According to a report entitled “The Proficiency Illusion” from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a nonprofit that is based in Washington (DC) and focuses on K-12 education policy, the tests that are being used in some US states to assess educational outcomes reflect lower (and varied) standards for success. The report authors argue that the results are problemsome: Students may actually be performing worse than the assessments suggest, especially during the elementary years in reading, and their low competence may set the students up for failure as they progress through the grades.
New Fordham Report: The Proficiency Illusion
At the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a call for all students to be “proficient” in reading and mathematics by 2014. Yet the law expects each state to define proficiency as it sees fit and design its own tests. This study uses a Northwest Evaluation Association exam as a common benchmark to measure proficiency cut scores for assessments in twenty-six states. The findings suggest that the tests states use to measure academic progress and student proficiency under the No Child Left Behind Act are creating a false impression of success, especially in reading and especially in the early grades.
Link to the description of the report.
There is a brief reaction to “The Proficiency Illusion” on the web
at http://www.bdsphd.zoomshare.com/
I found the most interesting aspect of this discussion the comments of Michael Petrelli, the VP for policy at Fordham, that even though the math tests are harder, scores are improving more in math than in reading. See
http://www.openeducation.net/2007/10/09/nclb-proficiency-illusion/
Tom Hanson
Editor
OpenEducation.net
Bert and Tom, thanks for the leads. Excellent.
JohnL