Teach Effectively!

John Merrow of Learning Matters examined ways that education administrators of US states could make their test scores look better than they are. Under the “No Child Left Behind” rules, states can (a) remove the scores of subgroups of students from the overall results, and the scores they remove are often those of subgroups that score lower than the average, so removing those scores makes the average go up (and they can determine how many scores to remove); (c) alter the cut scores for determining who is judged competent, who passes; and (c) use scores that are in the high end of the statistical range around the mean rather than the mean itself, thus essentially raising the score.

The No Child Left Behind “Race”
Despite all the tough talk about the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, thousands of schools with failing scores pass anyway. They do by using little-known and rarely discussed “loopholes” that are buried in the fine print of the law. Using sports analogies from track and field, our report explains four statistical techniques that allow schools to artificially boost performance and avoid federal penalties for low achievement. By taking advantage of these (perfectly legal) loopholes, states can add points to a school’s score, thereby converting a failing performance into an apparent success. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, together with education policy analysts Kevin Carey and Chester Finn, discuss the loopholes and their impact on students.

To some extent, of course, the adjustments are legitimate. But the public should be able to see the actual, unadjusted results, too. Show the averages with and without the scores of the students who have limited English profeciency.

Link to “Gaming the System.” The show aired last spring, but I missed it then. I’m glad to get a link to it now, though.