assuming the state achieve any satisfactory level of proficiency.

"Under No Child Left Behind, the states get to set the proficiency bar wherever they like, and unfortunately most are setting it quite low," said Michael J. Petrilli, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which generally supports the federal law.

"They're telling the public in their states that huge numbers of students are proficient, but the NAEP results show that's not the case," Mr. Petrilli said.

This is very worrisome.

G. Gage Kingsbury, director of research at the Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit group that administers tests in 1,500 districts nationwide, said states that set their proficiency standards before No Child Left Behind became law had tended to set them high.

It would seem that the NCLB has backfired. The states have undermined the intent of the law.

South Carolina is a state that set world-class standards, Mr. Kingsbury said. The math tests there are so difficult that only 23 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficiency level this year, compared with 30 percent on the federal math test. South Carolina officials now fear that such rigor is coming back to haunt them.

I would prefer rigorous standards.

Officials in many other states whose scores differed sharply from those of the National Assessment cried foul over the very idea of comparing the results.

"The comparison to NAEP is not fair," said Mitch Edwards, a spokesman for the Department of Education in Alabama, where 83 percent of fourth-grade students scored at or above proficient on the state's reading test while only 22 percent demonstrated proficiency on the federal reading test. "Making comparisons to the NAEP becomes very difficult without giving the impression that some states are not measuring up to others or to the nation."

In Georgia, 83 percent of eighth graders scored at or above proficient on state reading tests, compared with just 24 percent on the federal test. "Kids know the federal test doesn't really count," said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the State Department of Education. "So it's not a fair comparison; it's not apples to apples."

There is need for a Federal Standard, because any child in the US should be able to qualify for admission to a university program anywhere in the US. Certainly children in poorer states will suffer if those states fail to provide adequate resources.

Full article is at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/26/education/26tests.html (registration required, article is free until Saturday, Dec 3).

 

[motai]

The law requires 100 percent of the nation's students to reach proficiency - as each state defines it - by 2014.

100%??! Very few things in today's society can come close to reaching 100% proficiency. There are students who will not try at all, and the quota will never be met. The only way there can be 100% proficiency is if standards are dumbed down so much that everyone passes. But that leads us back to where we started...

 

[Polly]

OmG, I am absolutely speechless...I cannot overstress the importance of education.

Like Motai said the Federal test must already have been so easy that there is a realistic hope of 100% pass rate...

Do you think making the school children wear uniforms and identical school bags, forbidding them to wear make-up will help? As it is in HK, I hear some pre-school kids, kindergarteners, are learning English words like xylophone and (a kind of grass-eating) dinosaurs.

 

[mattmns]

Yeah my old math teachers absolutely hate the no child left behind act; in fact, one of my teachers told me, after I told him I was majoring in math ed, that he hopes by the time I become a teacher this no child left behind crap would be over with. Not only is the 100% mark passing a dream, but also, remember, to get 100% to pass, you have to have 100% take the exam, and at the school my dad teaches at, attendence is the biggest problem. The school's prinicipal has actually said that he will give away a car to a randomly selected student with perfect attendence.

 

[pattylou]

Thank you for the post, Astronuc. I believe that in addition to creating easy tests, teachers are more likely to teach students how to take the test, you know, rather than teaching the material in a rigorous way.

Incidentally, I found the article at this link as well, and this site does not require registration:

http://www.amhersttimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=348&Itemid=27

(And this report gives me a bit of peace for maintaining high standards during my teaching stint, despite ongoing cries from the students that the class shouldn't be so hard. It's hard to have students tell you this repeatedly, and reassuring whenever I see (invarably) that their interests are better served by high academic standards. )