Re: National tests

["GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>]

I'm not sure how you can do "better" on the SAT9 than on the HSA.  I believe 
that SAT9 gives basic, proficient, advanced as one option but that would be 
arbitrary, as would any cut scores on the HSA--none of these things are 
linked empirically to anything in the real world.

Interestingly, when NAEP was proposed a little over 40 years ago, every 
single education association came out against it because "local control" was 
sacrosanct.  The only way Frank Keppel, Commissioner of Education, could get 
it through was to house it at a state-sponsored agency, the Education 
Commission of the States, and agree to not analyze the data below the level 
of "region"--a generally useless datum.

JB

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Diane Aoki" <dkeikoa@hawaii.rr.com>
To: <arn-l@interversity.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: [arn-l] National tests


> Actually, the argument was cast in terms of how we do on SATs (Stanford)
> compared to how we do on the state assessments. There is a big 
> discrepancy,
> generally doing better on the SATs than on the HSAs (Hawaii State
> Assessment). We do a portion of the SAT-9 along with the state tests. She 
> is
> critical of our HSAs, which is a good thing, because we all are. But 
> offers
> as a solution, national tests and national curriculum and national
> standards. I have a bad feeling about this, and I am trying to figure out
> why.
>
> Thank you for your article, Jerry. Diane
>
>
> On 10/7/06 7:41 AM, "Gerald Bracey" <gbracey@starpower.net> wrote:
>
> > One needn't buy the assumption that "we're doing so badly."  American 8th
> > graders finished 9th among 45 nations in TIMSS science and above average 
> > in
> > math.  The finished 7th among 29 OECD nations in PISA.
> >
> > I imagine that the argument was cast in terms of contrasting the 
> > proportion of
> > students states say are proficient against the usually much lower 
> > proportions
> > that NAEP says are proficient. But the NAEP achievement levels are 
> > horribly
> > off.  They've been rejected by everyone who has ever studied them.
> >
> > I wrote "Oh, those NAEP achievement levels" as my September 2005 column 
> > in
> > Principal Leadership and will send separately as I have to convert it to 
> > a
> > text file first. Alas, the prediction made therein has come true.
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