Re: AYP

[Diane Aoki <dkeikoa@hawaii.rr.com>]

We are in a similar position. Yesterday, I was at a workshop and a
high-level bureaucrat made the announcement that we and another school had
been reclassified to have made AYP after an appeal. No details, just that we
made it. We were perhaps a percentage point away from the cut score, so that
must have granted us a margin of error or some such number tweaking. Today a
newsletter from the SUPT came out about the increase in numbers of schools
that made AYP. No mention of the fact that they changed the testing company
after the former company was fired (Harcourt) for having so many errors on
the test we had been using for the past 4 or so years. This test, they say,
is more aligned with our standards, and that may be the case, but they just
can't say it's an improvement when the test is different! It has to be a
baseline, and thus no celebration of AYP. They asked for schools to send in
articles or photos of what schools were doing to celebrate. How do we teach
our kids to be honest, critical thinkers when these adults don't honestly
and critically discuss this data. If we do try to speak truth to power, we
are considered negative. Woe is us, the negative-spreaders.
Diane


On 9/5/07 5:52 PM, "WMZEMKA@aol.com" <WMZEMKA@aol.com> wrote:

> Our high school was told they didn't make AYP.  The paper had a field  day
> pointing out the failure.  Of course, the reporter has no clue what AYP  (or
> not 
> making AYP means).  They keep saying that the test scores weren't  high
> enough in all the indicators (they mean, of course, the pass rate and the
> subgroups).  No discussion at all about what "indicators" mean, what the  pass
> rate is 
> that we are aiming at (71%), or about the N.  Anyway, our  administration,
> after pouring over the roles and looking for errors, asked  for a recount. The
> state had counted two students as students with  disabilities and they
> weren't. 
>  When those students came off that category,  magically, the school made AYP.
>  The school division asked the papers to  print this new info and it was
> dutifully done (without details as they are  complex and hard to understand).
> Now 
> the school has made AYP.  Lots  of backslapping all around.
>  
> When the two students came off the SWD category, the school then had less
> than fifity kids with disabilities (49, I think).  In Virginia, schools  with
> less than fifty kids in a category are "presumed" to make AYP.  So the  school
> made AYP.  
>  
>  
> Mickey
>  
>  
> 
> 
> 
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