Re: test misuse

["J. Woestehoff" <pureparents@PUREPARENTS.ORG>]

YES. In fact, that was the core issue which led to the intervention of
the Office for Civil Rights, and why the Chicago Public Schools had to
change their promotion policy. This year, for the first time, 14,000
students who were required to attend summer school because of either low
ITBS scores or failing grades in reading or math were promoted without
having to retake the Iowa test. About 13,000 had to take the test again.
5700 were retained based on low retest scores and 1600 were retained
because they didn't attend summer school at all. Part of the OCR
agreement gave a new right to parents to ask for a review of their
child's entire record if they disagreed with a decision to retain the
student. Unfortunately, in a continuing pattern of failure to comply
with the settlement, CPS did not notify parents of this right at the end
of summer school. The family of one student we are working with was told
that there was nothing they could do to challenge the decision, and then
after we helped the parent file a request for review, they were simply
told that his test score was too low. We have filed a challenge to that,
and since OCR is in a monitoring phase of the settlement, they are
investigating. Please note the story in this week's Education Week

http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=01urban.h21
Julie W.

Art Burke wrote:

> Is it true that a student can be held back solely on the basis of a score on an Iowa test?  Art
>
> > > > Ddeliberto@AOL.COM 09/06 12:24 PM >>>
> Karen,
>
> Your response to my sincere request for evidence of misuse in Chicago can
> only be characterized as sheer rudeness.  That is exactly the response I
> expected and it is very typical that whenever anyone on this list is asked to
> provide evidence to support their claims, there is dead silence.  Reminds me
> of the 2001 AERA Session conducted by some members on this list--accusation
> but no evidence.  There can only be but one explanation--that none of you
> have any evidence.
>
> As to listening to the "many experienced testing experts on this list",
> please tell me who these folks would be.  I very much respect the comments
> made by George Cunningham, Dennis Roberts, Jim Parsons, S.E. Phillips, Bob
> Linn, Ron Hammilton, and many other such experts in the measurement field.
> But of the folks mentioned, only 3 of these have posted to this list.  Now
> perhaps you really meant "experienced testing reform experts" and I agree
> there are many of those on this list.  I have also listened to these views as
> well and I even agree with some of these views.
>
> Now while we are on this issue of test reform, this list is called the ARN
> which supposedly stands for Assessment Reform Network.  In my 3 years of
> participating on this list, I have come to realize that "R" does not stand
> for "Reform".  Rather it stands for "Removal".  If you were sincerely
> interested in "reforming" assessments, then my views and sincere requests
> would not be subjected to the rudeness and attacks that they are.
>
> Seems that many on this list really want to CONTROL the thoughts and words of
> others.  You want everyone to AGREE with you and when asked to show evidence
> to support your claims, you become SILENT on those issues and ATTACK the
> person making the request because you know you have NO EVIDENCE.
>
> Nice to see you got an A in the course on reverse psychology but it is not
> working on me as you can well see.
> In a message dated 9/6/01 2:52:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> khartke@FAIRTEST.ORG writes:
>
> >  I'm sorry, I must speak up.
> >
> >  Perhaps with this one statement, Diana has shown her very true colors.
> >  Don't be decieved folks.  She cares neither to listen or to learn from the
> >  many experienced testing experts on this list.  This is such an outrageous
> >  and flagrant example of selective attention deficit disorder, I wouldn't
> >  bother trying to respond to her request for "real" information.   Just say
> >  "get real" and let's move on.
> >
> >  Karen
>
>
> Deanna
> ===================================================
> Deanna M. De'Liberto, President/Director of Assessment
> D Squared Assessments, Inc.
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