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California achievement tests harder than most others', study finds
by Nanette Asimov
For years, California's top educators have claimed that their statewide achievement tests were harder than almost any other state's - an easy explanation, perhaps, for why fewer than half of students score "proficient" in English and math.
Now a new study comparing statewide exams in 26 states reaches this conclusion: California's top educators were right.
"It's harder to pass California's tests than those of most other states," according to the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank in Washington.
California, South Carolina and Massachusetts give the toughest English and math tests in the country, the study concludes. Easiest to pass are those in Colorado, Wisconsin and Michigan.
State exams are the engines of No Child Left Behind, the controversial federal education act that requires all students to score at grade level - "proficient" - on English and math tests by 2014.
But it's up to each state to define "proficiency." So a child who is considered a good reader in Colorado because she scored at grade level would be given remedial help in California for scoring low.
"The Proficiency Illusion," as the Fordham study is called, skewers this part of No Child Left Behind. It says states define proficiency "erratically, almost randomly," which makes a mockery of true proficiency.
The study calls for a common set of standards for all states.
"It's crazy not to have some form of national standards for educational achievement - stable, reliable, cumulative and comparable," wrote Fordham's president, Chester Finn Jr., former assistant secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan.
No Child Left Behind is under a national microscope as Congress prepares for its reauthorization. And no aspect of it - including the state tests themselves now - has escaped scrutiny.
Finn said he isn't asking the federal government to prescribe proficiency levels, but says No Child Left Behind should encourage states to agree on what they should be.
The idea, however, is lacking momentum as Congress debates how to reform the education law.
Rep. George Miller, the Martinez Democrat leading the reauthorization debate, has said he wants the federal government and other agencies to help states establish more rigorous proficiency levels. But he still wants states to decide individually what those should be.
"What we're hearing across the country is that No Child Left Behind is not flexible enough," said Tom Kiley, Miller's spokesman.
Meanwhile, even as the Fordham study confirmed the rigor of California's academic standards, it revived a long-standing mystery: why students have consistently improved their performance on the tough California Standards Test over the years, while performing poorly on national exams such as the National Assessment for Educational Progress.
The Fordham study found that California kids also did worse on a national test called the Measures of Academic Progress - even though the researchers had customized the test to evaluate the same material as the state's test.
"It's troubling," said Michael Petrilli, a vice president with the Fordham Institute. "If kids are learning reading and math, it should show up on other tests."
But California's testing director, Deb Sigman, disputed the findings. She said the two tests were not similar, and raised questions about the analysis, including whether the same students took both tests.
See the full report here
— Nanette Asimov
San Francisco Chronicle
2007-10-05
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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