Re: timing of tests

["Roberts, John - Vanguard High School" <robertsj1@marion.k12.fl.us>]

You better believe the re-cycled questions lead to higher test scores. Look
what the "Education Governor" has done for Florida. FCAT scores are on the
rise ..... of course a vast majority of our schools have failed to make
Adequate Yearly Progress. We would share our "questions" with other states,
but they are "secret" so we can save money and use the same questions over
and over and over again. Rumor has it they are the "same" ....... people
have to take alot of what is coming out of Tallahassee on blind faith.	Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Art Burke [mailto:aburke@vansd.org]
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 12:02 PM
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: Re: [arn-l] timing of tests


It's almost a given that scores rise after students and teachers gain
experience with a new testing system.  I would not expect very many
questions to be used over and over.  Art

>>> PAVURSOL@aol.com 12/06/03 09:09PM >>>
While this isn't about "criterion-referenced (ha) state testing," I
would 
guess that timing of the state tests can also be quite critical.  For
example, we 
will be giving SOL tests in history this year in grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and
8.  
It's the first year.  I'll bet the kids will do better in three or four
years 
when the questions have recycled a couple of times. 
Mickey

Source:      Cornell University
Date Posted:    2003-12-04
Web Address:   
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/12/031204073317.htm 

TIMING OF IQ TEST CAN BE A LIFE OR DEATH MATTER 

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The year in which IQ is tested can make the difference

between life and death for a death row inmate. It also can determine
the 
eligibility of children for special services, adults' Social Security 
benefits and recruits' suitability for certain military careers,
according 
to a new study by Cornell University researchers. 


That's because IQ scores tend to rise 5 to 25 points in a single
generation. 
This so-called "Flynn effect" is corrected by toughening up the test
every 
15 to 20 years to reset the mean score to 100. A score from a test
taken at 
the end of one cycle can vary widely from a score derived from a test
taken 
at the beginning of the next cycle, when the test is more difficult,
says 
Stephen J. Ceci, professor of human development at Cornell. 

Ceci and his current and former graduate students, Tomoe Kanaya and
Matthew 
Scullin, found, for example, that the number of children recommended
for 
special services for mild mental retardation tripled during the first
five 
years of a new test compared with the final five years of an old test,

despite the fact that there were no real changes in underlying
intelligence. 

"Our findings imply that some borderline death row inmates or capital
murder 
defendants who were not classified as mentally retarded in childhood
because 
they took an older version of an IQ test might have qualified as
retarded if 
they had taken a more recent test," Ceci says. "That's the difference 
between being sentenced to life imprisonment versus lethal injection."


The study is published in the October issue of American Psychologist (
Vol. 
58, No. 10, pp. 778-790), a journal of the American Psychological 
Association. Co-author Kanaya is a fourth-year graduate student in
human 
development and is the first author. Scullin, Cornell Ph.D. '01, is now
an 
assistant professor of psychology at West Virginia University and is
the 
second author. 

The researchers analyzed IQ data from almost 9,000 school psychologist

special education assessments in nine school districts across the
country to 
document how the resetting of the IQ test influences mental retardation

diagnoses for several years after a new test is introduced. 

The consequences of taking intelligence tests at the end or beginning
of a 
test's cycle are most critical, however, when determining whether a
death 
row inmate is mentally competent. Of the 350 people executed since
1990, 112 
were known to have IQ scores of 70 or below (the cutoff for mental 
retardation). 

Among children, the researchers found nearly a six-point difference
between 
those taking the two tests. "This variance can make the difference
between a 
child being diagnosed as mentally retarded or not," Ceci says. "This
study 
shows for the first time that two children in the same classroom with
the 
same cognitive ability could be diagnosed differently simply because 
different test norms were used for each child." 

The researchers report that perhaps tens of thousands of children could
be 
affected by these IQ trends over the course of their school years, with

far-reaching financial implications. "Our results imply that millions
of 
taxpayers' educational dollars may be misallocated because students are

being misdiagnosed every year that an IQ test ages," Ceci points out. 

A diagnosis of mental retardation also determines whether a person is 
eligible for Social Security disability benefits. And the year in which
a 
military recruit takes an IQ test can determine whether he or she is 
eligible for service or certain occupations and ranks. 

"Caution must be used when IQ scores are used to base important
financial, 
social or legal decisions. It may not be sufficient to simply look to
see if 
an IQ score is below some cutoff point," concludes Ceci. "The most
important 
times to be particularly careful are when the test is either at the 
beginning or the end of its cycle." 

The research was supported, in part, by a grant from the Smith
Richardson 
Foundation to Ceci. 

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