Post by doctorwho on Oct 18, 2010 10:34:50 GMT -6
Okay, now I know this has got to be the stupidest state in the union-- why is the passing threshhold for ISAT's now at 55% correct ? 55%=- really? Do our lead educational people think that 55% is going to cut it in this world ? What next lower the GPA requirements to 55% also. 60% is horrendous as most private schools it sits at 70%.
The dumbing down of requirements does not bode well for anyone except those who get measuring on this supposedly passing %.
the tepid defense of this bullcrap in the article is nonsense. Maybe the questions are slightly harder than an 'average' class- maybe not...but that would also mean that those who score well ONLY score better than average on average questions, not advanced or honors or anything like it. Maybe why the disconmnect between ACT and ISAT - and why SAT's not even encouraged for many in public schools.
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www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-isat-answers-20101018,0,308277.story?page=2
New ISAT lets kids pass with more wrong answers
Test experts question point decline; state officials cite statistical adjustments
Illinois has been cutting the number of points required to pass annual achievement exams, allowing children to flub more questions but still be deemed "proficient."
Back in 2006, it took 36 of 56 points — about 64 percent — to pass the fifth-grade reading test. Now, it's 31 points, or 55 percent.
The third- and fourth-grade reading tests used to require 61 percent of possible points. This year, it's 54 percent.
Compared with 2006, fewer correct answers are required to pass 11 of 12 Illinois Standards Achievement Tests in reading and math, state data show, raising questions about how much students really have to know.
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Meanwhile, passing rates on the exams have risen, assuring parents and the public that schoolchildren are making gains.
State education officials attribute the declines in points required to pass to routine statistical practices, but testing experts question the changes, which come as schools here and elsewhere face mounting pressure to get more students to pass exams.
In Illinois, passing requirements have dipped most dramatically on reading tests for third- through eighth-graders, which help parents gauge how well their children know vocabulary and understand what they have read. But math tests also have seen declines in correct answers required.
It took 36 of 76 points to pass the fifth-grade math exam in 2006. That dropped to 35 points in 2008; to 33 in 2009 and to 32 this year.
"It absolutely does not make sense,'' said Sherry Rose-Bond, a Columbus, Ohio, school testing official on the board of directors of the National Council on Measurement in Education. She also is a past president of the National Association of Test Directors. While slight variations can be expected in correct answers required year by year, she said, "You're not going to have this steady downward tangent."
Robert Linn, a professor emeritus of education and past president of the American Educational Research Association, agreed that a steady or big drop in passing requirements "would not be typical unless the state is intentionally trying to do that."
But Illinois State Board of Education officials said the changes stem from a standard statistical process in testing called "equating," which is used to ensure tests are comparable across years, even when the difficulty of questions varies.
When test questions are easier, more correct answers can be required to pass. When test questions are harder, fewer correct answers can meet the passing bar.
Equating is not simple or error-free, according to test experts, and Illinois changed the method it used for reading and math tests in 2008, in favor of what officials call a more precise model.
"We are now using the model used throughout the industry," said Rense Lange, a psychometrician at the state board. "We find that the new model fits well, and we have no reason to think there is anything wrong."
He and other state officials dispute that there's been an ongoing, downtrend trend in correct answers required, stressing that between 2008 and 2010, passing requirements remained virtually flat. That conclusion is based on comparing average points required to pass across all grades rather than focusing on what happened in particular grades.
Using that same approach, state officials said average passing requirements declined by 2.5 points in reading between 2006 and 2010, and by 2.3 points in math.
Psychometrician John Wick, a testing consultant and former testing adviser for the state board, is very familiar with equating, and he senses something amiss.
Wick has highlighted declines in ISAT passing requirements in a study posted on his Web site, including the steady drops in fifth-grade reading since 2006.
State testing consultants may attribute the changes to "an innocent equating issue," Wick wrote, but equating should involve small changes "usually driven by randomness.'' The drops he's seeing "do not look random to me."
In the high-stakes world of state testing, it's not unusual for suspicions to arise.
Across the nation, passing state tests is critical for schools and districts.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools face sanctions if too many kids flunk math or reading tests. And the percentage of students required to pass has been rising, putting more pressure on educators. This year in Illinois, 77.5 percent of students had to pass the exams, up from 70 percent in 2009. By 2013-14, all students must pass in Illinois and other states.
Children who pass state exams are considered proficient, but what it means to be proficient is called into question when passing requirements go down, Wick said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Register with Chicago Tribune and receive free newsletters and alerts >>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How much 'excellence' is shown when an 8th grader, in math, scores 40 percent correct on the test and is declared 'proficient?'" Wick wrote in his study. The state lowered the passing bar on the eighth-grade math test in 2006, part of a revamp of ISAT exams.
In Texas this year, school administrators and lawmakers were skeptical of gains on state exams, and newspapers reported that the state had required fewer correct answers to pass most tests. Texas, too, cited standard statistical methods as an explanation.
In New York, state education officials acknowledged that state tests had become too easy, inflating scores, so they increased the number of right answers required this year. Passing rates plummeted, making headlines this summer.
Illinois officials announced last month another year of achievement gains, with higher passing rates across most tests given last spring. Local results will be made public this month, though many parents have been given their child's results.
The reports that were sent home break out the number of questions a student answered correctly in each area, with comparisons to the average number correct at the child's school and district, and the state.
The Tribune began reviewing that data and found that today's students were getting more wrong answers in several test areas compared with five years ago. Even so, passing rates statewide had risen.
The newspaper then requested information showing how many points have been required to pass the 14 ISAT tests in reading, math and science for the last five years, and was provided the data by the State Board of Education.
On half the ISAT exams, the Tribune found, students can get less than 50 percent of total points and still pass.
Testing officials caution that a state achievement exam is not like a test at school, when a 90 percent usually means an A, an 80 percent a B, and at least 60 percent, or a D, means you pass.
The passing threshold may dip lower on a state achievement exam, which tends to have harder questions compared with a regular classroom test, said Linn, the past president of the American Educational Research Association.
Passing requirements on state exams vary across the country.
Linn said the states he works with require about 55 percent to 60 percent of correct answers to pass. Only four ISAT exams in Illinois are in that range now.
On ISAT tests, points are based largely on multiple-choice questions, with scores on a few longer-response items blended in to create what is called a weighted raw score.
Joyce Zurkowski, the board of education's chief testing administrator, said she encourages parents not to look at raw scores because the difficulty of questions varies across years.
The state converts raw scores to commonly-used "scale scores," which determine if a child passes. Scale scores haven't changed since 2006, but the correct answers required to meet most of them has gone down. That information is not readily available to the public.
Of all reading and math exams, sixth-grade reading is the only test that requires more correct points — one more — compared with 2006. Children also take science exams, which don't matter when it comes to judging schools or facing sanctions under the federal law. Those passing requirements have barely budged.
It still takes 36 of 75 points to pass the seventh-grade science test, the same as in 2006, and the fourth-grade science test requires one more point to pass compared with five years ago.
Still, Illinois students can be considered proficient in science even if they answer roughly half the questions wrong.
Whether children know — or don't know — the concepts tested is critical for districts trying to boost achievement, and educators rely on ISAT scores to help determine classroom strategies.
Elgin-based School District U-46, the second-largest district in the state, brought in outside reviewers last year to assess reading performance and instruction, including analyzing test data to see where children were having the most difficulties.
They found that "word analysis" — a vocabulary skill that helps build reading comprehension — was the biggest challenge. The district this year began new reading programs to address it, said Susan Ali, U-46's director of literacy instruction and learning.
In Naperville Community Unit School District 203, educators do in-depth analysis of performance on each area of the state tests, said David Chiszar, director of research and assessment.
He was skeptical about any implication that ISAT tests have been made easier to pass, calling it a "conspiracy theory."
"You'd have to overtly say, 'I want to make the test easier,''' Chiszar said. "The state would have to be monkeying around with the data behind the scenes and lying to us.''
The dumbing down of requirements does not bode well for anyone except those who get measuring on this supposedly passing %.
the tepid defense of this bullcrap in the article is nonsense. Maybe the questions are slightly harder than an 'average' class- maybe not...but that would also mean that those who score well ONLY score better than average on average questions, not advanced or honors or anything like it. Maybe why the disconmnect between ACT and ISAT - and why SAT's not even encouraged for many in public schools.
-----------------------
www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-isat-answers-20101018,0,308277.story?page=2
New ISAT lets kids pass with more wrong answers
Test experts question point decline; state officials cite statistical adjustments
Illinois has been cutting the number of points required to pass annual achievement exams, allowing children to flub more questions but still be deemed "proficient."
Back in 2006, it took 36 of 56 points — about 64 percent — to pass the fifth-grade reading test. Now, it's 31 points, or 55 percent.
The third- and fourth-grade reading tests used to require 61 percent of possible points. This year, it's 54 percent.
Compared with 2006, fewer correct answers are required to pass 11 of 12 Illinois Standards Achievement Tests in reading and math, state data show, raising questions about how much students really have to know.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Register with Chicago Tribune and receive free newsletters and alerts >>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, passing rates on the exams have risen, assuring parents and the public that schoolchildren are making gains.
State education officials attribute the declines in points required to pass to routine statistical practices, but testing experts question the changes, which come as schools here and elsewhere face mounting pressure to get more students to pass exams.
In Illinois, passing requirements have dipped most dramatically on reading tests for third- through eighth-graders, which help parents gauge how well their children know vocabulary and understand what they have read. But math tests also have seen declines in correct answers required.
It took 36 of 76 points to pass the fifth-grade math exam in 2006. That dropped to 35 points in 2008; to 33 in 2009 and to 32 this year.
"It absolutely does not make sense,'' said Sherry Rose-Bond, a Columbus, Ohio, school testing official on the board of directors of the National Council on Measurement in Education. She also is a past president of the National Association of Test Directors. While slight variations can be expected in correct answers required year by year, she said, "You're not going to have this steady downward tangent."
Robert Linn, a professor emeritus of education and past president of the American Educational Research Association, agreed that a steady or big drop in passing requirements "would not be typical unless the state is intentionally trying to do that."
But Illinois State Board of Education officials said the changes stem from a standard statistical process in testing called "equating," which is used to ensure tests are comparable across years, even when the difficulty of questions varies.
When test questions are easier, more correct answers can be required to pass. When test questions are harder, fewer correct answers can meet the passing bar.
Equating is not simple or error-free, according to test experts, and Illinois changed the method it used for reading and math tests in 2008, in favor of what officials call a more precise model.
"We are now using the model used throughout the industry," said Rense Lange, a psychometrician at the state board. "We find that the new model fits well, and we have no reason to think there is anything wrong."
He and other state officials dispute that there's been an ongoing, downtrend trend in correct answers required, stressing that between 2008 and 2010, passing requirements remained virtually flat. That conclusion is based on comparing average points required to pass across all grades rather than focusing on what happened in particular grades.
Using that same approach, state officials said average passing requirements declined by 2.5 points in reading between 2006 and 2010, and by 2.3 points in math.
Psychometrician John Wick, a testing consultant and former testing adviser for the state board, is very familiar with equating, and he senses something amiss.
Wick has highlighted declines in ISAT passing requirements in a study posted on his Web site, including the steady drops in fifth-grade reading since 2006.
State testing consultants may attribute the changes to "an innocent equating issue," Wick wrote, but equating should involve small changes "usually driven by randomness.'' The drops he's seeing "do not look random to me."
In the high-stakes world of state testing, it's not unusual for suspicions to arise.
Across the nation, passing state tests is critical for schools and districts.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools face sanctions if too many kids flunk math or reading tests. And the percentage of students required to pass has been rising, putting more pressure on educators. This year in Illinois, 77.5 percent of students had to pass the exams, up from 70 percent in 2009. By 2013-14, all students must pass in Illinois and other states.
Children who pass state exams are considered proficient, but what it means to be proficient is called into question when passing requirements go down, Wick said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Register with Chicago Tribune and receive free newsletters and alerts >>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How much 'excellence' is shown when an 8th grader, in math, scores 40 percent correct on the test and is declared 'proficient?'" Wick wrote in his study. The state lowered the passing bar on the eighth-grade math test in 2006, part of a revamp of ISAT exams.
In Texas this year, school administrators and lawmakers were skeptical of gains on state exams, and newspapers reported that the state had required fewer correct answers to pass most tests. Texas, too, cited standard statistical methods as an explanation.
In New York, state education officials acknowledged that state tests had become too easy, inflating scores, so they increased the number of right answers required this year. Passing rates plummeted, making headlines this summer.
Illinois officials announced last month another year of achievement gains, with higher passing rates across most tests given last spring. Local results will be made public this month, though many parents have been given their child's results.
The reports that were sent home break out the number of questions a student answered correctly in each area, with comparisons to the average number correct at the child's school and district, and the state.
The Tribune began reviewing that data and found that today's students were getting more wrong answers in several test areas compared with five years ago. Even so, passing rates statewide had risen.
The newspaper then requested information showing how many points have been required to pass the 14 ISAT tests in reading, math and science for the last five years, and was provided the data by the State Board of Education.
On half the ISAT exams, the Tribune found, students can get less than 50 percent of total points and still pass.
Testing officials caution that a state achievement exam is not like a test at school, when a 90 percent usually means an A, an 80 percent a B, and at least 60 percent, or a D, means you pass.
The passing threshold may dip lower on a state achievement exam, which tends to have harder questions compared with a regular classroom test, said Linn, the past president of the American Educational Research Association.
Passing requirements on state exams vary across the country.
Linn said the states he works with require about 55 percent to 60 percent of correct answers to pass. Only four ISAT exams in Illinois are in that range now.
On ISAT tests, points are based largely on multiple-choice questions, with scores on a few longer-response items blended in to create what is called a weighted raw score.
Joyce Zurkowski, the board of education's chief testing administrator, said she encourages parents not to look at raw scores because the difficulty of questions varies across years.
The state converts raw scores to commonly-used "scale scores," which determine if a child passes. Scale scores haven't changed since 2006, but the correct answers required to meet most of them has gone down. That information is not readily available to the public.
Of all reading and math exams, sixth-grade reading is the only test that requires more correct points — one more — compared with 2006. Children also take science exams, which don't matter when it comes to judging schools or facing sanctions under the federal law. Those passing requirements have barely budged.
It still takes 36 of 75 points to pass the seventh-grade science test, the same as in 2006, and the fourth-grade science test requires one more point to pass compared with five years ago.
Still, Illinois students can be considered proficient in science even if they answer roughly half the questions wrong.
Whether children know — or don't know — the concepts tested is critical for districts trying to boost achievement, and educators rely on ISAT scores to help determine classroom strategies.
Elgin-based School District U-46, the second-largest district in the state, brought in outside reviewers last year to assess reading performance and instruction, including analyzing test data to see where children were having the most difficulties.
They found that "word analysis" — a vocabulary skill that helps build reading comprehension — was the biggest challenge. The district this year began new reading programs to address it, said Susan Ali, U-46's director of literacy instruction and learning.
In Naperville Community Unit School District 203, educators do in-depth analysis of performance on each area of the state tests, said David Chiszar, director of research and assessment.
He was skeptical about any implication that ISAT tests have been made easier to pass, calling it a "conspiracy theory."
"You'd have to overtly say, 'I want to make the test easier,''' Chiszar said. "The state would have to be monkeying around with the data behind the scenes and lying to us.''
