Re: did anyone see frontline?

[Art Burke <aburke@VANSD.ORG>]

The tests used in most state assessments were developed specifically to address the standards that teachers and others decided were most important.  Whether they do that well or poorly, or whether the standards themselves are worth anything are of course different questions.  As far as I know, none of these puppies was designed to create a "bell curve."

Art
______________________________________________
>>> learn@JPS.NET 03/29 9:45 AM >>>
At 09:28 AM 3/29/2002 -0800, Art Burke wrote:

>Teresa or J Glenn wrote:  There was a great teacher (missed her name)
>who talked about how tests in many states eliminate questions that "too
>many" kids get right in order to create a Bell curve... thought that was
>a pretty powerful point.
>____________________________
>They also eliminate questions that too many kids get wrong, which leaves,
>like the beds of the three bears, the ones that are just about right.
>
>Art

Just about right for spreading out the scores. This is the point that
Popham has been making everywhere--the tests are designed to create a nice
bell-shaped curve; they are definitely not designed to show if students are
learning what teachers (and parents) consider important. In fact, if
test-makers accidentally include on the first edition an item about
anything that most teachers are teaching really well, they will eliminate
that item in the next edition.


George Sheridan
Black Oak Mine Teachers Association, CTA/NEA
Garden Valley, California

"Intelligence, in short, is not a thing but a behavior. It is not something
we possess but something we do."

 From a forthcoming book by Evans Clinchy

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