Re: Integrity Testing

[Carol Holst <kceh@airmail.net>]

Umm, then he might want to explain why Houston ISD has such an enormous 
dropout rate. I guess Kay Stripling just suddenly turned the place to 
poo-poo on her own after he got his promotion and moved away from 
Enronville? Got a great article from the Houston Chronicle I can fax 
you, since I got busy remodeling the kitchen and forgot to forward the 
online version of the article yesterday. Better remind me quick before I 
take the newspaper to the recycle dumpster though...

Four hours prepping, one hour painting.
Bleah, bleah, bleah...

Carol

On Monday, May 19, 2003, at 10:46 AM, Jedoyon@aol.com wrote:

> <A 
> HREF="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/134765801_monlets19.html";
> >http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/134765801_monlets19.html</A>
>
> Integrity Testing
>
> Erasing problems
>
> Rod Paige, the secretary of Education, points to his achievements as
> superintendent of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) as 
> evidence
> that relentless testing as required by the No Child Left Behind Act will
> improve the education of all children ("<A 
> HREF="http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-
> bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=paige13&date=20030513">Accountability'
> s the key to
> revitalizing our schools</A>," guest commentary, May 13).
>
> What Paige doesn't tell you is how he raised test scores in Houston. 
> HISD
> enrolls 212,000 students, about 34 percent of the students in Harris 
> County.
> According to the Intercultural Development Research Association, a 
> research
> center in San Antonio, 52 percent of African-American teens in Harris 
> County
> who started high school in 1997 were no longer in school in 2000-01, 
> what
> would have been their senior year, and Paige's last year. Sixty percent 
> of
> the Hispanic teens were also gone, as were 29 percent of the white 
> teens.
>
> Paige tells us that "accountability works," but how was he accountable 
> to the
> thousands of students who dropped out from his schools? Paige brags 
> about how
> HISD raised test scores. It's easy to raise test scores if you can get 
> your
> low-scoring students to drop out.
>
> We do need accountability in schools, but No Child Left Behind will turn
> schools into test-preparation factories. More kids will drop out, and 
> more
> wealthy parents will put their children into private schools, where 
> being
> educated is not synonymous with test scores.
>
> - David Marshak, associate professor, School of Education, Seattle 
> University
;-)  ;-}  ;-]  :-[  :-/  :-o :-O