Re: State Assessments/did anyone see frontline?

[Becky Schaller <bschaller@THERIVER.COM>]

The way I understand this, medical tests are also criterion based.  I like
using these tests as a comparison for standardized tests in education.

If a group of people has high blood pressure and that group would succeed in
lowering their blood pressure, that is considered to be good news.   And if
everyone started passing their blood pressure test, we'd still be getting
our blood pressure checked when we went to see the doctor because it's
considered to be an important medical test in and of itself.  It would be
absurd to think about raising the bar.

There is also an attempt to modify the scores based on who the person is.
There are standard height and weight charts, but before a doctor would say
that someone should lose or gain weight, they  would look at the person's
body frame and how much of the weight is fat and how much is muscle.

Even norm referenced standards aren't all bad if you don't say that those at
the lower end are necessarily failures.  If a child learns to walk at 14
months instead of 10 months, then they learn to walk at 14 months instead of
10 months.   We don't necessarily make a big deal about it.   But if a child
learns to read at 8 instead of 6, then all sorts of bad things happen in
terms of their tests scores.

Becky Schaller



From: Erwin Morton <erwin@MORTON.NET>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 13:35:08 -0800
Subject: Re: State Assessments/did anyone see frontline?

But, Art--I thought that was the point of standards-
based tests.

Hasn't it been said (frequently) that the only real
standards-based test we have is the driver's
license test?  And the idea, there, is that everyone
should pass ... not that we should use it as a sorting
mechanism, or discard items everyone is getting
right, or raise the standards whenever too many
people are passing.

--Erwin