CORRECTION! I received this note from friend and fellow advocate Herb Bassett last night. I strive for accuracy and appreciate anyone who points out errors to me. This correction does not, however, change the fact that the so-called released tests are incomplete and falsely presented. Herb is a teacher who has offered a plethora of test score and school performance score analyses. If the COMPASS teacher evaluation system reaches its ultimate fruition, I have no doubt it will end up n court and Herb's excellent information can be used. More on that later. (Dr. Douglas Harris of Tulane Unversity has been contracted to evaluate the use of VAM and our teacher eval system. )
Lee,
I appreciate your continuing advocacy. As much as I hate to use the word, I would like to insert some clarity.
White planned the release of the LEAP and iLEAP test items (ELA and Math only) in advance and it was announced in the PowerPoint accompanying the release of the scores in May. I have no doubt that the release of the items was to ensure we would have to buy the new PARCC questions; the clarity here is that information was put out in advance, if buried in LDOE propaganda.
The posting of the questions would have had to have waited until after the summer retakes, so they had to be posted less than a week before last week's meeting.
I have been working on an analysis of the Recovery School District's LEAP and iLEAP scores, so I noticed the announcement, but didn't sound the alarm. Sorry I missed that one.
Page four of this link has the announcement.
Herb
CORRECTION AGAIN: It was pointed out to me that iLEAP/LEAP tests this year were not on line even for those districts with capability. Somehow I understood they were because they included "PARCC like" questions.
CORRECTION AGAIN: It was pointed out to me that iLEAP/LEAP tests this year were not on line even for those districts with capability. Somehow I understood they were because they included "PARCC like" questions.
******
On July 1, during the BESE special meeting, it was stated several times that "teachers don't get to see the iLEAP or LEAP tests and parents can't see the tests after administration," so it would not be a problem to administer the 2013/14 tests again in 2014/15, Louisiana Supt. John White made the surprise announcement that in fact the 2013/14 tests were found on the LDE website. Because no one has ever seen these tests and they have never been released before in their entirety, it was conjectured that White devised this event literally on the spot and so as to then prevent the proposed
re-use of the test in 2014/15.
re-use of the test in 2014/15.
I decided to check out his claims so went to the link provided and opened the 7th grade ELA test. Below are my observations which show without a doubt that these are NOT the tests administered and furthermore are useless for analysis because they are incomplete. I might add that this test is far from "rigorous" for 7th grade and I can't believe they were actually the test questions nor aligned to CCSS.
I ask that BESE members hold White accountable for this boldface lie which contributed to the negative vote on the motion offered up by Jane Smith.
7th grade ELA 2013-14 released test
1. Notice in the rush to release the test the second prompt was copied twice. "newspaper Articles from the 2000s"
2. Notice the Directions for Writing indicate this is to be handwritten. Weren't the tests done on line this year? (I am told all tests this spring were paper and pencil. Only the PARCC field test was on line for many schools).
3. Notice the article from the magazine Science Today "Amazing Insects" is from February 1999. Do they really think a science article this old is appropriate for a high stakes test?
4. Page from website BugBiz.com, says it was accessed 2004 (again outdated science?) Also this section must be done on line to access links and the complete question. Even though I am accessing it on line, the links are dead. (I received a tweet saying because the test was not on line, the links would not be live. Makes sense, but why are there a list of links to access for more information? )
5. Section 3:Language. It states that a majority of the passages used were permissioned passages and not available for release.
6. Page 41 question 32: no poem is provided from which to answer. Same 33-47
7. From page 51-52, questions 43-45 are missing.
8. Page 53-54, question 48 is missing. No passage given from which to answer.
9 Question 50 missing.
10. No passage provided for which to respond to questions 51-55. Again, this us a pencil/paper test.
This is NOT one of the tests administered. If it were, it is incomplete and of no use for review. Why was it posted on line?
Lee P. Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT
Secondary English, Journalism, Gifted
"If a child struggles to clear the high bar at five feet, she will not become a "world class" jumper because someone raised the bar to six feet and yelled "jump higher," or if her “poor” performance is used to punish her coach." - - CommonSense
"I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings. Standardization is a great peril which threatens American culture.”—— Albert Einstein
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