PRESS RELEASE

September 1, 2004

Testing Emperor Scantily Clad

OLYMPIA – In the fable of old, the Emperor was naked. I’ll admit to seeing a tad bit of cloth.

My modern-day Emperor is the education establishment. They and our governor are having a party right now to celebrate "increases" in student achievement in our state as measured by the dreaded Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) scores compared against the federal No Child Left Behind Act standards. They say more students than ever have moved into the "proficient" category.

But several problems exist with these "increases," the first being the definition of proficiency. In 10th grade, for example, a student must get only 39 points of a possible 64 in math (61%) to be declared proficient. Only 42.5% of the students hit that benchmark or above. In 10th grade reading, a student must get only 31 of 52 possible points (60%) to be declared proficient. Seventy percent of students are proficient at the 60% benchmark. This is the best score of the 10th grade results.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction noted that they decreased the "proficiency cut score" by one point, altering the baseline. The changes in "cut scores" could push student test scores up to 12 percent higher than last year, without those students actually knowing one more iota of information. Requirements for obtaining Level 2 Basic status and Level 4 Advanced status were also lowered.

Comparisons between achievement scores for this year and last are impossible unless very detailed information for each measured subgroup is obtained school-by-school. This is because requirements for several pools of test takers were changed as well. We think some of the changes are fine, but it does alter the overall outcome. The education establishment makes data collection very hard. (We are still waiting for information we requested a year ago.)

So, are children making real gains in acquiring necessary knowledge and skills? We don’t know. But if they are making progress, it is not very much, except maybe in the area of reading (depending on the analysis of subgroup results). Any gain is important, but this one is seriously oversold. Meanwhile, one-third of students drop out between 9th and 12th grade, and one-third of our students are not qualified to enter the workforce after they graduate from high school. Employers are bemoaning the lack of qualified employees and our higher education institutions are putting more and more freshman students into remedial high school courses. And by 2010, America will have lost its edge in math, science, engineering, and technology; mostly because our curriculum in math and science lacks academic integrity and rigor, and because many teachers lack academic credentials in those fields.

Today’s results show that 56% of all fourth graders do not meet the standards in the combined subjects of reading, writing and math. The percentage of 7th graders who do not meet the combined standards is 64%. For 10th graders it is 61%. These alarming numbers mean we must have far faster results, and the education establishment’s unwillingness to adopt the necessary best practices to make this happen is unacceptable.

Perhaps the real reason for the party-like atmosphere is the education bureaucracy’s success in making this information so hard to understand and so difficult to check out that few citizens, parents and reporters will even attempt it.

Contact: Marsha Richards | Education Reform Center Director | 360.956.3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org