Insanity of the Month

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

Another regular feature of NEA Today is the "Insanity of the Month" This 
one focuses on the wildly varying meaning of "proficient" in different states.

*
Making the Grade

So, are Montana's students really smarter than Wyoming's? If you compare 
their state test scores, you might think so. But, a study by the 
Oregon-based Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit assessment 
group, found the test scores deceiving. Students in the two states could 
have the same skill levels, but show different test results.

How so? It's another inconsistency raised by the test-focused Elementary 
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The act gives states the opportunity to 
set passing scores or "proficiency" levels for their own state tests?but 
what's really being measured? That's anybody's guess. In Montana, for 
example, an eighth grader is considered "proficient" in math if she scores 
in the 36th percentile on the test. Across the state line, the same student 
would have to score in the 89th percentile to pass.

But the discrepancies don't end there. Sometimes, the proficiency levels 
vary between grades or subjects within a single state. In Arizona, for 
instance, a third grader can pass the state math test by scoring in the 
46th percentile, while an eighth grader needs to score in the 75th. In 
Washington, fourth graders need to reach the 76th percentile on their math 
tests, but only the 53rd percentile on the state reading exam.

The nutty result: school districts saddled with ESEA's requirements to 
measure student progress only with tests can't accurately judge students' 
abilities in different subjects. And if they can't do that, the report 
notes, how can they determine funding and services needed for struggling 
students?

Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do 
better, first we have to make them feel worse? Think of the last time you 
felt humiliated or treated unfairly. Did you feel like cooperating or doing 
better? - Jane Nelson