Re: Key NCLB Initiative Under Federal Investigation

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

Improved test scores could just mean better test prep, not genuine comprehension. A one-time test on reading  is not a valid measure of comprehension. Each state uses a different assessment ( although some may use the same-DIBELS? now under investigation ) and therefore a different definition of what it means to read with comprehension. An improvement in one dimension of comprehension scores on one state's assessment, may correspond to a reduction in scores in another. 
Even in this flawed assessment processes one cannont even utter the word 'scientific' as there is no standardization in which to assume that increases in percent proficient using one assessment can be mathematically combined and/or contrasted to another. No states, to my knowledge, use multiple measures either.
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: Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu> 
Date: Saturday, April 21, 2007 6:58 am 
Subject: [ca-resisters] Key NCLB Initiative Under Federal Investigation 
To: ca-resisters@interversity.org 

> First Krashen, then the Washington Post... The good news: the 
> reading nazis are being exposed for their corruption. The bad 
> news: 
> Miller and Kennedy still buy the official propaganda that kill and 
> drill teaching "works" 
> 
> Sent to the Washington Post, April 21 
> 
> According to The Post ("Reading first paying off, 
> Education Dept. Says," April 19), the US Department of 
> Education reported that the percentage of third 
> graders meeting or exceeding the proficient level on 
> tests of reading comprehension increased by 12% 
> between 2004 and 2006, which they regard as strong 
> support for the effectiveness of Reading First. 
> 
> I have examined this data (available on the Department 
> of Education website). For the 30 states with test 
> scores available, I found an average increase of 6.7% 
> in the percentage of third graders scoring at the 
> proficient level or higher between 2004 and 2006. This 
> is considerably less than the figure reported by the 
> Department of Education. 
> 
> Eight states had impressive gains, ranging from 10% to 
> 26%, but these states combined contained only about 
> 10% of the total number of students in Reading First. 
> For other 22 states, the average increase between 2004 
> and 2006 was only 3%. 
> 
> In other words, only a small percentage of children 
> appear to have profited from Reading First. For states 
> that include 90% of those in Reading First, gains were 
> minimal. 
> 
> Children in Reading First get 100 extra minutes of 
> reading instruction per week, and Reading First 
> teachers get significantly more professional 
> development. The Department of Education's own data 
> shows that Reading First, for the vast majority of 
> children, is not very efficient. 
> 
> Stephen Krashen 
> 
> >KEY INITIATIVE OF "NO CHILD" UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION 
> >Washington Post -- April 21, 2007 
> >by Amit R. Paley 
> > 
> >The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion 
> reading 
> >initiative at the center of President Bush's No Child Left Behind 
> >law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of 
> financial 
> >conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the 
> matter 
> >said yesterday. 
> > 
> >The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how 
> people 
> >implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at 
> >least $1 million off textbooks and tests toward which the federal 
> >government steered states. 
> > 
> >"That sounds like a criminal enterprise to me," said Rep. George 
> >Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House education committee, 
> which 
> >held a five-hour investigative hearing. "You don't get to 
> override 
> >the law," he angrily told a panel of Reading First officials. 
> "But 
> >the fact of the matter is that you did." 
> > 
> >The Education Department's inspector general, John P. Higgins, 
> Jr., 
> >said he has made several referrals to the Justice Department 
> about 
> >the five-year-old program, which provides grants to improve 
> reading 
> >for children in kindergarten through third grade. 
> > 
> >Higgins declined to offer more specifics, but Christopher J. 
> >Doherty, former director of Reading First, said in an interview 
> that 
> >he was questioned by Justice officials in November. The civil 
> >division of the U.S. attorney's office for the District, which 
> can 
> >bring criminal charges, is reviewing the matter. 
> > 
> >Doherty, one of the two Education Department employees who 
> oversaw 
> >the initiative, acknowledged yesterday that his wife had worked 
> for 
> >a decade as a paid consultant for a reading program, Direct 
> >Instruction, that investigators said he improperly tried to force 
> >schools to use. He repeatedly failed to disclose the conflict on 
> >financial disclosure forms. 
> > 
> >"I'm very proud of this program and my role in this program," 
> >Doherty said in the interview. "I think it's been implemented in 
> >accordance with the law." 
> > 
> >The management of Reading First has come under attacks from 
> members 
> >of both parties. Federal investigators say program officials 
> >improperly forced states to use certain tests and textbooks 
> created 
> >by those officials. 
> > 
> >One official, Roland H. Good III, said his company made $1.3 
> million 
> >off a reading test, known as DIBELS, that was endorsed by a 
> Reading 
> >First evaluation panel he sat on. Good, who owns half the 
> company, 
> >Dynamic Measurement Group, told the committee that he donated 
> >royalties from the product to the University of Oregon, where he 
> is 
> >an associate professor. 
> > 
> >Two former University of Oregon researchers on the panel, Edward 
> J. 
> >Kame'enui and Deborah C. Simmons, said they received about 
> $150,000 
> >in royalties last year for a program that is now packaged with 
> >DIBELS. They testified that they received smaller royalties in 
> >previous years for the program, Scott Foresman Early Reading 
> >Intervention, and did not know it was being sold with DIBELS. 
> > 
> >Members of the panel said they recused themselves from voting on 
> >their own products but did assess their competitors. Of 24 tests 
> >approved by the committee, seven were tied to members of the panel. 
> > 
> >"I regret the perception of conflicts of interest," said 
> Kame'enui, 
> >former chairman of the committee, who now works at the department 
> as 
> >commissioner of the National Center for Special Education 
> Research. 
> >"But there was no real conflict of interest being engaged in." 
> > 
> >The intricate financial connections between Reading First 
> products 
> >and program officials extend beyond issues the committee explored 
> yesterday.> 
> >Another researcher, Sharon Vaughn, worked with Kame'enui, Simmons 
> >and Good to design Voyager Universal Literacy, a program that 
> >Reading First officials urged states to use. Vaughn was director 
> of 
> >a center at the University of Texas that was hired to provide 
> states 
> >advice on selecting Reading First tests and books. 
> > 
> >The publisher of that product, Voyager Expanded Learning, was 
> >founded and run by Randy Best, a major Bush campaign contributor, 
> >who sold the company in 2005 for more than $350 million. Now Best 
> >runs Higher Ed Holdings, a company that develops colleges of 
> >education, where former education secretary Roderick R. Paige is 
> a 
> >senior adviser and G. Reid Lyon, Bush's former reading adviser, 
> is 
> >an executive vice president. 
> > 
> >"I'm very disappointed and saddened by the information that was 
> >provided at the hearing today," said Lyon, who had been a strong 
> >defender of Reading First, which he said had nothing to do with 
> his 
> >new job. "The issues appear much more serious than I had been led 
> to 
> >understand." 
> > 
> >Despite the controversy surrounding Reading First's management, 
> the 
> >percentage of students in the program who are proficient on 
> fluency 
> >tests has risen about 15 percent, Education Department officials 
> >said. School districts across the country praise the program. 
> > 
> >Members of both parties continue to support the goals of Reading 
> >First even as they attack its management. Miller and Senate 
> >education committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) joined 
> >Republicans yesterday in pledging to tighten restrictions on 
> >conflicts of interest in No Child Left Behind. 
> > 
> >Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who declined to comment 
> >yesterday, has said management problems with Reading First 
> "reflect 
> >individual mistakes." But Doherty said nearly every aspect of the 
> >program was carefully monitored by the department and the White 
> >House, where Spelling was Bush's top education adviser. 
> > 
> >"This program was always firmly under the watch and control of 
> the 
> >highest levels of the government," Doherty said. 
> > 
> > 
>