I was watching the Nightly News and they had a segment on the above link. So I became curious as to Ohio's scores, so I found the NAEP website. It shows Ohio students are averaging above the national average. I then checked Georgia, because as the newscast stated:
Georgia says 87 percent of its fourth graders were proficient, while the federal test shows just 26 percent are.
But if you look at Georgia's profile
It does not state 87 percent of fourth graders were proficient; it states 58 percent were "Basic" and 26 percent were "Proficient" and 6 percent were "Advanced" Georgia also is not that far below the National Average for the Average Test score; 257 is the State average, 260 is the National Average.
So what gives? Is the NAEP wrong too? According to their website:
What Is NAEP?
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "the Nation's Report Card," is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Since 1969, assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and the arts.
So then I downloaded the PDF from The Education Trust
After reading the PDF, it appears to me, they are skewing the information. Georgia's results are listed correctly as far as the numbers Georgia reported on one part of the Education Trust research paper. Appendix C-1 (Page 20)
For Georgia 87% is listed as the number of Proficient and Above that Georgia is supposedly claiming yet that is not true. George states 26% are Proficient and 58% are Basic. Where that 87% comes from I have no clue, it's definitely not from the NAEP, and even with my less that "proficient" math 58 plus 26 plus 6 doesn't equal 87.
So what does this mean? Besides another reason that these proficiency tests are not going to help us do anything except see how well our children can respond to the big huge pressure plays made on them over these tests and how well their teachers can teach to the test rather than it being any real indication of how they are really progressing? I guess it also shows you that you can with any study make any set of data fit whatever type of agenda you are trying to advance.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The Details...
Financial resources & Fun!
Financial Resources:
Corporate Recovery
With a shaky stock market, now's a great time to invest in diamonds.
Fun!
Yard Signs Cheap
Yard Signs Cheap
Corporate Recovery
With a shaky stock market, now's a great time to invest in diamonds.
Fun!
Yard Signs Cheap
Yard Signs Cheap
Regular Reads
History Mike's Musings
Toledo Tales
Hooda Thunkit
Aaron's Blog
Along the Tracks
The Glitch
Roland's Ramblings
Judy's Jewels
I think about by Valbee
Toledo Speaks Out
Maggie Thurber's Thoughts
Color Orange Art
The Yippie Show
Progressive Toledo
Thoughts on TPS
Shanahan Select
Make A Difference
Toledo Perspectives
Toledo Tales
Hooda Thunkit
Aaron's Blog
Along the Tracks
The Glitch
Roland's Ramblings
Judy's Jewels
I think about by Valbee
Toledo Speaks Out
Maggie Thurber's Thoughts
Color Orange Art
The Yippie Show
Progressive Toledo
Thoughts on TPS
Shanahan Select
Make A Difference
Toledo Perspectives
Blog Archive
...
...
Thank you!
Thanks for visiting Liberal Common Sense...
14 comments:
If Georgia is that 'proficient,' we northeners ought to be on the look out, for that old axiom states, 'The South will rise again.'
Where's my musket?
I should have listed Ohio's numbers but they weren't included in the ABC News report.
36% "Proficient"
78% "Basic"
4% "Advanced"
but Ohio's average for the 4th grade reading test was above the national average. 267 (260)
I think it just shows that the people setting these things up need to go back to school and maybe try to understand the difference between test scores and actual knowledge. I think we do need a way to gauge learning, but there is no set standard that can work for everyone.
My 4th grade class was about a year or so ahead of the rest of the state in most subjects, but we weren't necessarily smarter. We got less time off and went to school longer during the day. It was also a private school with no overcrowding problems or violence that other Des Moines schools had. If I would have went to the local high school instead of the private school on the other side of town, it would have been halfway through my junior year when I would have been offered a math class I hadn't already had some study of
Its all a numbers game that states play- if scores go too low, they simply lower the standards the next year and claim some sort of miracle, the same way that Rod Paige did when he was Ed sect. in Houston. Part of it comes from NCLB standards that the feds mandated as part of the big government plan the Bush people brought in. Part of it is just a decades old shell game. They can make the numbers do whatever they want.
Its all a numbers game that states play...
Sure nuff. perhaps we could follow the 'Houston model.' Recall how Bush shose the superintedent of the Houston School District to be the Sec. Of Education because of the 'great job' he had done in those schools?
[pssst]
...they fudged the numbers!
State and Federal data conflicting? Wow. And here I thought that everyone was on the honor system and didi everything for the common good where everyone loved and cared for all and that life was perfect and the birds sing and dance with the other wildlife creatures and there was no war or hunger or need and everyone could play video games all day and all night with no one telling them to stop. Oops, soory. That's in the country I want to be a citizen in...Utopia. (See, I can write a long run on sentence like Heminway. Where's my breakfast and shotgun?)
I beginning to think that this idea was to help some D+ student get a job in government to read data wrong and misinform the public. But, I could be wrong. ;)
"skewing the information"
No! Surely "they" woudn't do THAT!
//sarcasm: off
No Child Left Behind=No Child Gets Ahead.
And America has become Lake Wobegone...
Numbers don't lie, but staticians can and obviously do.
Just like the ever popular "Four out of Five Dentists prefer..."
Makes you wonder what was the choice, as an example if you ask Five Dentists would trident gum be less harmful to teeth than eating straight sugar?
(lol)
:-)
:-)
Ah, add advertisers and staticians and then you really have some deception going on!
:-)
"...and then you really have some deception going on!"
read: Bush Administration
You know, liberal_dem, if Bush thought about you nearly as much as you thought about him, this world would be a very sad place indeed.
...and if he thought about anything, the world would be a better place....
"...they fudged the numbers!" --l_d
Now, ain't THAT the truth.
(And, the ALL do it...)
Post a Comment