Alliance for Excellent Education: STUDENTS AT ALL LEVELS SHOW IMPROVEMENT IN HISTORY AND CIVICS

STUDENTS AT ALL LEVELS SHOW IMPROVEMENT IN HISTORY AND CIVICS: Even With Improvement, Large Percentages of Students Continue to Perform Below Grade Level

America’s fourth graders have made significant gains in U.S. history and civics, according to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in history and civics. According to the two reports, The Nation’s Report Card: U.S. History 2006 and Nation’s Report Card: Civics 2006, overall achievement has improved significantly at all grade levels (fourth, eighth, and twelfth) in U.S. history, and at the fourth-grade level in civics. Meanwhile, civics achievement for eighth- and twelfth-graders has not changed significantly since 1998.

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings tied the higher scores in history and civics to the greater focus on reading brought about by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). “For the past five years, No Child Left Behind has focused attention and support on helping students become stronger readers,” Spellings said. “The release today by The Nation’s Report Card on U.S. History and Civics proves NCLB is working and preparing our children to succeed. … As students’ skills in reading fluency and comprehension strengthen, so does their ability to do well in other subject areas. While critics may argue that NCLB leads educators to narrow their curriculum focus, the fact is, when students know how to read and comprehend, they apply these skills to other subjects like history and civics. The result is greater academic gains.”

While the improvement among twelfth graders marks the first time since 1998 that high school students have had a significant increase in achievement on a NAEP assessment, large percentages of high school seniors continued to perform poorly on both tests. In history, 87 percent of twelfth graders failed to perform at grade level, with 53 percent performing below the basic level. Results at the eighth-grade level were not much better, with 83 percent performing below grade level. Of that total, 35 percent performed below the basic level.

Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, used the results to push for greater attention to reading in the later grades. “For those of us working to improve the nation’s secondary schools, the results released today are encouraging, but it must be noted that while these scores are headed in the right direction, they still remain alarmingly low,” he said. “Low achievement in history and civics goes hand in hand with low achievement in high school literacy. If we want young people to become more knowledgeable about the nation’s defining historical events and founding principles, then we must invest in not just history and civics instruction, but also in high-quality reading and writing instruction throughout grades K–12.”

The complete results are available at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/.

Indy Star: Simpsons Score Over Freedoms

History teacher laments lack of progress in Civics education and curriculum since last assessment.

After the '98 NAEP scores came out, experts issued a set of recommendations, including infusing civics in the social studies curriculum in the primary grades and requiring of all students a civics course in middle school as well as high school. It didn't happen, so it's little surprise test scores stayed stagnant.

Full article here.

Roy Romer: On National Standards

Roy Romer floats the idea of a National Test to accompany National Standards to his Ed in '08 readers.

Ed Week: Reading and Civics Scores Compared

Recent results on the 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in civics show that scores for 4th graders increased significantly since 1998. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and other supporters of the No Child Left Behind Act suggest that the improvement is the result of the law's testing and accountability provisions in reading and its Reading First program. ("Test Gains Reigniting Old Debate," May 23, 2007.) Secretary Spellings indicated that students who read well are better able to understand material in history and civics and that teachers are integrating subject matter on these topics into reading instruction.

Full article here:

Round-Up: Stories over the Holiday Weekend

Progressive Historians:
Policy Makers Applaud Marginal Gains on History Test
Self-described "Daily-Kos for the historical set" does an excellent job of collecting and preparing the released sample items from NCES.

Washington Post
Assessment Industry Faces a Test of Its Own
Jay Matthews reports on the challenges faced by Pearson in developing high-stakes testing for states.

Education Week
Test Gains Reignite Old Debate
Disputing the argument that increased scores in History are a result of more emphasis on reading.

Edspresso
Spare Us the Spin
Neal McCluskey of the CATO Institute also weighs in on Secretary Spellings' statement regarding the NAEP History and Civics scores

This Week In Education
Does More Reading Make for Better Social Studies?
Alexander Russo reacts to what he calls "ritualized response that follows the release of NAEP scores."

NYT: Standardizing the Standards

May 27, 2007
The Way We Live Now
Standardizing the Standards
By ANN HULBERT
“I know you’re restless today, but I need to see you sitting at your desks. Angel, that means you, too!” In the second-grade classroom at the Washington school where I volunteer, the teacher turned to me and said with a sigh, “It’s testing week.” In fact, her class wasn’t suffering through the standardized ordeal, just tiptoeing around while others did. The “adequate yearly progress” (A.Y.P.) assessments mandated by the No Child Left Behind legislation, which was enacted in 2002 with high hopes of closing the achievement gap for minorities, don’t kick in until third grade. But when it comes to tests, N.C.L.B. is fulfilling its inclusive mission all too well: nobody — not even kids too young to be filling in the bubbles yet — escapes the atmosphere of exam-induced edginess.

The president’s signature domestic initiative, now due for its five-year reauthorization, was supposed to be a model of the hardheaded rigor it aims to instill in America’s schools. “No ‘accountability proposals’ without accountability,” a Bush education adviser declared early on. So one of the most glaring legacies of No Child Left Behind is surprising: it has made a muddle of meaningful assessment. Testing has never been more important; inadequate annual progress toward “proficiency” triggers sanctions on schools. Yet testing has never been more suspect, either. The very zeal for accountability is confusing the quest for consistent academic expectations across the country.

In 2014, when states are supposed to report 100 percent pass rates, no governor will be able (honestly) to claim perfect success. But by then, it would be useful at least to agree on what “proficiency” entails. That issue is precisely what is obscured by a blizzard of scores, courtesy of America’s decentralized educational tradition. N.C.L.B. left the states free to choose their own standards and testing methods for determining adequate yearly progress toward proficiency in math and reading. The data therefore defy comparison. In Florida, for example, 71 percent of schools failed to make A.Y.P. in 2006, while only 4 percent did in Wisconsin. More brain-boosting cheese on school lunch menus, perhaps?

Problems don’t end there — just as a social-science principle called Campbell’s law would predict. “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision making,” the social psychologist Donald Campbell concluded in 1975, “the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.” With “high stakes” testing, N.C.L.B. introduces an incentive not to cheat, necessarily, but to manipulate. Signs are that states define proficiency down while schools ramp up narrow test prep. “Score pollution” — results that reflect intensive coaching — becomes a risk.

And all for what? Not leaps in learning, to judge by an older, federally financed test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, whose format reflects clear standards for basic subjects and goes beyond multiple-choice questions. Developed by a nonpolitical group of educators, subject-matter specialists and nonexperts, it is administered every two years to a representative sample of students in grades 4, 8 and 12. The purpose of the test, known as “the nation’s report card,” is diagnostic, no strings attached. Its results are sobering. While the states’ tests typically show rising math and reading scores, with roughly 70 percent of students rated proficient or better, the National Assessment reports only about half that proportion scoring so well.

Angel, happy to escape his seat and read a book with me (he chose “Flat Stanley”), would doubtless be thrilled if test week disappeared. It won’t. But the test mess could be what is called in the trade a teachable moment, a chance to consider the case for national standards and a single national exam. There’s nothing like a blend of confusion and coercion at the state level to make the prospect of credible countrywide assessments — based on coherent expectations of what students should know — look less like creeping federal intrusion and more like welcome clarity.

Where ideological clashes doomed a quest for national standards in the 1990s, pragmatic calculations might tip the balance in favor now. Let the federal government pay for a national test and the formulation of standards, suggests Diane Ravitch, a clear-eyed historian of school reforms who was an assistant secretary of education during George H.W. Bush’s administration. The move could save the states the estimated half-billion dollars they spend on their own testing programs — and, Ravitch notes, give the U.S. government a job it is good at: gathering and spreading information about how states are faring.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress could serve as a model for a test that judges students’ ability to apply their knowledge and thus discourages rote coaching. But recent experience — and Campbell’s law — argues against making test results the sole trigger of federal sanctions. Instead, the data would give states and school districts reliable information on where progress is, and isn’t, happening across the country, to catalyze their own strategies to boost achievement. Rather than cramming to reach an unrealistic target by 2014, states could be more like the laboratories of curricular improvement the country needs. Agreeing on common goals for what kids should be learning can free up teachers to focus more productively on how they could be learning better.

School transformation can’t be engineered by any test, which is a two-dimensional tool at best. Still, a good national exam would spread well-focused standards across state borders and spur progress. Reading Angel’s book to him, I saw an apt metaphor: poor Stanley wakes up to find himself flattened, a boy become a board, but the discovery that he can slip into an envelope and travel around the country expands his horizons.

Ann Hulbert, a contributing writer, is the author of “Raising America: Experts, Parents and a Century of Advice About Children.”



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From blogconsultingpro.com:

Matt Rosenberg comments on the Chicago Transportation Authority adopting a blog to dispel charges of corruption and incompetency.

Subscriber-based readership is undoubtedly the best possible way to reach stakeholders:

Just another indication that the press release is dead. A related issue: Is the government agency op-ed in the local daily paper next on the hit list? Over time, probably, yes. If you can build serious readership among stakeholders and opinion-makers at your government department's blog, why continue to focus print opinion-shaping strategies largely on the iffy submissions process on the op-ed page, canned mailers, and the vagaries of straight news "coverage." Again, though, this newer paradigm will take a number of years to fully play out. But I suspect it IS where things are headed. The well-done government agency blog (see the CTA's "Ask Carole" above) allows news, opinion, and accountability to seamlessly merge. The agency becomes empowered, joining traditional media in setting the cycle and tone of coverage.

Full post here:

Ed Week: Political Punch of Scholarship Debated

Bemoaning the quality of education research—and offering prescriptions for improving it—have become popular pastimes in recent years. Now, some scholars say, it is time to take a hard look at the consumers who use, underwrite, ignore, or misconstrue the knowledge born from studies in the field....

Mr. Henig, for one, also raises a red flag about more-objective research organizations, such as the American Institutes for Research in Washington or the Rockville, Md.-based Westat, that do studies under contract to the Department of Education and other sponsors. For fear of offending potential clients, he said, such organizations can “fall into a kind of blandness in their reporting and accept restraints on what they can say in public from the folks paying for the research.”

Dianne Ravitch: What Do Students Know About History?

Full article from the Huffington Post here:

American students do worse on national tests of American history than any other subject. No one knows why. But it is a fact that more than half of our high school seniors are rated "below basic" in their understanding of American history.

Since the early 1970s, the federal government has been regularly testing national samples of students to find out what they know in various school subjects.

The program is called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (or NAEP, pronounced "nape"), and it issues reports on reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, civics, and geography. (Reading and math are reported on a state-by-state basis, as well as nationally, but not history.)

RELEASE ROUND-UP: HISTORY AND CIVICS

STORIES

USA Today - More Students Have Basic History, Civics Knowledge

Washington Post – Fourth-Graders Improve History, Civics Scores

Washington Post - Fourth Grade Scores Rise in History, Civics

New York Times – Students Gain Only Marginally on Test of U.S. History

New York Times - Modest Gains Seen in U.S. Students History Scores

Wall Street Journal – Students Show Scant Gains in History, Civics Knowledge

Education Week - Students' Mastery of Civics and History Mixed

Education Daily – NAEP History Scores Rise in Three Grades

Washington Times – U.S. Test Scores Rise in History, Level in Civics

Christian Science Monitor – US Students Aren’t History Whizzes, But They’re Improving

U.S. News & World Report – Nation’s Report Card Shows Room for Improvement

Cleveland Plain Dealer – Students Don’t Know Much About History

Detroit Free Press - National Test Finds Most Students Aren't Excelling in Civics

Philly Burbs – Finding Their Places in History

United Press International – Few Gains Seen in U.S. Education Report

Associated Press -- Pupils Gaining in Civics, History Basics

List of Outlets Running AP Story:

Akron Free Press

Benton Crier

Boston Herald

Brockton News

CBS

Centre Daily Times

Chandler News Dispatch

Christian Broadcasting Network

CNN.com

Columbus Ledger Enquirer

Contra Costa Times

Daily Advance

Denver Post

Dunton Springs Evening Post

Ely Times

Examiner

Forbes

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Fort Wayne News

Fort Worth Star Telegram

Fox News

Hendersonville Times News

Herald News Daily

Hinesberg Journal

Howell Times and Transcript

Jackson News Tribune

Jordan Falls News

Kentucky.com

KSL-TV

Leading the Charge (Australia)

Los Angeles Times

Meadow Free Press

Miami Herald

MLive.com

Modesto Bee

Monterey County Herald

New Hope Courier

Newsday

Olberlin, KS

Pierceland Herald

Pioneer Press

Pioneer Times Journal

Prescott Herald

Rocky Mount Telegram

San Diego Union Tribune

San Luis Obispo Tribune

Seattle Post Intelligencer

Sierra Times.com

Sky Valley Journal

The Bellingham Herald

The Charlotte Observer

The Kindred Times

The NewsTribune.com

The Olympian

The Ottawa Recorder

The Westfall Weekly News

Topeka Capital-Journal

Wall Street Journal

Washington Times

White Rock Reviewer

Wilmington Morning Star

WKRN

WSTM-TV

WTOP

Wyoming News

BLOGS

Cato-at-Liberty – No Matter What, NCLB is Great!

The Gradebook - The Declaration of What?

Learnlets – Civic Education (or lack thereof)

The Locker Room (John Locke Foundation) – U.S. History and Civics Test Results Released

The Thicket at State Legislatures – Civics Report Card: Many Students Don’t Know Enough About Democracy

Joanne Jacobs – Scores Rise in History, Civics

The Comp Book – Sam Cooke Was Wrong

Dallas Blog – National Report Card Out on Civics and History

Orlando Sentinel – Future Citizens Falling Short?

Atlanta Journal Constitution - Social Studies: Can't Get No Respect?

Ed in '08 - History Test Results Prove the Value of Good Measurements



COMMENTARY/STATEMENTS

U.S. Department of Education – Statement by Secretary Spellings on History and Civics Reports Released by The Nation’s Report Card

Senator Edward M. Kennedy – Press Release: Kennedy, Alexander on Release of 2006 NAEP Scores for History and Civics

Education Trust – Education Trust Statement on 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in U.S. History and Civics

Center for Civic Education – Press Release: National Study Reveals Civic Deficit in U.S. Schools

Ascribe -- Leading History Education Experts Available to Discuss U.S. History NAEP Results

Alliance for Excellent Education -- BOB WISE, PRESIDENT OF THE ALLIANCE FOR EXCELLENT EDUCATION,REACTS TO 2006 NAEP U.S. HISTORY AND CIVICS SCORES

National Council for the Social Studies -- National Council for the Social Studies Calls for Change as Nation's Report Card Predicts Trouble Ahead for Next Generation of Citizens, Healthy Democracy

WaPo: Fourth Grade Scores Rise in History, Civics

Fourth Grade Scores Rise in History, Civics

NAEP Reports Show First Significant Increase in Eight Years

By Jay Mathews

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 16, 2007; 9:58 AM

After years of dreary news and late-night comedy routines about American children's ignorance of their nation's history, federal researchers are reporting significant test score gains in fourth grade U.S. history and civics, as well as the first significant increase in scores for any high school subject in eight years.

Two reports released today by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal government's standard measure of public school achievement, said the percentage of fourth graders performing at or above the basic level in U.S. history increased from 64 percent in 1994 to 70 percent last year. In civics, the percentage scoring at or above basic climbed from 69 percent in 1998 to 73 percent last year.

Full Story here:

Huffington Post: The Evolution of the Schools Suck Bloc

Full article by Gerald Bracey can be read here:

The schools never recovered from Sputnik, but the next major blow didn't land until 20 years later in On Further Examination. This booklet reported the findings of a panel assembled by the College Board to figure out what had caused the then 14 year decline in SAT scores. The panel blamed mostly demographic changes in who was taking the tests along with the social upheavals of the 60's and early 70's. The public blamed the schools.

In 1983, the paper Sputnik, A Nation at Risk, ascended to its own orbit. This golden treasury of spun and selected statistics is still often referred to in some quarters as a "landmark"study. After that, the nation experienced a rising tide of education reform reports. Leaders and Laggards is only the most recent of many. It does, though, carry a special panache, being a joint venture of a conservative group, the Chamber of Commerce, and a putatively liberal group, the Center for American Progress.

In the last 20 years, many educational concepts have become identified with a political side. Phonics belongs to the Right, Whole Language to the Left and so forth. But statistics indicating school failure know no such divide. The bogus "lists" indicating the worst problems in the schools in the 40's (chewing gum, breaking in line, speaking out of turn, etc.) and in the 80's (drugs, violence, pregnancy, etc.) were adopted equally by Left and Right. The more recent but equally bogus "600,000 Chinese engineers" statistics gained immediate acceptance everywhere, cited by liberal and conservative alike as one more indicator of what we already know: the schools suck.

Washington Post: Letters to the Editor

No link provided
May 15, A14

Letters to the Editor

Education Mathematics
In his May 3 op-ed, "A Test Everyone Will Fail," Gerald W. Bracey questioned the accuracy of international comparison of educational achievement and accused advocates of school reform of using scare tactics. Unfortunately, Mr. Bracey's questions are the wrong ones to be asking.

We can quibble over the exact percentages of American students who are doing extremely well in reading and math compared with their peers in other countries, but is that the issue?

The questions that urgently require answers are: What do we do about the one-third of students who enter ninth grade each fall but drop out before graduating four years later? ABout another third who graduate without the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in college or today's workplace? About 50 percent of African American and Latino students who don't graduate at all? About the 70 percent of eighth-graders who can't read at grade level? About the billions of dollars spent annually by colleges and business on remediation for things kids should have learned in high school?

These are not scare tactics; they are facts. And as long as almost 7,000 students drop out ever school day, this nation must not be diverted from its demand for high standards and rigorous coursework. Whether America's top students are doing better or worse than their international counterparts is a debate that should be saved for a day when all students are graduating with at least the basic skills and knowledge they need to be successful in life.

Bob Wise
President
Alliance for Excellence in Education
Washington

Politico: Spellings-Kennedy Op-Ed

National epidemic, economic necessity
By: Secretary Margaret Spellings and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
May 14, 2007 12:59 PM EST

Full op-ed here:

Five years ago, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act to hold schools accountable for bringing all children up to grade level in reading and math. Today, all 50 states have standards, assessments and accountability procedures that enable us to follow the achievement of every group of students. Each school now measures performance, based not just on its overall student population, but on its progress in closing achievement gaps for each student and enabling all students to meet high standards. Schools use assessments under the act to identify weaknesses in instruction and areas of need for their students.

Bridging Differences: Who's Afraid of Curriculum?

Diane Ravitch responds

You end with a swipe at the NAEP proficiency cut points. It's true that they have been criticized by various reviews; it is also true that the NAEP staff and board commissioned most of those reviews and have responded to them over the years. Without question, NAEP is the most heavily studied, analyzed, and evaluated testing program in the United States. I also think it is a better test than any state test that I have seen. If you want to know what it "covers," go to the NAEP website and you will find curriculum frameworks for every subject tested, as well as large numbers of sample questions in each subject. I don't know of any other test that is as forthcoming in describing in detail what it covers.

Full post here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/05/dear_deborah_i_always_find.html

Bridging Differences: Treasuring Stubborn Interest

This is the only NAEP mention in this post...

It's not any harder to figure out how NAEP scores compare to international scores—and they suggest different conclusions about what it means to be proficient. The National Academy of Education, the Center for Research on Evaluation, and the Government Accountability Office all have criticized the NAEP benchmarks for just this reason. (I'd also want to know what the test "covers" et al before deciding how seriously to take the results.)

Full post here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/05/what_if.html

The Nation: Evaluating 'No Child Left Behind'

An interesting (and lengthy) commentary from Linda Darling-Hammond on NCLB. Click here for responses from Pedro Noguera, Velma Cobb and Diane Ravitch

When Congress passed George W. Bush's signature education initiative, No Child Left Behind, it was widely hailed as a bipartisan breakthrough--a victory for American children, particularly those traditionally underserved by public schools. Now, five years later, the debate over the law's reauthorization has a decidedly different tone. As the House and Senate consider whether the law should be preserved--and if so, how it should be changed--high-profile Republicans are expressing their disenchantment with NCLB, while many newly elected Democrats are seeking a major overhaul as well.

What happened? Most discussions focus on the details of the more than 1,000-page law, which has provoked widespread criticism for the myriad issues it has raised. All of its flaws deserve scrutiny in the reauthorization debate, but it's also worth taking a step back to ask what the nation actually needs educationally. Lagging far behind our international peers in educational outcomes--and with one of the most unequal educational systems in the industrialized world--we need, I believe, something much more than and much different from what NCLB offers. We badly need a national policy that enables schools to meet the intellectual demands of the twenty-first century. More fundamentally, we need to pay off the educational debt to disadvantaged students that has accrued over centuries of unequal access to quality education.

NCLB's Promise--and Problems

In 2002 civil rights advocates praised NCLB for its emphasis on improving education for students of color, those living in poverty, new English learners and students with disabilities. NCLB aims to raise achievement and close the achievement gap by setting annual test-score targets for subgroups of students, based on a goal of "100 percent proficiency" by 2014. These targets are tied to school sanctions that can lead to school reconstitutions or closures, as well as requirements for student transfers. In addition, NCLB requires schools to hire "highly qualified teachers" and states to develop plans to provide such teachers.

More here:http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070521/darling-hammond/

Bridging Differences: Should Data Matter?

As you know, Mark Twain (or Disraeli or someone) once wrote that there are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. Everyone in education, or so it seems, has learned how to present them in ways that bolsters whatever they want to do. Either, the sky is falling, or things have never been better.

Let me suggest that the statistics you offer are open to different interpretations, to be generous. I don't really know how anyone can say how students in Singapore or Sweden would perform IF they took a NAEP test, which they did not take. Why not just look at the international tests that were taken by students in the United States and many other nations? At least one need not hypothesize about what would have happened, but can look at the results of taking a common test (by the way, this makes my point about the value of having a common national test, rather than 50 different state tests).

More here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/05/should_data_matter.html

Washington Post - "New Figures Show High Dropout Rate"

An interesting article that shares information on a new publication (produced by Ed Week) that can show how many high school students will graduate on time in their school systems. First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary Spellings are quoted at the summit where the tool was unveiled.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902411.html

Secretary Spellings Interview on YouTube

AFT NCLBlog: Weird Science

Weird Science
from NCLB: Let's Get it Right! by Beth

I expect to see more articles like this one as science assessments come online as required by NCLB in 2007-08.

The narrowing of the curriculum because of NCLB’s focus on math and language arts is not news, but the fact that it is done at the expenses of science is shockingly shortsighted for a couple of reasons:

* It is not like we didn’t know about the 2007-08 deadline for science assessments back in 2001 when the law was passed. Any decision to cut science instruction in say, 4th grade was obviously going to have implications for science assessment results in middle and high school.
* There is a big push now for high schools to focus on 21st century skills/ international competitiveness/college readiness. Though science is one of those subjects that requires less sequential building upon content (you can learn about the solar system and the structure of plants without knowing anything about volcanoes, for example), you can’t just start high school biology without an understanding of the basic structure of plants or what a cell is. And schools can’t just ignore high school science if they expect kids to go to college or to compete globally. I would not have been eligible for the state university I attended without three years of high school science.

But what to make of the fact that NAEP science scores rose at exactly the same time that schools were supposedly decreasing time allotted for science instruction? Maybe the increased focus on language arts has increased students’ comprehension so much that they’re doing better on the comprehension-dependent science questions. Or maybe we can conclude that we don’t have to add science to AYP in order to see scores rise. Or maybe two years of test data is not enough from which to draw major conclusions?

Roy Romer Responds to Bracey's Article

New: Ed in '08 Blog

There’s another thing at issue here. We don’t think it’s “fear mongering” – that’s what this writer called it -- to give folks the facts. It’s a fact that our teenagers are in the bottom third internationally in graduation rates, math, and problem solving. And I certainly don’t think it’s fear mongering to say that Americans should be concerned about those facts.

We’re not trying to stir up fear. We’re trying to stir up concern and action.

We’re appealing to Americans to confront hard facts with honesty and courage and to take on some tough challenges – and to expect their leaders to do so. We’re pointing out that we can create a better future for our children if we do that. That’s not fear mongering. If anything, that’s hope mongering.

Phoenix News Online: Above Average?

Above Average? Conflicting results raise questions about Arizona's testing regime

Posted by Matthew Ladner - Goldwater Institute on Monday May 7, 2007 at 11:18 am MST

Link to story: http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org

We have two ways of judging how Arizona students compare nationally. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams have consistently found Arizona students below the national average (29 times since 1992). The state's recently adopted Terra Nova exam, however, finds us well above the national average.

Superintendent Tom Horne recently wrote a letter to the Arizona Daily Star dismissing NAEP and congratulating Arizona's public schools for being eight percent above the national average according to Terra Nova.

Mr. Horne's skepticism of NAEP certainly stands out. Recently, the publishers of Education Week surveyed a host of education insiders, analyzed citations in academic journals, and tallied media hits to rank the most influential educational studies and information sources of the last decade. NAEP came in first place in both categories by a wide margin, scoring 100 on a 100 point scale.

On NAEP's fourth grade reading exam, the highest performing state (Massachusetts) does not score eight percent above the national average. Nor does the lowest performing state (Mississippi) score eight percent below the national average.

If Arizona were truly eight percent above the national average, we wouldn't have to strive for top tier status. We'd be number one. As it is, we are in danger of being overtaken by Mississippi.

Matthew Ladner is vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute.

EdDaily: Many international students fail to reach NAEP proficiency

Many international students fail to reach NAEP proficiency
By Stephen Sawchuk
Staff Writer
Eighth graders in many foreign nations do not perform at the proficiency benchmark set by the United States’ national science and mathematics
exams, according to a new report.
Although U.S. policymakers’ concerns about students’ generally low performance on the National
Assessment of Educational Progress have characterized
many of the recent debates about global competitiveness, the study shows that widespread achievement at NAEP’s proficient level is limited to students in just a few Asian countries.
The findings, part of a new report released by the American Institutes for Research, could raise additional questions about how to set appropriate proficiency expectations for students on achievement exams. That issue has emerged at the forefront of No Child Left Behind reauthorization
discussions and also in dialogues about national content standards and assessments.
The study’s authors used a statistical methodology
to link the NAEP scale score to that of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study — an international assessment taken by many nations’ students.
The process allowed the researchers to estimate
how other countries that participated in TIMSS would perform on NAEP, although those estimations do not consider the different content and compositions of the tests.
The study found that only in Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan did the average eighth grade student perform at the NAEP proficient
level in math. In all other countries, including the U.S., the average student performed at either the NAEP basic or below basic levels.
In science, only eighth-graders in Singapore and Taiwan on average performed at the NAEP proficient level.
The results are hardly reassuring for U.S. policymakers. On the math exam, the five Asian countries had more than double the percentage of U.S. students performing at the proficient level and more than five times the percentage of U.S. students performing at the NAEP advanced level.
Still, the results could support arguments by many testing experts that the NAEP proficiency expectation
is too high to expect all students to reach. So far, that argument has not gained much traction.
Lawmakers continue to turn to NAEP as a benchmark against which to measure state NCLB exams. Meanwhile, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., recently introduced legislation that would give incentive grants to states that choose to implement national standards rooted in NAEP proficiency levels.
The report did not contain information on the performance of Indian or Chinese students. Neither India nor China participated in TIMSS 2003. Debates about global economic competition have focused on both nations.

WaPo: Science Tests Come as Teaching Time Falls

Science Tests Come as Teaching Time Falls

By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 6, 2007; C06



Maryland elementary and middle students are being tested this week in science for the first time under No Child Left Behind, a federal law that, in the minds of many educators, has squeezed science instruction to the margins of public education.

The results might be sobering, top science educators said.

In five years under the Bush education mandate, the nation's elementary and middle schools have pursued reading and math achievement with zeal, frequently at the expense of science.

Many elementary schools offer half as much science instruction as they did before the law was enacted, teachers and principals said. Science and social studies, once taught separately, share time to make room for more reading and math. Some middle schools that used to offer a full year of science and social studies give a semester of each.

But starting with the 2007-08 academic year, the law requires states to test students in science. A new exam is being field-tested in Maryland this year.

"I think the test will open up some eyes," said Brian Freiss, a fifth-grade teacher at Highland Elementary School in Silver Spring.

The new test catches many Maryland schools at an ebb in science instruction.

The No Child act, signed into law in 2002, requires schools to post adequate yearly progress on their way to attaining 100 percent proficiency in reading and math by 2014. Schools would have to attain 100 percent proficiency in science by 2020 under a proposed reauthorization of the law.

Some states, including California, Florida and Virginia, assess students in science at multiple grades as part of statewide testing programs. Others, including Maryland and Pennsylvania, are beginning science field tests this year. The District's school system did not respond to requests for information on its science instruction.

Last year, the Prince George's County school system restored lost classroom minutes, increasing daily science instruction from 30 minutes to 60 in the lower elementary grades and from 45 minutes to 60 in grades 4, 5 and 6. Montgomery schools are rolling out new textbooks in grades four and five as part of a curriculum overhaul. Frederick schools are field-testing fifth-grade lessons that teach specific science topics during time allotted to reading.

In a fifth-grade classroom at Garrett Park Elementary School last week, students started work on a unit called "Magnets and Motors," an exploration of magnetism, electricity and the electric motor. Students tested their magnets on earrings and braces. Ilias Katsifis, 11, announced to classmates that if a magnet is set against the face of his watch, "it stops time."

Before the No Child act, 45 minutes to an hour of daily science instruction was common in fifth-grade Maryland classrooms, said Mary Thurlow, science coordinator for the State Department of Education.

These days, Freiss, at Highland Elementary, is allotted 30 to 45 minutes daily to teach both social studies and science, which is typical for schools in the region.

"It's definitely not as much as I would like," Freiss said.

Between the 1999-2000 academic year and 2003-04, the most recent date available, the average time spent weekly on science instruction in elementary schools dipped from 2.6 hours to 2.3, according to the U.S. Education Department.

Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress in reading and math under the Bush plan often make further incursions into science lessons to pull struggling students for remedial help.

"We've got elementary teachers who e-mail us saying principals are literally walking into their rooms, saying, 'Stop teaching science,' " said Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association.

Maryland has not tested elementary and middle students in science since the demise of the last statewide test, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program, in 2002. Students have been tested in reading and math in several elementary and middle grades since 2003 but are tested in science only once, in high school.

Gary Heath, a just-retired assistant superintendent of Maryland schools, thinks the high school biology test "has helped keep science in schools, particularly at the middle schools."

"If there's been any squeezing," he said, "it's been in the elementary schools."

Education officials note that science instruction remains strong across much of the state and that in places where it has been cut, teachers compensate by sprinkling science content into lessons in reading and math.

National science performance has not declined in the elementary grades under the No Child act, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the only ongoing national effort to test public school students. The percentage of students rated proficient or better in fourth-grade science increased from 24 percent to 27 percent in Maryland from 2000 to 2005, perhaps a reflection of more rigorous instruction across the curriculum. In Virginia, proficiency rose from 32 to 40 percent in the same span.

Teachers are torn between competing goals: Should they cover a single unit in depth, giving students time to perform experiments, analyze and discuss material, and apply their knowledge to other real-life situations? Or should they sacrifice depth for breadth and attempt to cover each of the 25 objectives listed in Maryland's science curriculum for fifth grade?

The first administration of Maryland's new test, given in grades five and eight this month, is a practice run. Next year's tests will count. And in 2008-09, if the No Child act is reauthorized as the Bush administration has requested, science results will be incorporated into adequate yearly progress reports for schools, districts and states. A school that misses yearly targets can trigger sanctions up to and including the potential "restructuring" of staff.

"I'm predicting next year there is going to be a big shock wave running through the elementary schools when they see the results," Wheeler said.

AFT NCLBlog: Two Cheers for NAEP, and What's A Flack For?

Just one of a bunch of responses to the Bracey piece...

Two Cheers for NAEP, and What's A Flack For?
May 4, 2007 10:59 AM
After reading Eduflack here and seeing John's post as well, I thought I'd add some thoughts. The Flack puts the hammer to Bracey for criticizing NAEP. Now let me be clear. I adore NAEP, and double adore state NAEP.
For example, I was just at an event (more on that later) where Joydeep Roy of EPI mentioned that Georgia has a lower graduation rate than Arkansas. But Georgia has higher NAEP scores across the board. Which indicates that perhaps the issue is Arkansas' low graduation standards rather than Georgia's guidance counselors. And when President Bush first proposed NCLB, I compared NAEP scores in New York and Texas and was stunned -- even before trying to figure out disaggregation of data issues in NY -- about how many NY schools would fail and how many Texas schools didn't fail despite NAEP scores that looked pretty similar. The difference for NY was not in ourselves, but in our choice of standards. David Grissmer's work looking at state NAEP scores is one of my favorite bits of research. And I think its great that people are examining issues in American math instruction that are raised by international comparisons that include the one Bracey is writing about.
But one thing you will almost never see me do is judge anything based on NAEP's performance standards alone. I stick to looking at scale scores. Where NAEP draws the line on what is below basic and what is proficient strikes me as the wrongheaded result of a process that needs some work. Beth's post pointed out the results of that process, as did Bracey's op-ed. In fact, if you read the Department of Ed's website here, you'll see that they cite a National Academy of Sciences study on this issue thusly:
"The Panel concluded that "NAEP's current achievement level setting procedures remain fundamentally flawed. The judgment tasks are difficult and confusing; raters' judgments of different item types are internally inconsistent; appropriate validity evidence for the cut scores is lacking; and the process has produced unreasonable results."
And yet they're still using it. This bothers me because measuring the problem correctly is pretty important for devising solutions and distributing scarce resources. Now it's possible that something has been done to remedy this while I wasn't looking and the Department of Ed hasn't updated the webpage. Absent that, I suspect this is a case where Bracey is making a good point, but it is lost in the noise of a DC conventional wisdom cocktail party that appears to have swallowed Eduflack whole. What to do when people -- including those in power -- are misusing data to exagerate the flaws in public schools seems to be a real PR issue. Rather than knock Bracey, if the Flack isn't actually flacking for a different agenda here, I'd ask what advice there is to give Jerry about this problem.

NYT: Kristoff and Gold Stars and Dunce Caps

Kristoff challenges Presidential candidates to take innovative approaches to reforming education seriously. This is a Times-Select article so can only quote parts, contact Lisa for our subscription.

Op-Ed Columnist

Gold Stars and Dunce Caps

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: May 1, 2007

In this presidential campaign, we need somebody who wants to address the question President Bush once raised: “Is our children learning?”

International testing shows that U.S. schools do a lousy job teaching math and science, in particular. And far too many American students aren’t going to college or even completing high school, undermining our competitiveness for decades to come.

Moreover, the U.S. education system reinforces the gulfs of poverty and race. Well-off white kids tend to go to good schools that propel them ahead, while many poor black and Hispanic kids attend bad schools that hold them back.

he goes on to say...

Yet teachers still vary tremendously in their effectiveness, as the Hamilton Project study found when it examined results in Los Angeles schools. It looked at the 25 percent of teachers who raised their students’ test scores the most, and the 25 percent who raised students’ scores the least. A student assigned to a class with a teacher in the top 25 percent could expect — after just one year — to be 10 percentile points higher than a similar student with a bottom-tier teacher.

“Moving up (or down) 10 percentile points in one year is a massive impact,” the authors wrote. “For some perspective, the black-white achievement gap nationally is roughly 34 percentile points. Therefore, if the effects were to accumulate, having a top-quartile teacher rather than a bottom-quartile teacher four years in a row would be enough to close the black-white test score gap.”

The Hamilton Project study recommends that the weakest 25 percent of new teachers should be denied tenure and eliminated after two or three years on the job (teachers improve a lot in the first two years, but not much after that). That approach, it estimates, would raise students’ average test scores by 14 percentile points by the time they graduated.

CATO: Shouting "There's No Fire!" in a Burning Building

Shouting “There’s No Fire” in a Burning Theater

In today’s Washington Post, government schooling advocate Gerald Bracey argues that American education is just fine, thanks. He makes this case by noting that NAEP 4th grade science standards are set too high. Only 29 percent of kids are deemed “proficient” on that test, while the U.S. ranked third in an international test of 4th grade science a few years ago. If these are the only data you look at, Bracey’s argument is not ludicrous on its face. If you look at all the available data on U.S. student performance, it is.

Jerry has a habit of glossing over the evidence on the performance of older U.S. students and young adults. I ran into this eight years ago when I had an on-line exchange with him over my book Market Education. As I explained then:

While U.S. students sometimes do well and usually do adequately at the 4th grade, their performance deteriorates significantly by the 8th grade, and they hit rock bottom by the 12th grade. American 16-25 year olds are among the most illiterate in the world, with nearly a quarter scoring at the lowest possible level measured by the International Adult Literacy Survey. Since most Americans are chiefly concerned with how well their children are prepared for adult life at the end of their education, the appalling performance of U.S. high-school seniors and recent graduates represents a genuine and not a manufactured crisis….

Regrettably, but not at all surprisingly, little has changed in the intervening years. I updated my analysis of U.S. peformance in an international context when the latest TIMSS and PISA tests were released two years ago. The data continue to show that “the notion [our] public school problems are confined to inner cities, and that our wealthy suburbs produce world-beating high school graduates is a myth.”

WaPo: A Test Everyone will fail

A Test Everyone Will Fail

By Gerald W. Bracey
Thursday, May 3, 2007; A25

Bracey says:

All those august organizations have rejected the NAEP achievement levels because the process is confusing to the people who try to set the levels and because the results are inconsistent: Children can't answer questions they should be able to and can answer questions they shouldn't be able to. The levels also give what the National Academy of Sciences called "unreasonable" results, including the fact that only 29 percent of U.S. fourth-graders were considered proficient or better by NAEP, yet America ranked third among 26 participating nations.

Other evidence is easy to come by. In 2000, 2.7 percent of American high school seniors scored 3 or better -- the score at which colleges begin to grant credit for the course -- on Advanced Placement calculus. Almost 8 percent of seniors (including those who did not take the test) scored above 600 on the math SAT; nearly a quarter (24 percent) of those who took it scored over 600. Yet NAEP said that only 1.5 percent of the nation's seniors reached its "advanced" level.

So why does the government continue to report such misleading information? The "Leaders and Laggards" report illustrates why: The numbers are useful as scare techniques. If you can batter people into believing the schools are in awful shape, you can make them anxious about their future -- and you can control them.

In the 1980s, the "schools suck" bloc used such numbers to make us fearful that Japan, now emerging from a 15-year period of recession and stagnation, was going to take our markets; today, India and China play the role of economic ogres.

Recently, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote in The Post that constant references to a "war on terror" "stimulated the emergence of a culture of fear. Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of policies they want to pursue." Happens all the time in education. The most recent phony alarm comes from Eli Broad and Bill Gates, who are putting up $60 million hoping to "wake up the American people." If the fear-mongers can scare you sufficiently (how many times have you heard the phrase "failing schools" in the past five years?), you might permit them to do to your public schools things you would otherwise never allow.

Click on post title to read full article at washingtonpost.com

Ed Week: Education Dept. Included in Political Briefings

Education Dept. Included in Political Briefings

White House officials held a series of at least 20 political briefings before the 2006 midterm elections and early this year for political appointees at numerous federal agencies, including the Department of Education.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, is investigating whether such briefings violated the federal Hatch Act, which governs federal employees on matters of engaging in partisan politics.

Rep. Waxman’s committee issued subpoenas on April 25 to the Republican National Committee requesting e-mails relating to the briefings, as well as any e-mails relating to the use of federal resources to assist Republican candidates for office. But the White House maintains that the Bush administration did nothing improper.

“There is nothing wrong with political appointees providing other political appointees with an informational briefing about the political landscape in which they are working,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said at an April 26 press briefing, according to a transcript. She said similar briefings occurred during President Clinton’s administration.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education declined to discuss the matter.

Teacher Leaders Network: The Nation's Cudgel

Bill Ferriter teaches 6th grade language arts in Wake County, NC, where he was named Teacher of the Year for 2005-2006.

He says:

Don't get me wrong...having high standards for our students is essential if we are intent on maintaining our competitive edge in the world's flattening economy. But using a measure that has unreasonably high standards prevents open conversation about where our schools are succeeding and where they continue to struggle---and unfairly damages the credibility of a system that is serving millions of students well.


Read the rest here: