Dorn to Release Spring Test Scores Next Tuesday

From OPSI:
State Superintendent Randy Dorn will release spring 2016 state testing results at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 16, at the John L. O’Brien Building in Olympia.
The release will consist of results from:  
  • the Smarter Balanced assessments in English language arts and math, taken by students in grades 3-8 and 10-11;
  • the Measurements of Student Progress (MSP) in science, taken by students in grades 5 and 8; and
  • high school end-of-course (EOC) exams in algebra I, geometry and biology.
TVW, Washington’s statewide public affairs television station, will broadcast and Webcast the news conference live. See www.tvw.org for Webcast details.
I will try to tune in.

Comments

Anonymous said…
SBAC score releases are no faster than the old WASL/MSP releases. So much for technology and instant results.
Wasn't that one of the reasons for switching over to expensive new "computer adaptive testing"?

CT
CT, so we were told.
Watching said…
Chris Reykdal sponsored a bill which would have mandated that SBAC results be delivered by June 15th. The bill passed- unanimously- in the House, but Litzow would not give the bill a hearing.

Watching said…
The feds want a 95% SBAC participation rate and threaten to withhold dollars for a participation rate less than 95%.

The feds tried to force Wa. state to link test scores to teacher evaluations. Reykdal stood against the feds. Should the feds try and withhold funding from states- for a participation rate of less than 95%= Reykdal is ready to stand -up to the feds again.

Anonymous said…
CT wrote "SBAC score releases are no faster than the old WASL/MSP releases."

I think it's a Washington thing. In California, SBAC results were sent out to parents weeks ago.

LisaG
Anonymous said…
LisaG, was it the full score report with a percentile available, or just a scale score like what WA parents were given in June?

I'm confused by the scale scores anyway. According to this, my elementary kid has already achieved a scale score that would be "4" for 11th grade. Is there any point to continuing to take this thing?

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/sbmaththresholdscre.asp

A.
dan dempsey said…
Is anyone believing that SBAC results are being used to influence decision-making for school year 2016-2017?

Who cares if there is a 95% participation rate?
Only top-down bureaucrats.... Parents and Teachers and Students realize this is largely a time consuming, expensive waste of instructional time.
Anonymous said…
Dan wrote "Is anyone believing that SBAC results are being used to influence decision-making for school year 2016-2017?"

The school in CA my daughter goes to received their SBAC scores before the end of 2015-2016 school year and is using them to plan for 2016-17. The scores had them looking at a reading intervention program for ELL students in 4th and 5th grade (the school is about 65% ELL in kindergarten, but most have "graduated" from ELL by 4th grade).


I did discover that CA does not have the SBAC data available by schools on their website, so I guess it's not a WA thing, but a department of education thing to not make them available until this late.

LisaG
Jan said…
LisaG: since school districts contract individually with PARCC or SBA,I am curious as to why the feds would be involved in the timing of score release. What am I missing?
Jan, I think the word you are looking for is "control" or "ESSA."
Anonymous said…
Jan, sorry, I just left a word out, I meant to write a department of education thing.

LisaG
Anonymous said…
Ah, now I see the problem. I was putting words in little brackets, and that makes them get deleted when posted. 3rd try's the charm.

a "any state" department of education thing.

LisaG
Anonymous said…
Jan, the districts DO NOT contract individually with SBAC. OSPI contracts with SBAC. And the SBAC tests are the state tests. Districts have no say in this, which is why the recent SPS board resolution on SBAC has no force and effect.

OSPI (and the contract vendor - AIR) determine the timing of the score release. The feds are not involved in the timing of the score release. That's the one thing you got correct.

Randy
Jan said…
Thanks, Randy. As I read your post, it occurred to me that I should have realized that the contracts had to be done by the state -- not the individual districts -- otherwise, you could have multiple tests in one state -- which would not provide the comparisons on a statewide basis that the ed reformers are looking for. Sorry for missing that.
seattle citizen said…
LisaG, you write that the SBAC informed decision-making at your daughter's CA school: they are looking at adding a reading intervention program for ELL.

I know many ELL and gen ed teachers who know how well all their stu dents read without the SBAC scores (which could well be wrong.) What does the SBAC tell these teachers that they don't already know from their classroom assessments and knowledge of the students as individuals (rather than as mere data on a yearly standardized test)?

Couldn't they make planning decisions without SBAC scores?
Anonymous said…
Jan, do you know who else is interested in statewide comparisons? Parents, taxpayers, voters, and policymakers.

seattle citizen, given that ELLs (as well as low-income students and students of color) are often concentrated in schools with the least experienced and least effective teachers, many of these parents depend upon standardized test results for information on how their children are doing compared to other children in better resourced (read: privileged) schools. In other words, they don't necessarily trust their teachers' classroom assessments and knowledge (or lack thereof) of their children.

Randy
Anonymous said…
Seattle Citizen wrote "Couldn't they make planning decisions without SBAC scores?"

Of course they can, and they did. The SBAC scores just gave them additional information which shifted priorities a bit.

The school is in general high-performing, and also does quite well at "graduating" students from ELL status. And, depending on how you look at it, all teachers at the school are ELL teachers or there are zero ELL teachers. So each 4th or 5th grade teacher is probably aware of a few ELL students in his class who are struggling with reading. SBAC data showed that there is a large enough number of "un-graduated" ELL students in 4th and 5th grade that might benefit from a specific program.

I think getting the reading program moved up in priority over hiring another lunchtime supervisor. Instead they'll try to get some grandparent volunteers to do that job.

LisaG
seattle citizen said…
Randy, please cite your sources for your claims. You know all that how?
Jan said…
Randy: in Seattle, at least, I am not aware that low income students, ELLs, and students of color are concentrated in schools with either the least experienced OR the least effective teachers. Nor have I ever read that that is true for Washington as a whole. Is it? Do you have any data? I can certainly believe that it is true in schools with TFA teachers, who are clearly the least experienced and least well trained -- but I think Seattle ended that experiment, and I don't know if other Washington schools are using them.

Historically, there has long been a connection between family income and student test scores (kids from wealthier families do better) -- but since we already KNOW that, we don't need expensive high stakes tests for that either.

Finally, while I think it is true that taxpayers and policy makers want to generally know how well various schools are doing in educating the kids they enroll, neither PARCC nor SBA has any sort of established track record that ties their test scores to student learning. Given how hard it is to get access to test questions, etc., I at least (as a taxpayer, parent, and voter, have no interest in seeing either SBAC or PARCC results -- or MAP results either, for that matter. Nor did I care about WASL (or its successor's) results (except for my own kid -- where they didn't measure what the child knew, because of a language disability that the tests utterly don't take into account -- but it was a graduation requirement, so I cared that we could either pass it and check it off the list or figure out plan B (which would probably to have gotten high enough SAT scores to use those instead).
Anonymous said…
seattle citizen, I'm not playing the fun little game you all like to play of demanding citations for claims, but only those claims for which you disagree. People make outlandish claims on this blog all the time without challenge from the echo chamber. It's only those for which they disagree that get the "cite your sources" BS.

There's plenty of evidence of my claims. Do your own legwork.

Randy
Anonymous said…
Jan, go play around with the State Report Card on the OSPI website. For starters, look at Rainier Beach HS (97% non-White, 76% low-income, 26% ELL with teachers averaging 8 years of experience). Then look at Roosevelt HS (66% White, 13% low-income, 2% ELL with teachers averaging 16 years experience). That's just Seattle.

How about Lutacaga Elementary in Othello (94% non-White, 83% low-income, 59% ELL with teachers averaging 8 years experience)? How about Wilder Elementary in Lake Washington (53% White/33% Asian, 3% low-income, 8 % ELL with teachers averaging 14 years experience)?

The evidence is out there. For more, read this article: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/07/13/study-low-income-minorities-get-worst-teachers-in-washington-state.

Randy

"In other words, they don't necessarily trust their teachers' classroom assessments and knowledge (or lack thereof) of their children."

And you know this how? Because my experience in Seattle Schools is that ELL parents trust the teachers more than the test.

And Randy won't tell us. So much for that.
seattle citizen said…
Melissa, knowing many ELL families and teachers, I agree that this is not true. In my experience, ELL families have good relationships with teachers. Randy won't back up that claim, and I doubt its veracity.
Her or his comments strike me as dismissive of teachers, frankly.
seattle citizen said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said…
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-pol-schools-poll-20150412-story.html#page=1

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/education/279385-standardized-testing-for-latino-students-opt-not-to-opt-out

Randy
seattle citizen said…
Interesting article, the first one (thanks for supplying.) It appears that minorities in that study were much more in favor of tenure, which suggests they trust and value their educators.

On testing, there's this:
"They're testing them so we can know what they're learning, if they are learning anything, and if they're at the standards they need to be at to transfer eventually to a university," Sanchez said. "We want to know that they know what they're doing when they get there and if the teachers are actually teaching them what they need to be taught."

But tests really don't show any of this. We are well aware of the fallibility of the scores, the lack of relevance to current students (last year's scores given out just in time for next year's students...
Frankly, many parents believe the hype about these tests, that they're some kind of magicAL thing that is accurate, that reflects teaching, that efficaciously impacts planning...

The ELL and minority parents I talk to, and my colleagues, just ask US. You know, human to human instead of data from a machine.
seattle citizen said…
The second link, to Janet Margula's piece, is also woefully light on how tests are accurate, how they help students...I know our local El Centro de la Raza is opposed to testing, so it surprises me that Ms. Margula comes out so strongly for them. It would help her case to explain the mechanics of how, purportedly, tests help students. At the end she indicates that it is the way of her community to join into efforts to better ourselves; that's all well and good, but when the thing one joins is ineffective and, frankly, a waste of time, joining for joining's sake isn't wise.
Anonymous said…
It appears to me, seattle citizen, that Ms. Marguia and the vast majority of those in the Latino community disagree with you on the usefulness, efficacy, and purposes of the state's standardized tests. Polling data as well as policy position statements of the (again) vast majority of Latino advocacy organizations, both national and local show that these communities support standardized testing. I'm going to trust that they've done their homework and made reasonable decisions. I'm going to trust in their agency.

As for our local El Centro de la Raza, they are clearly out of step with the national organization and other local organizations by opposing testing and charter schools. The National Council of La Raza supports testing --- as Ms. Marguia's op-ed demonstrates --- and charter schools and so do most local affiliates. And the fact that Latino students do not opt out of testing in large numbers and enroll in charter schools in large percentages is not in dispute. They choose with their feet. And their choices run counter to your own beliefs regarding testing and student choice.

Go figure.

Randy
seattle citizen said…
The article states that only 55% value the tests. Hardly a "vast majority" (more hyperbole.)
The Gates Foundation, and others, were able to buy the votes of a similar SLIM majority of voters to get charters passed here in WA after they were voted down three times. Money buys a lot of misinformation.
My "beliefs" about both testing AND charters are grounded in fact.

Why did you bring charters into this discussion? Is it because you belueve they are part and parcel? It IS true that the charter industry absolutely requires the standardized tests in order to make their sales pitches, especially to minority communities. So I could see where you would link them here in this discussion.
Without the tests, without the "failing school" bs, without attempting to force children into racial categories in order to make claims about groups of children based on race, the charter industry would have no footing.
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