Why numbers alone don’t tell the story
If TAKS scores go up unexpectedly, you can be flagged for cheating when all you really did was, well, what you were supposed to do:
For example, Northside’s Pease Middle School was flagged for gains in eighth-grade math. But districts don’t know which individual student scores stood out. “If they gave us the data files, we could link it back to a ton of things our schools did,” said Sandra Poth, Northside’s testing director. At Pease, the district doubled the time eighth-grade students were in math class from the 2003-04 school year to the 2004-05 year. Students went from 45 minutes of math each day to 90.
But then again, there are those who can’t really point to any reason for gains in test scores:
North East Superintendent Richard Middleton said it’s nearly impossible to police a system that tests millions of students each year. North East had one school flagged — Bush Middle School — for gains in sixth-grade math.
Maybe it’s time to start looking beyond just numbers for both schools and students. Tests are a valuable tool, but they aren’t the complete answer.
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