Category Archives: Test scores

KQED MindShift: How Will Students Perform? Depends on Teachers’ Expectations

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Teacher expectations can affect the performance of the children they teach.

The first psychologist to systematically study this was a Harvard professor named Robert Rosenthal, who in 1964 did a wonderful experiment at an elementary school south of San Francisco.

The idea was to figure out what would happen if teachers were told that certain kids in their class were destined to succeed, so Rosenthal took a normal IQ test and dressed it up as a different test.

via How Will Students Perform? Depends on Teachers’ Expectations.

The Reporter: Dixon Unified School District trustees to mull testing, budgets

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Test results and budgets are on the agenda when Dixon Unified School District governing board meets today.

Jesus Contreras, the district’s senior director of educational services, will update trustees on recent results of Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests, the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) and the California English Language Development (CELDT) test.

via Dixon Unified School District trustees to mull testing, budgets.

The Educated Guess: Steinberg hoping this time Brown will sign bill changing API

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by John Fensterwald

Darrell Steinberg is the epitome of persistence – or a glutton for rejection. Undeterred by a stinging message accompanying a veto a year ago, the president pro tem of the Senate tried again, authoring a bill, heading once more to Gov. Jerry Brown, that would change the metrics of the state’s school accountability system.

Steinberg said he has had a number of conversations with Brown on the matter, and has made amendments to accommodate the governor. But he said Thursday that he still doesn’t know if Brown will sign it – or send it back to him. And Brown’s advisers aren’t commenting about pending bills, as usual.

via Steinberg hoping this time Brown will sign bill changing API – by John Fensterwald.

SCOE’s Facebook Wall: Solano County students improve in 2012 STAR Test

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Solano County Office of Education’s Facebook Wall
FAIRFIELD – Solano County students continue to demonstrate strong gains in English-language arts and mathematics, according to the results of California’s 2012 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test results. Approximately 48,400 Solano County students participated in the 2012 STAR program. The results were released to the public by the California Department of Education on August 31.

The STAR tests were administered in the spring of 2012 to all California public school students in grades 2 through 11. The tests were developed specifically to assess students’ knowledge of the California content standards. The State Board of Education adopted these standards, which specify what all children in California are expected to know and be able to do in each grade or course. Scores are used for calculating each school’s Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

via Solano County students improve in 2012 STAR Test results

Achievement gap cont….

SacBee: Bill revises school rating system

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California schools would be judged less by student test scores under a bill lawmakers are sending to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Senate Bill 1458 by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg de-emphasizes standardized tests in evaluating schools, and requires other factors – such as graduation rates, college-going rates, and other measures – to be used in calculating a school’s Academic Performance Index. It cleared the Legislature on Friday when the Senate approved it, 23-13.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/01/4777707/bill-revises-school-rating-system.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

via Bill revises school rating system.

The Reporter: STAR results mixed in Solano County

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By Richard Bammer/ RBammer@TheReporter.com

The 2012 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test results indicate a decidedly mixed report card for Vacaville-area schools on annual statewide exams in English, math, science and history, with Solano County results generally lower than statewide outcomes, according to data released by the state Department of Education.

Still, the results, made public Friday, mark the ninth straight year California students improved their overall performance on the tests, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, noting the progress despite several successive pared-down education budgets.

Some 4.7 million students statewide participated in the testing program, with 57 percent scoring proficient or above in English-language arts and 51 percent scoring at proficient or above in mathematics, the highest percentage since the tests were fully aligned in 2003 to California’s content standards, which describe what students should know for each grade and the subject tested.

via STAR results mixed in Solano County.

Suisun City Patch: Solano County Students Improve on 2012 STAR Results

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Solano County students continue to demonstrate strong gains in English-language arts and mathematics, according to the results of California’s 2012 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test results.

Approximately 48,400 Solano County students participated in the 2012 STAR program. The results were released to the public by the California Department of Education on August 31.

via Solano County Students Improve on 2012 STAR Results.

EdSource Today: Test scores rise, but achievement gaps persist

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By Susan Frey]

Student performance on California’s achievement tests in almost every subject at almost every grade level by every ethnicity — despite recent cutbacks to education funding, according to 2012 STAR (Standardized Testings and Reporting)  results released by the California Department of Education today.

But a substantial achievement gap persists between low-income and higher-income students, and between African American and Latino students and their white and Asian peers.

Overall, 57 percent of the 4.7 million students tested proficient or advanced in English and 51 percent scored at least proficient in math — a substantial improvement since 2003, when the tests were first based on state standards and included in a school’s Academic Performance Index (API). In 2003, 35 percent tested proficient or better in both English and math.

via Test scores rise, but achievement gaps persist – by Susan Frey.

Daily Republic: Younger Fairfield-Suisun children fare best in STAR testing

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by Danny Bernardini

FAIRFIELD — Results for the 2012 California STAR tests — Standardized Testing and Recording — show improvement across the board for children in local elementary schools and highlight some areas that need work at the high school level.

Test scores for the Fairfield-Suisun School District this year showed a higher percentage, compared to last year, of children at basic level or above for those in second through sixth grade in English and math.

At the next level, Grange Middle School stood out, with 91 percent of the students in the proficient or advanced category for math. That included 95 percent of seventh-graders.

via Younger Fairfield-Suisun children fare best in STAR testing.

The Educated Guess: Another study questions state’s push for 8th grade Algebra

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by John Fensterwald

At the state’s prodding, the proportion of students taking Algebra in eighth grade increased 60 percent over the past decade – a significant achievement. But there has not been a parallel success in encouraging students to continue on to become proficient in more advanced math courses. The pipeline to higher math has grown, but so has the leakage: the percentage of students who fall by the wayside.

And, for students pushed into Algebra I unprepared in eighth grade, the state policy has been a disaster, with very few students who repeat Algebra – some two or three times – ever passing the state exam.

via Another study questions state’s push for 8th grade Algebra – by John Fensterwald.

The Educated Guess: Report questions efficacy and fairness of college placement tests

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By Susan Frey

The tests used by many community colleges and universities across the nation to determine whether incoming freshmen are ready for college-level courses are often inaccurate and pose roadblocks to student success in college, according to new research summarized in a report released Wednesday.

“With education reformers keenly focused on remedial education, new research using longitudinal data systems questions the efficacy and fairness of the very tests on which the system of remedial education relies,” says author Pamela Burdman in Where to Begin? The evolving role of placement exams for students starting college. The report was supported by Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping community college students, its affiliates, and Jobs for the Future, which develops policy solutions aimed at college readiness and career advancement for low-income youth.

The research shows that high school grades are a better predictor of student success in college than placement test scores, Burdman said. She pointed to a study of students who graduated from Long Beach Unified school district and then attended Long Beach City College. Ninety percent of the students were placed in remedial education and had to take, on average, more than five semesters of remedial coursework. However, the study found that students’ high school grade point averages and their discipline records were much better predictors of college success than the placement tests. If the college had relied on those predictors, the the number of freshmen allowed to take college-level English courses would have risen by 500 percent.

via Report questions efficacy and fairness of college placement tests – by Susan Frey.

Education Next » Inside Schools: Capturing the Dimensions of Effective Teaching

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by Thomas J. Kane

When the world is in danger and it’s time to summon the superheroes to save the day, my six-year-old son dives into his toy bin. Just like the comic-book authors, he emerges with a diverse team of superheroes, each with a different superpower. (I’ve noticed he never chooses three Supermen or four Spidermen, for instance.) One will have awesome physical strength but lack strategic vision; one will fly or run with superhuman speed but be impulsive and irresponsible; and another will lack strength and speed but make up for it with tactical genius (often combined with some dazzling ability, such as creating a force field or reading minds). The team always prevails, as its combined strengths compensate for the weaknesses of its members.

In the largest study of instructional practice ever undertaken, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project is searching for tools to save the world from perfunctory teacher evaluations. In our first report (released in December 2010), we described the potential usefulness of student surveys for providing feedback to teachers. For our second report, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) scored 7,500 lesson videos for 1,333 teachers in six school districts using five different classroom-observation instruments. We compared those data against student achievement gains on state tests, gains on supplemental tests, and surveys from more than 44,500 students.

via Capturing the Dimensions of Effective Teaching.

The Educated Guess: Another report urges changing API

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By John Fensterwald – Educated Guess

A report this week from a Washington think tank bolsters Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s call for significantly revising the state’s primary accountability measure, the Academic Performance Index. Now, if Gov. Jerry Brown would only read it…

“Ready by Design: A College and Career Ready Agenda for California,” published by Education Sector, recommends that the API shift focus from students’ performance on standardized tests to measures of readiness for college and careers, such as high school graduation rates, results of Advanced Placement tests, and percentages of students needing remediation in college. That’s essentially what Steinberg’s bill, SB 1458, would do without specifying what measures would be included, and that is what his bill last year, SB 547, would have done, had Gov. Jerry Brown not vetoed it with a snarky message sharply critical of quantitative gauges of school achievement.

via Another report urges changing API – by John Fensterwald – Educated Guess.

The Educated Guess: API has served its purpose (if it ever did)

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By John Fensterwald – Educated Guess

A court decision this week involving Los Angeles Unified has raised again the contentious issue of evaluating teachers using standardized test scores. But a recent report for the think tank Education Sector recommends adopting the same method developed by Los Angeles Unified to replace the Academic Performance Index as a statewide way of measuring schools’ progress.

Called Academic Growth over Time, AGT is a value-added model that compares students’ actual performance on state tests to their predicted performance based on demographic characteristics – family income, language, and ethnicity – as well as past test scores. The intent is to distinguish factors of learning that schools can control from those they can’t.

The use of AGT to evaluate individual teachers has sharply divided teachers in Los Angeles Unified. United Teachers Los Angeles opposes using AGT in any manner, while teachers affiliated with Teach Plus Los Angeles and Students Matter support using it as one of several measures, counting for no more than a third of an evaluation. But less controversial is the district’s use of AGT as a tool to evaluate schools, in part because it involves a larger number of student test scores and doesn’t call for high-stakes decisions affecting individual teachers’ careers. To the contrary, a schoolwide AGT can encourage collaboration and team-teaching

via API has served its purpose (if it ever did) – by John Fensterwald – Educated Guess.

Daily Republic: Fairfield-Suisun schools improve test score rankings

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by David DeBolt

FAIRFIELD — All but one school in the Fairfield-Suisun School District improved or retained its state ranking on standardized tests, according to state data released Thursday.

The California Department of Education ranks schools from one to 10, with 10 the highest score, on how students performed on the state tests. It also compared each school to schools around the state with similar demographics. In this category, all but three schools improved or retained their ranking.

The rankings were for tests taken in 2011, which the Daily Republic compared to rankings from 2010. Five schools — B. Gale Wilson, Crescent, Dan O. Root, Fairview and Suisun elementary schools — all improved by two points in the rankings, the biggest jump within the district. Nelda Mundy Elementary scored a 10 while Suisun Valley Elementary scored a nine.

via Fairfield-Suisun schools improve test score rankings.

The Educated Guess: Student scores must be factored in evaluations

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By John Fensterwald – Educated Guess

In a decision with statewide implications, a Superior Court judge ruled that Los Angeles Unified must include measures of student progress, including scores on state standardized tests, when evaluating teachers and principals.

But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant will leave it to the district, in negotiations with its teachers union and administrators union, to determine what other measures of student performance might also be included, how much weight to give them in an evaluation, and how exactly test scores and other measures should be used.

Chalfant’s decision would appear to strengthen Superintendent John Deasy’s push to move forward with a complex value-added system of measuring individual students’ progress on state standardized tests, called Academic Growth over Time. Deasy wants to introduce AGT on a test basis in a pilot evaluation program next year. But the unions remain adamantly opposed to AGT; Chalfant said the use of AGT as a measure of student progress is not his call to make; and today, hours before Chalfant is to meet again with parties in the lawsuit over evaluations, Los Angeles Unified school board member Steve Zimmer will propose barring AGT from staff evaluations. The school board will vote on his motion later this month.

via Student scores must be factored in evaluations – by John Fensterwald – Educated Guess.

The Educated Guess: Judge ready to rule on teacher evaluations

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By John Fensterwald – Educated Guess

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has promised to finish up this weekend his decision on whether state law requires school districts to consider student test scores in evaluating teachers.

A landmark ruling on behalf of students and parents suing Los Angeles Unified and the district’s teachers union would give Superintendent John Deasy the muscle of the law to press ahead with adopting growth in student performance as one of several metrics for  teacher evaluations. It would signal to other school districts that they must also do so in some fashion. A ruling against the plaintiffs might not change the status quo, since few school districts currently use student test scores in formal evaluations.

via Judge ready to rule on teacher evaluations – by John Fensterwald – Educated Guess.

The Reporter: Do state mandated tests devalue arts in Solano County schools?

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By Richard Bammer/RBammer@TheReporter.com

With the state casting a watchful eye on improving student scores on STAR tests, are the arts in Vacaville schools, particularly in elementaries, being undervalued, if not de-emphasized, and, thus, putting at risk the district’s goal of graduating well-rounded students?

via Do state mandated tests devalue arts in Solano County schools?.