New FairTest E-Examiner Newsletter

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

FairTest Examiner 	August 2006

In this issue


FairTest Mission Statement <#column>

Nebraska Addresses Federal NCLB Requirements <#article1.bg1>

NCLB Not Closing Test Score Gaps <#article1.bg2>

Exit Exams Decrease Graduation Rates <#article2.bg1>

Parents Use Federal Law to Challenge Florida Test Secrecy <#article2.bg2>

Test Critic's Belated Victory <#article3.bg1>

Suspensions Used to Game Test Results <#article3.bg2>

Cheating <#article4.bg1>

Helpful and Harmful School Reform in Chicago <#article4.bg2>

Teacher Quality Important, But Cannot Overcome Poverty <#article5.bg1>

Harder to "Fly High" than Ed Trust Claims <#article5.bg2>

Lessons from Early Childhood Accountability Efforts <#article6.bg1>

With Reauthorization on the Horizon, NCLB Reform Bills Pile Up 
<#article6.bg2>

Hickok's Misplaced Outrage <#article7.bg1>

ACT/SAT Exodus Accelerates <#article7.bg2>

SAT Scoring Error Cover-Up Continues <#article8.bg1>

Scores from "New" Sat Expected to Dip <#article8.bg2>

Not Ready For "Prime Time" -- New GRE Postponed <#article9.bg1>

Redux: Test Coaching Works <#article9.bg2>

College Board Salaries Soar Despite Test Problems <#article10.bg1>

African American Legislators Endorse Teacher-Test Alternatives 
<#article10.bg2>



FairTest Mission Statement

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) advances quality 
education and equal opportunity by promoting fair, open, valid and 
educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools. 
FairTest also works to end the misuses and flaws of testing practices 
that impede those goals.

FairTest's Board and Staff (link) 
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FairTest is funded with support from the Bay and Paul Foundation, Ford 
Foundation, Polk Brothers Foundation, Rockefeller Family Foundation, 
Schott Foundation, Shefa Fund, United Church of Christ, Wiener 
Educational Foundation, Woods Fund of Chicago, and individual contributors.

Cartoons As an electronic newsletter, the FairTest Examiner no longer 
includes cartoons. We intend to provide links to cartoons, however, and 
in future issues we will include ones we find (some new, some old). Feel 
free to send us links to your favorites. Susan Ohanian's website often 
links to cartoons, not all pertaining to testing, at http://susanohanian.org
/show_nclb_cartoons.html 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.g87l7vbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fsusanohanian.org%2Fshow_nclb_cartoons.html>. 


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Thank You; Please Continue To Support FairTest's Work

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# Nebraska Addresses Federal NCLB Requirements
	

Nebraska is one of several states the federal government has threatened 
with sanctions, including losing funds to implement No Child Left Behind 
mandates, if they do not make changes to their assessment programs or 
provide additional documentation about why they should be approved. 
Because Nebraska is the only one with a program composed of local 
assessments, the federal demands potentially undermine the most 
promising state assessment system in the nation. In response, FairTest 
has joined with other organizations in sending letters to US Secretary 
of Education Margaret Spellings supporting Nebraska and urging the 
Department of Education (DOE) to use that state as a model, rather than 
undermine it.

	Full article here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.ls76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FNebraska.html> 


# NCLB Not Closing Test Score Gaps
	

A new report by the Harvard Civil Rights Project (HCRP) compares results 
on state and national tests to see whether the federal No Child Left 
Behind (NCLB) law is improving achievement and narrowing gaps, as 
claimed by U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and others. After 
an extensive analysis of scores on the National Assessment of 
Educational Progress (NAEP) and state tests, the report concluded that 
NCLB has not caused achievement to improve significantly, nor have gaps 
been narrowed. This finding reinforces an earlier FairTest analysis of 
NAEP results.

	Full article here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.ns76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FNCLB_Not_Closing_Gaps.html> 


# Exit Exams Decrease Graduation Rates
	

Two recent studies report striking evidence that exit exams decrease 
high school completion rates, increase GED test taking, and exacerbate 
inequalities in educational attainment. One paper concludes tests cause 
a two percent increase in the dropout rate, which could mean more than 
40,000 students per year nationally are denied a diploma. Both reports 
found that the tougher the test, the more the dropouts. A third paper 
confirms an increase in dropouts in Virginia, particularly for Blacks 
and Latinos. And California has now denied diplomas to 20,000 students 
solely because they did not pass the state's exit exam.

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.os76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FGrad_tests_Droppouts.html> 


# Parents Use Federal Law to Challenge Florida Test Secrecy
	

The Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform (FCAR) has called on parents 
to request their children's graded Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test 
(FCAT) test sheets and test booklets, citing the federal Family 
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Though parents in Washington 
state used FERPA successfully last year to get the state to reverse its 
policy of denying parents access to their children's test materials, and 
other states have policies allowing access, Florida parents have so far 
been rebuffed.

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.ps76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FFL%2520Secrecy.html> 


# Test Critic's Belated Victory
	

In 2001, in the midst of an intense battle over whether Massachusetts 
would implement its proposed high-stakes graduation test, the state 
Department of Education pressured an independent group to withdraw a 
speaking invitation from Alfie Kohn, a noted author and assessment 
reform advocate. Kohn and several others sued in state court, with 
support from the American Civil Liberties Union, charging that their 
first amendment rights were violated.

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.ss76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FTestCriticVictory.html> 


# Suspensions Used to Game Test Results
	

In response to high-stakes testing pressures, Florida schools suspended 
low-scoring students to exclude them from high-stakes testing and 
thereby improve test results, according to a recently published study by 
University of Florida economist David Figlio.

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.ws76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2Fsuspensions.html> 


# Cheating
	

A recent national survey by the Philadelphia Inquirer found just half of 
states conduct statistical analyses of test results to identify possible 
cases of cheating. As the pressure to meet federally mandated test score 
targets as well as state-imposed goals continues to increase and is felt 
at every level, from state officials, school administrators and 
teachers, down to third graders or even younger students, allegations of 
cheating continue to erupt in many states. Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.9s76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2Fcheating806.html> 


Errors

Errors and flaws in tests continue to produce harmful consequences for 
students and their education. Problems have recently afflicted New York 
and Arizona. And in Chicago, rapidly rising scores suggest both possible 
flaws in the exams and too much teaching to the test. Full Article 
Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.7s76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2Ferrors806.html> 


	

# Helpful and Harmful School Reform in Chicago
	

A major study from Chicago's Designs for Change (DFC) offers significant 
implications for school improvement efforts and a powerful caution to 
the overemphasis on standardized testing and the use of NCLB-style 
sanctions. The Big Picture link reports that 144 initially low-scoring 
Chicago K-8 schools made sustained gains on standardized test scores, 
substantially exceeding improvements in schools that have been subject 
to the sorts of sanctions now mandated under the federal No Child Left 
Behind law.

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.6s76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FChicago.html> 


# Teacher Quality Important, But Cannot Overcome Poverty
	

A recent report from the pro-standardized testing organization Education 
Trust confirms that low- income and minority students are "shortchanged 
on teacher quality." For example, students in high- poverty schools are 
more likely to have novice teachers and less likely to have teachers 
with strong subject-area backgrounds than students in low- poverty 
schools. Ed Trust correctly uses this information to argue for better 
qualified teachers in high-poverty and high-minority areas. But the 
group goes beyond the evidence to attack those who maintain that schools 
alone cannot overcome the effects of poverty.

	Full article here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.5s76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FTeacher%2520Quality.html> 


# Harder to "Fly High" than Ed Trust Claims
	

Education Trust has repeatedly argued that there are thousands of 
schools that post high test scores despite serving harder to educate 
low-income children. But a recent report from the Great Lakes Center 
re-evaluated the accuracy of that claim. Author Douglas Harris looked 
for schools serving low- income youth that had two grades with high 
scores in two subjects for two consecutive years. The percentage of such 
schools in the U.S. turned out to be a mere 1.1. And, Harris found, if 
the schools are both high poverty and high-minority, the percentage of 
"high flyers" falls to 0.3.

	Full article here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.4s76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FFly%2520High.html> 


# Lessons from Early Childhood Accountability Efforts
	

In "Accountability in Early Childhood: No Easy Answers," Samuel J. 
Meisels exposes how the reduction of accountability to "how well a young 
child performs on a mandated test" damages the quality of learning and 
schools. He provides a critique of the Head Start "National Reporting 
System" (NRS), which continues despite its demonstrated failures. The 
report concludes with recommendations for a more reasonable approach to 
accountability and program improvement.

	Full article here 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.dt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FEarly_Childhood.html> 


# With Reauthorization on the Horizon, NCLB Reform Bills Pile Up
	

Though the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law's reauthorization may be 
delayed from 2007 to 2009, nearly three dozen reform bills sponsored by 
more than 212 House members and 33 senators have been filed over the 
past two years. The lengthening list of legislation filed by both 
Democrats and Republicans is a sign that the U.S. Congress may respond 
to mounting public pressure for change. Most of the bills, however, only 
tinker with NCLB rather than address fundamental flaws such as the 
dominant role played by standardized testing, the law's failure to 
provide help to improve schools, and its overly punitive approach.

	Full Article Here 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.et76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FNCLBReformBills.html> 


# Hickok's Misplaced Outrage
	

President George W. Bush's former deputy secretary of education, Eugene 
W. Hickok, recently charged in the Washington Post that public schools 
are deliberately denying students' access to No Child Left Behind's 
tutoring provision. Hickok quotes Education Secretary Margaret 
Spellings, who says "the people in charge of the schools, who, in far 
too many cases, think that the money set aside for free tutoring is 
money that ought to stay with their schools and districts instead -- 
that it's their money to manage as they see fit. And so they come up 
with ways to make access to the services difficult for parents."

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.gt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FHickok.html> 


# ACT/SAT Exodus Accelerates
	

Hardly a month now passes without at least one additional selective 
college announcing that it will no longer require students to submit ACT 
or SAT scores before admissions decisions are made. Recent decisions by 
Providence College in Rhode Island and the upstate New York combined 
campuses of Hobart and William Smith Colleges mean that fully one 
quarter of the top 100 "Best Liberal Arts Colleges" in the nation, 
according to U.S. News & World Report rankings, are now test score 
"optional." All told, more than 735 accredited, bachelor-degree granting 
institutions do not require SAT or ACT scores from significant numbers 
of applicants.

Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.jt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FSAT%2520ACT%2520Exodus.html>

List of Test Optional in "Top 100"
See the list here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.kt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FFairtest%2520Optional%2520in%2520US%2520News%2520Top%2520100%2520Schools.html> 


	

# SAT Scoring Error Cover-Up Continues
	

Ten months after a scanning error resulted in inaccurate scores for more 
than 5,000 students who took the October 2005 SAT, the test's sponsor, 
the College Board, still has not provided a coherent explanation of how 
the foul-up took place or why it took so long to detect and report.

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.lt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FSAT%2520Error.html> 


# Scores from "New" Sat Expected to Dip
	

The annual, late summer release of admissions test results for 
college-bound seniors is usually a humdrum affair with test-makers 
trying to spin profound significance out of small changes in average 
scores while reporters grope for any truly meaningful news. This year 
may be different, because the scores will be from the first high school 
class that took revised versions of the ACT and SAT.

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.mt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FExpected_SAT_Dip.html> 


# Not Ready For "Prime Time" -- New GRE Postponed
	

Problems with a new, global computer network have forced the Educational 
Testing Service (ETS) to delay introduction of its overhauled Graduate 
Record Exam (GRE) by a full year until fall 2007. ETS ran into 
difficulty implementing its world-wide Internet-based Testing platform, 
when it was first used to administer the Test of English as a Foreign 
Language (TOEFL) at the beginning of 2006. Many students had trouble 
registering for TOEFL, and there were widespread reports of bottlenecks 
at overseas test centers. The revised GRE General Test reflects an ETS 
pullback from computer adaptive testing, a controversial technology 
through which exams were "customized" for individual test-takers based 
on their answer patterns.

	Full Article here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.nt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FGRE.html> 


# Redux: Test Coaching Works
	

Yet another study has demonstrated that test preparation can produce 
significant increases in SAT results, contrary to claims made by the 
exam's proponents. In "The Effectiveness of SAT Coaching on Math SAT 
Scores," published in Chance magazine (Vol. 18, No. 2, 2005), Quinnipiac 
College Professor of Mathematics Jack Kaplan reports on the experience 
of running his own SAT-prep. program. On average, his students raised 
their SAT Math scores by 78 points. Kaplan's course includes 20 hours of 
classroom instruction and seven to 12 hours of individual tutoring. Of 
the 34 previously uncoached students he worked with over six summers, 21 
increased their Math scores by more than 80 points from a baseline SAT 
administration with 11 going up by 100 points or more.

	Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.qt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FCoaching.html> 


# College Board Salaries Soar Despite Test Problems
	

In one more vivid example of the lack of managerial accountability that 
pervades the standardized testing industry, newly released federal tax 
returns reveal that College Board executives continue to suffer no 
negative consequences from the many problems associated with the 
introduction of the "new" SAT.

	Full Article Here 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.vt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FSalaries.html> 


# African American Legislators Endorse Teacher-Test Alternatives
	

The annual meeting of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators has 
endorsed a resolution calling for the elimination of the PRAXIS II 
licensing exam "as the only factor disqualifying teachers from state 
certification." The state senators and representatives agreed that "no 
person who has received a degree from an accredited school of education 
with an undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 or above shall be 
barred from teacher certification in any state solely because of his or 
her scores on any standardized teachers examination."
Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.wt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FAf-Am%2520TT%2520Alts.html> 



Firefighter Tests Found Racially Biased

A federal judge has ruled that firefighter employment exams used in 
Boston, Lynn and other Massachusetts cities are biased against members 
of minority groups. U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris declared 
that the use of cognitive exams to sort and rank applicants had been 
found discriminatory in the 1970s, and despite more than 30 years to 
develop a better approach, the state continued to use the standardized 
tests. "These cognitive examinations do not predict how quickly a 
firefighter can climb stairs with equipment or raise a ladder," she wrote.

Full Article Here... 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yn7nqxbab.0.xt76rxbab.4usxmsbab.4&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtest.org%2Fexamarts%2FAugust%25202006%2FFF%2520Tests%2520Biased.html> 


	

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