[Phys-L] Re: California standards test in physics

[Larry Smith <larry.smith@SNOW.EDU>]

At 2:48 PM -0500 1/7/05, rlamont wrote:
> People in every state perceive some sort of plot to defund
> education. We have it right here in Rhode Island where our
> teachers are 8th highest in the nation in terms of total
> compensation (while student performance is well below the
> national average.)

We just got our school district results back on the Iowa Skills Test (they
had been using the Stanford Test but switched to Iowa this year).  It is a
nationally normed test and so the results were given as percentiles in
various subcategories in reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic.  It was
administered to our students in 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 11th grades.

I noticed that our district averages were (well) over the 50th percentile
in every category in the younger grades, but that there was a downward
trend in the older grades.  For example, by the 11th grade our district
average was at the 38th percentile nationally on spelling, and below the
50th percentile in some other categories.  I asked the district
administrators about the downward trend.

The answer was some mumbling about how before 3rd grade kids learn to read
but after that they read to learn.  That didn't make any sense (as an
answer to my question), so I tried again.  This time they said that they
were sure it was a national thing and that the scores in all districts were
higher in the lower grades and lower in the higher grades across the
nation.  I said,  "That can't happen on a test that is nationally normed at
each grade level and where the results are given as percentiles."  After
trying to understand me for a few minutes, they just gave up and said
they'd take my word for it.

This worries me for the following reasons:
1) I never got a good response to the question about the downward trend;
2) The administrators don't understand percentiles;
3) Because they don't understand what the results are saying, they don't
see a problem;
4) When an area of concern is highlighted, they explain it away rather than
concoct a plan to fix it.

Larry