Re: Princeton Review of State's Tests

[Victor Steinbok <Victor.Steinbok@verizon.net>]

At 4:05 PM -0400 12.05.03, William Cala wrote:
> Did anyone write a rebuttal of any type to the Princeton Review's 
> ranking of state testing systems?

It's not worth a response in general. However, if something appears 
in local papers, it is worth pointing out that 1) there is virtually 
no difference, according to PR, between the QUALITY of state tests 
(and one can confirm the opposite by inspection), and 2) the entire 
ranking is almost completely predicted by just one of the four 
categories they use to grade the programs--the one that includes the 
sunshine laws. In other words, the entire review is meaningless, GIGO.

Three of the categories for grading are alignment, quality of the 
test, disclosure. I don't recall the fourth category, but it's easy 
to look up on the site (I believe, it's an Excel file or a PDF file). 
Test quality is afforded 15% of the ranking, but it makes little 
difference as most states got nearly the same grades, not to mention 
that the entire procedure is subjective at every step. I wonder if 
they consulted the rankings of state sales figures for PR before 
ranking the states on testing.

	VS-)