High Stakes Testing
Who’s cheating now?
Remember all the controversy around TAKS scores and the Caveon analysis about possible cheating in 2006? Everybody Does It / Academic cheating is at an all-time high. Can anything be done to stop it? It used to be that cheating was done by the few, and most often they were the weaker students who couldn’t [...]
Unintended Consequences
Pleasanton ISD, Texas Our Mission Statement The mission of the Pleasanton ISD as an educational community is to ensure a quality public education through learning, unity, and pride, fully preparing all students for the future. So does the district accomplish it’s mission by having students do well on the TAKS? The reason I ask is [...]
Race matters
I don’t know what to think about this. School separates races for TAKS talk | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle: Administrators at a Katy school are facing criticism from parents after holding separate assemblies for black, white and Hispanic students to address low scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test. The assemblies at [...]
Can race matter only some of the time?
Bush’s double standard on race in schools | csmonitor.com: Not surprisingly, the Bush administration is supporting the plaintiffs’ arguments that the use of such racial criteria is unconstitutional. It was no doubt delighted to hear Justice Anthony Kennedy say during oral arguments that “characterizing each student by reason of the color of his or her [...]
Imagine That!
MySA.com: Metro | State: Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, a longtime member of the House Public Education Committee, is not optimistic lawmakers will significantly improve public education.”We’ll probably talk about facility funds, but when you talk about facility funding, you’re talking about money, and who’s going to put more money into public education?” Dutton said. MySA.com: [...]
CC Texas Legislature, SBOE
Worth a read by some Texas Legislators and State Board of Education Members as well. An Open Letter to Margaret Spellings and Congress: “Human history,” said H. G. Wells, is “a race between education and catastrophe.” If we stay the course with No Child Left Behind, catastrophe is a sure bet. You’ll soon be deciding [...]
What’s wrong with this picture?
Kerrville Daily Times: Tivy High received a preliminary unacceptable rating from the Texas Education Agency. The rating did not reflect the performance of Tivy High School students, but was given as a result of completion rates at Kerr County Juvenile Facility.
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: MySA.com: KENS 5: Education: 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 [...]
So who’s accountable?
Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas/Southwest: In other words, a student who moved to Dallas in June and attended a local school the entire school year would still not be counted in that school’s scores the following spring. Does this mean that the students who move away from Dallas will be [...]
Which child to leave behind?
PDK International |: “Take out your classes’ latest benchmark scores,” the consultant told them, “and divide your students into three groups. Color the ‘safe cases,’ or kids who will definitely pass, green. Now, here’s the most important part: identify the kids who are ‘suitable cases for treatment.’ Those are the ones who can pass with [...]