-Caveat Lector-
{{Oh, good! Our educational system isn't a disaster after all.
Well, not to worry if it is for the govt will take care of us all.
Why do we need to know all these silly things, anyway? If these kids
grow up unable to read adequately or even think for themselves,
well, they will be all the more dependent on the federal government.
Besides, if it is important, our government will TELL us, probably
on TV so they do not really need to read, anyway. And that's the
object of our public educational system, keep them dumb and
dependent. Oh, yes, and to build "self esteem" so they will not
realize how ignorant and dependent they are. AKE}}
Test scores' fuzzy math
Are grading standards too high?
By Jay Mathews
THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON, May 15 - The results from the national test were a
shock: Nearly 40 percent of U.S. fourth-graders scored below the
basic level of competency in reading. The 1992 scores on the
National Assessment of Educational Progress and the fourth-graders'
performance in years thereafter prompted columnist Michael Kelly to
predict for those struggling young readers "the joyous prospects of
bike-messengering, table-busing, weed-pulling, hamburger-flipping
and broom-pushing - episodically relieved by unemployment and
descents into deep poverty."
Such sharp contrasts in achievement for such an important age group
make some education researchers and analysts concerned about the
tests and how they are presented to the public.
YET A YEAR before that 1992 test, fourth graders scored
near the top of the list of 30 countries on a different reading
test, the equally respectable International Association for the
Evaluation of Educational Achievement exam.
The same has happened in science and mathematics. About 36
percent of U.S. fourth-graders scored below basic levels in math and
33 percent below basic in science on the 1996 NAEP test. But the
year before, those allegedly TV-addled fourth-graders were above the
international average in math and just below Korea and Japan at the
top of the list in science in the Third International Mathematics
and Science Study.
Testing experts - accustomed to confusion and contradiction -
caution that every assessment involves different assumptions and
different questions given to different children.
But such sharp contrasts in achievement for such an important
age group - fourth grade is when children are expected to start
reading on their own - make some education researchers and analysts
concerned about the tests and how they are presented to the public.
CRITICS: GRADING SCALE TOO STRICT
For some, the problem is the NAEP test's grading scale, which
they say is unrealistically strict. The tests, supervised by the
congressionally appointed National Assessment Governing Board, are
billed as "The Nation's Report Card." If so, they sometimes produce
the kind of ill-feeling and controversy as a string of D-pluses from
a cranky physics teacher.
Gerald W. Bracey, a Fairfax County-based educational
psychologist, said the way the test is graded - with levels set at
advanced, proficient, basic and below basic - makes little sense. He
noted that the levels are based on the opinions of adult judges who
were asked to give their impression of which questions students
should be able to answer, rather than by examining how students
actually perform on the tests.
If the levels are set too high, that could leave journalists,
public officials and parents with an overly negative impression,
said Lyle V. Jones, a research professor in quantitative psychology
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Advertisement
At the same time, U.S. fourth-graders look good when
compared with their overseas counterparts because other countries do
not set as high a standard for younger pupils, testing experts say.
But when the U.S. students get older, their achievement levels no
longer look as good in comparison.
Sharif Shakrani, deputy executive director of the National
Assessment Governing Board, said that as a native of Lebanon, he has
a sense of the deficiencies of primary education abroad. U.S.
students "have access to narrative materials to read, and some other
countries do not have access to much of that," he said. Also,
"American teachers are more qualified for teaching reading than in
most other countries."
In science and mathematics, his specialties, Shakrani said he
believes that U.S. fourth-graders may do relatively well on
international tests because "the same content is taught to all
students."
Ina V.S. Mullis, co-director of the International Study
Center at Boston College, said that "in actuality, we have more
science instruction in elementary school than other countries," so
U.S. fourth-graders have an advantage.
Results from the Third International Mathematics and Science
Study show that U.S. students lose ground in grades 8 and 12. This
may be, in part, Shakrani said, because of the "massive tracking
system" in U.S. schools that shifts many students into watered-down
divisions of algebra and chemistry.
But the most widely accepted explanation for fourth-graders'
less-impressive performance on the NAEP tests is that the tests are
hard and stiffly graded. Test supporters say this is good, because
U.S. schools cannot improve while using a limp measuring stick.
SUPPORTERS: HIGH STANDARDS NEEDED
"The NAEP does set a really high standard for the nation to
achieve," said Michael T. Nettles, professor of education at the
University of Michigan and vice chairman of the test's governing
board. But, he said, he does not think the standard is too high and
feels the emphasis should be on helping more children meet it. "For
those children who are below basic we have quite a lot of work to do
to move them toward proficient," he said.
U.S. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige said
fourth-graders who score below basic on the NAEP test may be able to
read something, "but they cannot read at the level of expectation we
have for kids in the fourth grade."
Shakrani said that the international math and science test
given to fourth-graders asks students to do basic tasks-add,
subtract, multiply and divide. The NAEP test adds word problems,
dreaded by many in that age group. "We may ask the question, 'If you
have 21 toys and you were able to purchase 31 more, how many will
you have in total?' " Shakrani said.
The international reading test given in 1991 was much the
same way, Mullis said. "It was anchored pretty much in basic
comprehension skills," she said, while the NAEP test demanded some
analysis of what students had read.
Mullis said she is part of a group that is supervising a new
international reading test, whose results should be ready in a year.
The group will meet in Hungary this week to discuss how to score
reliably across national and linguistic lines. It plans to include
more analytical questions than existed 10 years ago.
"I don't know about the 40 percent, whether there are many
more or fewer fourth-graders who can't read," Mullis said, "but
there are a lot of elementary students in the United States who do
not read adequately."
~Amelia~
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
