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Get Me to the State Department of Education on Time

Surely it's an example of low expectations when newspaper headlines read that a testing company delivers scores on time. No mention of whether the test is reliable or valid--just that they corrected the tests on time.

Note the terminology spin: the Office of Student Achievement has become the Office of Education Accountability.


The company grading the state's curriculum exam passed its first test --- it got the scores to the state on time.

On Friday, the state Department of Education received test results for students in grades 4, 6 and 8 who took the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, commonly called the CRCT.

Scores will determine which schools get a "needs improvement" label. Under
the federal No Child Left Behind law, those schools must allow parents to
transfer their children to another school. Some must also offer free tutoring.

There was no report available Friday on how individual students, schools or school systems performed. The education department and the Office of Student Achievement --- formerly the Office of Education Accountability --- will spend the next few weeks culling the data to make sure that files match up.

"The scores can't be released until the student data file is cleaned," said spokesman Nick Smith.

On July 28, the testing company, Illinois-based Riverside Publishing, is scheduled to send individual student scores to school systems so they can make decisions about matters such as whom to place in gifted classes.

State officials have said they will release the list of "needs improvement" schools by Aug. 1, three days before the first metro Atlanta schools go back in session. Most metro-area public schools will start classes by Aug. 11.

School system officials say they probably won't have enough time to work out the logistics of transfers before the school year starts.

That's a problem for parents, said Pamela McIver, a Fulton County mother of two middle-schoolers who has followed No Child Left Behind even though it doesn't directly impact her children.

Parents need time to weigh their options, visit other schools and decide whether to transfer, she said.

In the 2002-2003 school year, 105 metro schools were required to offer transfers under the federal law and nearly 600 metro Atlanta parents moved their children.

It has been a troubled testing season for the state. First, the state had to scramble to put together an emergency contract with Riverside after the six-year contract was nullified because of faulty bidding procedures.

Then, just weeks before the tests were given this spring, officials discovered questions from online practice tests also appeared on the actual exams. The tests were canceled for about 600,000 students in grades 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7.

And then, during the administration of the exams in April, an alignment problem between the answer sheets and the test booklets created some confusion for students.

State officials have vowed to have a smooth testing process next spring.




— Dana Tofig
CRCT scores aren't tardy
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 19, 2003
http://www.ajc.com/saturday/content/epaper/editions/saturday/metro_f381cd3ee449028f00a9.html

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