Category Archives: Testing

Gainesville Sun Forum: Too Many Tests

Posted on by

dmbtestThe Gainesville Sun, The Bob Graham Center at the University of Florida, and the Alachua County League of  Women Voters sponsored a panel on the over abundance of required tests in Florida public schools.  Moderated by Nathan Crabbe, the panel included Superintendent of Schools Dr. Owen Roberts, Dr. Sue  Legg, President, Alachua County League of Women Voters, Susan Bowles, Alachua County Teacher of the Year, and Shan Goff, Policy Director of the Florida Foundation for Excellence in Education.

The discussion was wide ranging.  Questions were raised about the validity of the new Florida Standards Assessment, the rationale for and impact of annual testing, the use and misuse of achievement test scores for teacher and school accountability.  Dr. Roberts spoke about the need for quality preschool educational programs rather than tests that do not help children learn.  He laughed and said: If you want to help a pig gain, you feed it.  You don’t just keep weighing it.  Children’s brains need to be nourished, not measured to make them expand.  You can watch the video here.

Sandy Stenoff posted this comment on Facebook:

Susan Bowles & Sue Legg knock it out of the park on an education panel!   In response to the FEE line about needing benchmark tests to assess students, Susan Bowles countered, to audience applause,
“I am capable of assessing my children,”Sue wrapped it up with common sense, “Let’s not rush into assigning consequences for this test until we get these problems fixed,” I love the women in this state fighting for our children!

 

Making Your Voices Heard

Posted on by

southern legal counsel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many ways to be heard.  Responding to the DOE webinar and survey is one.  Writing your legislators both at the state and national levels is another.  Showing up  at school board meetings can help.  In the end, we will also need the courts.

There is a lawsuit:  Citizens for Strong Schools that comes to trial in March.  The suit supports public schools based on Florida’s constitutional requirement for a unified, strong, efficient, high quality system.  Note the word ‘unified’.  The school reform movement advocates privatizing our schools by creating charters and tax credit scholarships to private schools.

Testing is the accountability strategy for school reform.

Southern Legal Counsel is the firm that has filed the Citizen’s for Strong Schools lawsuit.  They are operating pro bono.  If you can help them raise money to cover expenses, then go to their website.  You can donate there.  Just click the DONATE button.  Any amount can help.

 

A + School Grade System Fails: New System Proposed

Posted on by

school report

There is a debate about the validity of school grades.  There are reasons to think twice about releasing the 2015 results.  School grade formulas change regularly, so it is difficult to know whether the grading formula, the characteristics of the student body, and/or statewide test results have the greatest impact on a school grade.  The school grade formula will change again this year.  In addition, the grading system has a new set of challenges.

What will happen with the new school grade system that calculates achievement gains based on scores from two different tests:  FCAT and FSA?  Even if the passing standard is equated to ensure the same percentage of students pass, it does not mean that students are proficient on the new standards.  It means that school grades will move around until the DOE matches the items with the standards as suggested in the FSA validity study.

I looked at Palm Beach’s school grades over the last five years.  Grades in most schools shift from one year to the next.  This cannot be due to changes in instruction!  Then, I looked at how grades were calculated.  Therein ‘lies the rub’.

Continue reading→

Testing, When is Enough, Enough?

Posted on by

dmbtestI wrote this piece as a lead in to the testing forum sponsored by the Gainesville Sun on September 16th.  The issues are there.  So are some ways to think a little differently about current tests and testing alternatives.  The article was published today.  It starts like this:  “Florida has been using tests to drive instruction for years”.  It ends with putting Florida’s legislature to the test.   In between are  some ways to think about improving our schools.  See the article here.

Nathan Crabbe, the Gainesville Sun’s editor, announced a forum on testing to be held on September 16th at 6 p.m. in Pugh Hall on the University of Florida  campus.  He will moderate a panel that includes Superintendent Owen Roberts, Sue Legg (President Alachua County League of Women Voters, Susan Bowles (Teacher of the Year), and Shan Goff, Foundation for Excellence in Education.

Florida Test Reform: What Might We Expect from the legislature?

Posted on by

critical-thinking (2)There will be hearings in the legislature about reforms to Florida’s state-wide testing.  The Seminole County school district is leading a movement to replace the FSA at least for high school graduation.  Senators Gaetz and Legg have made public statements about the need for reform.

What can we realistically expect?

Continue reading→

FSA Score Results: What Parent’s Should Know

Posted on by

dmbtestI have reviewed the FSA validity study and the response by the Florida Department of Education.  It boils down to a few key issues:

  1. 1.  Students should be held harmless from promotion, graduation and placement in remediation courses.
  2. 2.  Scores based on FSA standards should be delayed until independent reviews of the alignment of test questions with state standards is completed.
  3. 3.  If close alignment with standards is not meaningful (as with the Utah test questions), then less expensive, nationally normed tests should be considered.
  4.  4.  Performance standards should not be set until the alignment of item complexity with performance standards is resolved.  Questions that are too complex or too simple for a given performance level could skew passing standards and the interpretation of what students should know and be able to do at each level.  School grades and student growth measures used in teacher evaluations could be negatively impacted.  The interpretation of performance levels would change from year to year due to variations in questions in different test forms in the same year and across years.

Pam Stewart Moves Ahead on FSA Scores

Posted on by

standardized_testCommissioner of Education Pam Stewart makes no mention of the FSA validity study qualifications regarding the validity of the FSA for different uses.  She summarizes the study in three bullets.  Then, she states that the FSA is an accurate way to measure student’s mastery of the standards.  She announces that group level scores will be used to calculate teacher evaluations and student level cut scores.

The report says much more. The devil is in the details.  Important details.  This post compares the FSA report finding to the Commissioner’s statement.  There are recommendations in the report that are not referenced in the statement.  These could make a difference in what scores mean.

Continue reading→

FSA Validity Study Released

Posted on by

image001When we ask if a test is valid, it is critical to ask:  valid for what purpose?  The  report on the validity of the Florida FSA test was released today.  There were findings from six studies conducted by Alpine Testing Solutions and EdCount LLC.

Given that there were six sets of results and conclusions, the researchers did not state that the test as whole was valid.  Let’s look at each study’s conclusions.  Even more interesting are the results of the analyses taken together and called Cross Study Conclusions.

The study found reasons to be cautious about some of the uses of the scores.  The researchers reported that the Florida DOE did not intend to report scale scores or performance standards this first year.  Students would receive a percentile ranking, the number of points earned out of the number possible, and the average number of points statewide by category.  Interim cut scores for ELA grade 3 and Algebra I would be set by percentile equating based on the FCAT cut scores.

Continue reading→

Florida LWV Legislative Priorities Due

Posted on by

legislation1The Florida LWV legislative priorities are coming due.  Please make your voices heard within your local leagues.  In order to be able to advocate for our Education Team issues, we have to make it into the top priorities statewide.

Make education tops for your local league.  Here is a list of topics we expect to come up in the legislative session.  Remember that committee meetings start in September.

Continue reading→