9486 in the collection
State won't release school test results until October
Kudos to Bebe Verdery,
education director for the American Civil
Liberties Union of Maryland for pointing out
that, "Thousands of students are at risk of not
receiving a diploma. The state and the
legislature should have this critical
information by now so that they can consider
the options."
When will teachers and professional
organizations break their silence?
Sue Allison Comment:
Marylanders --
I can hardly find the words to express my
complete disgust this morning. The results
from last spring's administration of the HSAs
have been back from the testing company since
before school started this spring. Parents
have gotten results for their own children.
But now we learn that Nancy Grasmick is
refusing to share this information - which
Maryland taxpayers have paid for, with ANYONE.
It is "embargoed". And why you ask? It's
because she is demanding that each local school
district go through the files of each and every
2009 senior, to find any evidence that seniors
who may have failed an HSA last spring may not
be on track to graduate for any other reason.
Let's say a 2009 senior may be a credit or two
shy of what he needs to graduate and also
failed an HSA test last spring. Well it looks
like Dr. Grasmick does not want that senior's
HSA failure to be included in the all important
2009 HSA pass rate. Let's say a 2009 class
member failed an HSA test last spring but
dropped out last week - they don't want that
student to be included in the pass rate
calculation -- the MSDE wants him or her
disappeared. They want the numbers to be
"sanitized" at the local level before we let
the newspaper reporters have a look at them.
This is the game we are playing. It has been
played in every other state that has gone
before us on this high stakes testing path -and
it is being played here in Maryland - and it is
wrong and disgusting!!! It is corrupt and
intellectually dishonest! The pass rate that
the MSDE should be giving us is the "on-time"
pass rate that would require no manipulation at
the local level. The on-time pass rate would
be calculated by dividing the number of
students who have met the HSA requirements
divided by the number of students who were
enrolled in the class of 2009 as freshman. It
is just that easy and just that honest. Any
other number is complete BS as far as we are
concerned.
Next Tuesday, 9/23, the MD State Board of
Education is meeting. At 2:00 they will
receive a complete snow job update about the
status of the HSA program. Every attempt will
be made to make everything look like it is on
track - even though the MSDE won't offer up any
data to prove it. Be aware that Governor
O'Malley's state board of education appointees
now constitute a majority on the MD BOE. They
could and SHOULD get this train off the tracks,
at least for the class of 2009, this coming
Tuesday. There is nothing to it. All it would
take would be a motion, a second and a vote.
Any MD BOE member who is afraid of being
criticized for not wanting to "hold schools
accountable" has the perfect excuse - it is
glaringly obvious that the MSDE is hiding data
and that they do not have their act together as
far as the class of 2009 is concerned. We have
come to the point where the buck stops with the
MD State BOE and Governor O'Malley - who has
managed to completely avoid any accountability
with regard to the conduct of the HSA program.
But there is NOTHING stopping Governor O'Malley
from urging his appointees to put a stop to
this on Tuesday. He has intervened in BOE
affairs before and he can do it again. If
that fails - he can come out of the shadows and
announce that he will take it up with the
legislature next session - there is no reason
why we can't reprise the bills that were
introduced last year, that would have
prohibited the State BOE from using the HSAs as
a graduation requirement. To borrow a phrase
from Obama -- ENOUGH!!!
I heard from a mother this week who is
grappling with an ill-conceived Bridge Plan
option, which is still under construction.
Her special needs child is on track to pass
EVERY CLASS NEEDED TO GRADUATE. This mother is
outraged - and rightly so. Why weren't these
projects introduced in freshman year? What is
with this last minute wild goose chase Dr.
Grasmick is sending this woman's child on? If
her child does not graduate, her student will
not be eligible for student loans - she is a
single mother - how will her family cope -
especially given the financial news this week?
If a single student in the class of 2009 is
denied a diploma by the MSDE, we should all
hold Governor O'Malley personally responsible.
He could have shown Dr. Grasmick the door -but
he backed down. He could have supported bills
last session which would have derailed this
trainwreck, but he didn't even bother to weigh
in. Now he could contact his MD BOE
appointees and tell them to do the right thing
on Tuesday. All it would take is a motion, a
second and a vote. It is not rocket science.
It is just not that hard to do the right thing.
I guess we'll find out on Tuesday whether any
of us who voted for Governor O'Malley because
of his righteous position on testing (see
below) threw our vote away.
In the meantime - why not drop him an email?
Contact his Education Advisor, Pat Foerster at
pfoerster@gov.state.md.us
By Liz Bowie
Maryland education officials said they will
wait until late October to release detailed
data on how many seniors in each county and
school risk not graduating in June because they
have not passed the High School Assessments.
The delay pushes back the time when the state
school board can take up the issue of whether
to adjust the test policy for the Class of
2009, the first graduating class that is being
required to pass exams to graduate.
The data, which was expected this month, is not
ready, state officials said, because local
school districts have not given the state
complete files on each student in the class and
where he or she stands academically.
One school system, which the state would not
identify, has "half a million errors in their
files," said Leslie Wilson, who is in charge of
testing programs at the state level.
Data showing a large percentage of students in
a given school or district falling behind on
the tests could add fuel to arguments that
implementing the graduation requirement should
be pushed back. The state is being cautious
about releasing the data to make sure it
doesn't include students who weren't on track
to graduate anyway, because those cases might
make the impact of the tests seem greater than
it is.
"That is the reason you want accurate data,
because it is an important year," said Nancy S.
Grasmick, state superintendent of schools. "We
are very strict about ensuring that information
is correct before it is released."
Usually, the state has released statistics on
how many students in each school, county and
state passed the exams. Last year, they
released the pass rates for the Class of 2009
statewide and in each county. The Sun collected
the data for each school from city and county
school systems. It was published in August and
showed that minorities, special education
students and students learning English as a
second language had the highest failure rates.
The results prompted Grasmick to propose that
students be given the opportunity to do a
project in any subject in which they had failed
the test twice if they were otherwise on track
to graduate.
At least a couple of school board members have
expressed reservations about the tests and said
publicly that they want a full discussion about
whether to go forward with the requirement for
this year's senior class. Because the state
board will not see all of the data until
October, it is unlikely the board would take
any action until December. The board
traditionally does not meet in November.
"Thousands of students are at risk of not
receiving a diploma. The state and the
legislature should have this critical
information by now so that they can consider
the options," said Bebe Verdery, education
director for the American Civil Liberties Union
of Maryland.
"I think the delay ... confirms for some the
concern that we have been building the airplane
while it is in the air. It raises the question
about whether we have enough time to respond to
these results in a way that is meaningful for
students who are impacted," said John Woolums,
director of governmental relations for the
Maryland Association of Boards of Education, a
group that has supported testing and
accountability measures but argued last fall
that it was too soon to impose the high-stakes
test on students.
The superintendents in Maryland have generally
come out in support of the tests, even in
school districts where a high failure rate is
expected.
Wilson said she will give the school board a
rough estimate at its meeting Tuesday of the
number of students in the class who have passed
the tests or have met the combined score
allowed for the English II, biology, Algebra I
and American government tests.
"We have very, very preliminary ideas," Wilson
said.
The state has told school districts not to
release any data on the High School Assessments
to the news media until October.
Benjamin Feldman, who directs the Baltimore
school system's research office, said the
city's overall pass rates are encouraging. "We
are very gratified. I think I am working in a
new school system. We are having a
renaissance."
Feldman said, however, that the data for the
senior class shows "we have our work cut out
for us." There are many students, he said, who
are on the cusp of passing the tests.
Every Baltimore County high school knows which
of its students haven't met the HSA
requirements, said Kara Calder, spokeswoman for
the school system. But getting that information
gathered and into the form the state wants is
proving difficult, she said.
Baltimore Sun
2008-09-21
www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.test21sep21,0,2612195.story
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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