Re: Grad Tests Do Not Improve Academic Achievement

[Horace B Lucido <hbl04@csufresno.edu>]

Bob,
Is the study available on line?
Rog

Rog ( Horace ) Lucido, Physics Instructor, Ret. 
Program Evaluator 
Adjunct Faculty, Fresno Pacific University 
Educational Consultant 
Educators and Parents Against Testing Abuse ( EPATA ) 
Assessment Reform Network Central Valley Coordinator 
Phone: 559-277-1312 
Cell: 559-355-4215 
email: lucid4@cvip.net 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net> 
Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 5:55 am 
Subject: [arn-l] Grad Tests Do Not Improve Academic Achievement 
To: ARN Main List <arn-l@interversity.org>, ARN State <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com> 

> STATE HIGH-SCHOOL EXIT TESTS DO NOT IMPROVE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, 
> STUDY 
> FINDS 
> 
> Chronicle of Higher Education -- May 13, 2008 
> by Peter Schmidt 
> 
> A new study has found that state requirements that students pass 
> exit 
> tests to graduate from high school appear to do nothing to improve 
> achievement on federal reading and mathematics tests. 
> 
> The study, the results of which have been peer-reviewed and 
> accepted for 
> publication in the journal Educational Policy, compared the 
> reading and 
> math scores of children in states with exit examinations to the 
> scores 
> of children elsewhere in the United States and concluded that 
> there was 
> no evidence that requiring passage of such tests improved academic 
> achievement in those subject areas. 
> 
> Even the most rigorous versions of the exit tests failed to 
> produce 
> significant improvements in the reading and math performance, 
> according 
> to the report on the study's findings written by Eric Grodsky, an 
> assistant professor of sociology at the University of California 
> at 
> Davis, with Demetra Kalogrides, a graduate student in sociology at 
> that 
> campus, and John Robert Warren, an associate professor of 
> sociology and 
> a director of undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota- 
> Twin 
> Cities. 
> 
> The researchers derived their conclusions from an analysis of the 
> scores 
> of 13- and 17-year-olds on a version of the National Assessment of 
> Educational Progress used to measure long-term trends in student 
> achievement. In addition to looking at average scores on the 
> federal 
> tests, they examined trends at various score thresholds to make 
> sure the 
> state exit tests were not, for example, resulting in fewer 
> students 
> doing very poorly or very well on the national assessment. 
> 
> Their report is one of a series in which Mr. Grodsky and Mr. 
> Warren have 
> questioned the benefits of the high-school exit examinations that 
> have 
> been adopted by 23 states, accounting for about two-thirds of the 
> nation's high-school seniors. 
> 
> In study results published in January in the journal Sociology of 
> Education, the two researchers and Jennifer C. Lee, an assistant 
> professor of sociology at Indiana University at Bloomington, found 
> that 
> people who earned their diplomas in states with high-school exit 
> tests 
> did not earn higher incomes than people who earned their diplomas 
> elsewhere, and were no more likely to complete college or be 
> employed. 
> The analysis was weighted to exclude the effects of class, race, 
> state 
> education spending, and other potentially confounding variables. 
> 
> Taking that study into account, along with other research finding 
> that 
> such tests result in declines in high-school graduation rates, the 
> latest report takes the bottom-line view that the tests "produce 
> adverse 
> outcomes for educational attainment for a substantial minority of 
> students while providing no estimable labor market or achievement 
> benefits for others." 
> 
> The report says, "The cumulative evidence on these policies is 
> clear: 
> They should either be substantially revised to provide the 
> benefits 
> supporters claim they provide, or they should be abandoned." 
> 
> In a videotaped interview distributed on Monday along with his 
> latest 
> studies' findings, Mr. Warren says the failure of the tests to 
> produce 
> marked increases in learning may be due the states' decisions to 
> make 
> the tests easier in response to the political resistance triggered 
> by 
> high failure rates. 
> 
> "It is a double-edge sword," Mr. Warren says. "If you raise the 
> standards, you risk lots and lots of kids not getting diplomas. If 
> you 
> don't raise the standards, you risk kids not learning much more." 
> 
> Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a Washington-based 
> group 
> that promotes high academic achievement, said in an interview on 
> Monday 
> that high-school exit exams have never really been widely regarded 
> as 
> "good vehicles to promote high achievement or college-ready 
> achievement."