+OK 5977 octets Received: from smtp03.nwnexus.com (smtp03.nwnexus.com [206.63.63.41]) by mail1.halcyon.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id SAA18406 for ; Wed, 10 Feb 1999 18:39:21 -0800 (PST) Received: from ripple.dundee.net (ripple.dundee.net [206.249.104.12]) by smtp03.nwnexus.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id SAA11118 for ; Wed, 10 Feb 1999 18:39:10 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 12:28:14 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: "ClearingHouse" From: "eca@fastlane.net" Subject: [education-consumers] NEGP/NAEP & the Truth on Scores Reply-To: "eca@fastlane.net" Precedence: bulk Status: ===================================================================== X-From_: TFRC@aol.com Tue Feb 9 22:31:32 1999 From: TFRC@aol.com Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 23:23:46 EST To: TFRC@aol.com Subject: MUST READ -- the truth Friends, At the [Texas] State Board of Education meeting in January, David Grissmer made a presentation on the National Education Goals Progress that highlighted the achievement gains of Texas students. The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) is distributing a brochure, "Public Schools: The closer you get, the better they look." The brochure states that "While others have been talking about improving public schools, Texas has been working hard making improvements. Here are just a few reasons Texas public Schools have been getting national attention." The TASB brochure includes sections titled as follows: "TAAS scores rise;" "NAEP scores up;" "Goals Panel recognizes Texas;" and "Texas in the spotlight." The brochure cites David Grissmer's report, "Exploring Rapid Achievement Gains in North Carolina and Texas (Nov. 1998) and states that "Texas is a national role model. The brochure also states that Texas has been featured in publications such as Education Week, Policy Review, and the Los Angeles Times. References to Texas gains are a common topic in education circles. Dr. Sandra Stotsky's comments in this message raise significant questions about the claims again student achievement gains, and they point to the need for further investigation. Anne Newman From: Sstotsky@aol.com Return-path: To: TFRC@aol.com Subject: Re: Private school participation in NAEP Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 22:24:33 EST Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Let me give you the information that is relevant to understanding why Grissmer concluded that Texas students were making progress in reading in the 1990s. I do not have the time to write to members of the Texas Board of Education, but feel free to share the information I give you below with anyone. David Grissmer and Ann Flanagan are co-authors of a report "Exploring Rapid Achievement Gains in North Carolina and Texas," issued by the National Educational Goals Panel in November 1998. Their report concluded, among other things, that North Carolina and Texas are two states that "made greater combined student achievement gains in math and reading (on NAEP, 1992-1996) than any other states. The gains were significant and sustained." The problem with this conclusion is that it is based on a combination of test results from two subject areas. If we examine whether Texas students made gains in reading itself in the 1990s, the conclusion would have to be qualified considerably. According to p. 5 of the Grissmer/Flanagan report, the NAEP test results in reading that this report drew on were from 1992 and 1994, and for fourth graders only. The test scores in 1994 for Texas fourth graders were not higher. As the report notes, "fourth grade reading scores show small losses. The chart on p. 6 shows this. So, the NAEP data do not show any increases in Texas students' reading scores. The next question is: On what basis did the co-authors conclude that these combined gains were later "sustained?" It turns out that the basis for this claim as it relates to reading is based on Texas's STATE assessments from 1994 to 1998 (Figure 6, p.9). These are the very tests I analyzed at the request of the Tax Research Association and reported on in November 1998. What I found, using the best readability formula available, is that the grade 4 reading tests declined regularly in overall reading difficulty. This means that we do not know if rising students' scores during this period mean anything. While the scores were rising, the tests were becoming easier. It's possible that students' reading ability may have been DECREASING over that four-year period. We just don't know. Thus, there is no valid empirical basis for the claim that Texas's students improved in reading during the 1990s. Sandra Stotsky, Research Associate, Harvard Graduate School of Education ===================================================================== EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE networking and information for parents and taxpayers on the internet Subscriptions & Archives: http://education-consumers.com or You are currently subscribed to education-consumers as: arthurhu@halcyon.com TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send a blank email to leave-education-consumers-989462S@lists.dundee.net ===================================================================== For less mail, click on the following link and choose 1) a daily digest, 2) a daily list of subjects, or 3) no mail (read postings on Web) http://lists.dundee.net/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=education-consumers For more help & info: http://www.lyris.com/help or .