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ANOTHER INVALID WAY TO EVALUATE SCHOOLS
What students do after graduating could determine their high school’s rating
Indiana already misuses standardized tests, developed to measure student achievement, to rate teachers and school. Here we find an absurd proposal to grade schools based on the success or failure of students after graduation -- as if there are no out-of-school variables to success.
From Chalkbeat
High schools in Indiana may soon be rated on what their students do after graduation — not just how many of them pass state tests and earn a diploma.
A committee of educators and lawmakers is considering changing Indiana’s high school grading system to account for the percentage of students that are enlisted, employed, or enrolled in post-secondary education within a year of graduating.
This approach is meant to align with the creation of graduation pathways, which offer Indiana high schoolers multiple options for completing the requirements to graduate. Students choose their path based on their interests, such as going to college or earning a technical certification.
CHARTERS
Alabama Only Had 4 Charter Schools, So Betsy DeVos Gave The State $25 Million to Get More
From Diane Ravitch
Betsy DeVos was sad to see that Alabama had only four charter schools. So she awarded $25 million to an organization tasked with generating more private charters to drain money away from the state’s underfunded public schools.
The state charter commission has been mired in controversy since giving its approval to a Gulen charter school in a rural district where it was not wanted.
ILEARN
The biggest news items from the past week were about the new Indiana test, ILEARN.
Harmless? Hardly: Hurt spread wide by new standardized test
Speak Up! Speak Out! for your children and grandchildren! They, and their teachers and schools, are so much more than this test!
From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Taxpayers: You're picking up the bill for the state's broken assessment system. Indiana paid $39.7 million to the American Institutes for Research for the new ILEARN test. The British-owned Pearson Education was paid $38 million for the last version of the ISTEP+ assessment. When legislators boast of the large proportion of tax dollars spent on K-12 education, the figure includes the money paid to test vendors.
Hold harmless? Too late. Let's hold someone responsible.
Superintendents: Make one-year pause on ILEARN scores, school grades permanent
From the Journal & Courier
Standardized test scores should only be used for diagnostic purposes and nothing more. Remember former state Rep. Ray Richardson? Thirty-five years ago he created the legislation that called for a standardized test specifically designed to help teachers figure out which of their students needed help. Thus, ISTEP was born. Now, 35 years later, he regrets getting that legislation passed. As reported by Matthew Tully in the Indianapolis Star on Jan. 28, 2016, Richardson says, “It’s being used exclusively to grade schools and teachers. … That was never the intent.”
Allen County superintendents urge community to look past low ILEARN results
From WANE.com
Even with the lower scores, the superintendents said that they are not overly concerned with the low scores because they do not use the results in any way. The tests are administered at the end of one school year and the results do not come until the start of the next, so there is no way to follow up with students who may of been struggling.
Search for your school’s 2019 ILEARN results
This article has a link so you can look up your school’s ILEARN scores. Not happy with what you see? Call a legislator and tell them they need to listen to and value the input of actual educators over business leaders and politicians.
From Chalkbeat
The first year of ILEARN scores were released Wednesday. As many educators warned, results were low, with only 37.1% of students passing both math and English.
The new test is more rigorous than previous versions because it is computer adaptive, meaning questions get harder or easier as students get answers right or wrong, and focuses on different skills more closely linked to college and career readiness.
Indiana education officials delay release of A-F grades amid poor ILEARN scores
From Chalkbeat
Such a move undercuts the test’s role as an accountability metric for the state. It also has fueled debate over whether the test is a useful measure of student achievement.
This year’s test scores didn’t go down as significantly as they did in 2015, but did see the lowest statewide passing percentages in recent history. State officials said they were expecting to see a drop because of the tests new format and increased rigor.
Fewer than half of Hoosier students pass ILEARN
"When asked why Indiana finds itself here again, McCormick said, 'we are who we vote for.'"
From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Fewer than half of Indiana's students passed the new ILEARN standardized test – a significant drop that state officials already are trying to combat.
In all, 47.9% of students in grades 3 through 8 were deemed proficient in English Language Arts and 47.8% in math. Just 37.1% passed both.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick acknowledged that implementation dips usually come with a new assessment. Compared to last year, scores dropped 16% in English and 11% in math.
But she defended the students – noting college entrance scores and those on the National Assessment of Educational Progress show improvement.
“Their performance is not backsliding,” McCormick said. “There are promising trends of student performance. This assessment and threshold was much more rigorous.”
ILEARN fails as effective student measuring stick
From Chris Himsel, Superintendent of Northwest Allen County Schools wrote this op-ed in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
To stop perpetuating the fallacy of state-mandated testing, we need your help.
We need your help in demanding that policymakers reduce and deemphasize state-mandated testing. We need your help in demanding that policymakers refocus on investing in the development of the many unique talents possessed by each child.
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