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Interversity Quotes"I think it's time to ask the Standardistos: Where's the test for compassion? For honesty? For curiosity? For moral commitment? Until they can answer, let's tell them to shut up." —Susan Ohanian (One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards) Interversity ProjectsEchoes of Orwell:The purpose of this webforum is to promote a lively discussion among students and faculty alike about George Orwell's 1984 and the parallels or echoes found in today's society. |
[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Author Index][Thread Index] Re: good letter on testing's impact in Chicago
8/30/07 All: The 2005 Illinois State tests (especially the ISAT, the elementary test) is one of the best examples in history of how to create a test to work wonders in an election year. The data from the 2005-2006 ISAT were scheduled to be released around the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year. But that was not the real interest that political leaders in Illinois had in the ISAT results. 2006-2007 was an election year! The governor was up for re-election in November 2006. The Mayor of Chicago was up for re-election in February 2007. So everyone made sure that the ISAT scores went "up." The time for taking the test was lengthened. The questions were (according to some critics) made easier. And the "proficiency" level was made lower. Voila! Across Illinois -- and especially in Chicago -- a miraculous rise in ISAT scores was announced. The governor was re-elected by a landslide. The mayor was re-elected by a landslide. Who says such tests don't correlate to something? By the way, the test items, scoring information, norming, and all technical data are still secret. I'm still waiting for the rest of us to demand that all tests be completely transparent once they have been given. Of course, in the case of the three or four most recent ISAT years in Illinois, that openness will have to go back a few years for people to make comparisons. Given that AERA was in Chicago (April 2007) after all these miraculous events took place in Chicago and Illinois, you'd have thought that Chicago's school administrators would have flocked to AERA to explain to the psychometricians what a miracle had just taken place in the town that hosted their annual conference. Sadly, however, nobody from the top dogs at CPS managed to make it to AERA. Dan Bugler, who was chief of testing, was busy with other things. Arne Duncan, the CEO of CPS, was away, too. So was Barbara Eason Watkins, the "Chief Education Officer" of CPS. In fact, the only people who were prominent from Chicago at AERA were from the Consortium (University of Chicago), who somehow managed not to question (at least in the sessions I attended) anything about Chicago's recent miracles. George N. Schmidt Editor, Substance www.substancenews.net<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour</HTML>
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