\doc\web\99\07\grandv.txt
carlsona@destiny.esd105.wednet.edu/cc
wa-ed-deform@egroups.com,education-consumers@lists.dundee.net
WASL Kicks 80th percentile Hispanic Saxon kids back to their proper place


thanks for the response, usually there is a pretty close
correlation between basic skills percentiles and performance
based tests. If you compare rank order for seattle area schools
between ctbs and wasl, the top 10 and bottom 10 schools on
both lists are almost identical, as much as they claim that
the WASL is an "entirely different" kind of test.


A 12% pass rate would be about par for Hispanic
students in the 2nd year.


I believe this shows that while you can directly teach math
skills with Saxon to the level of the suburban kids, it still
won't compensate for IQ and other environmental learning you
get from rich educated parents that also keep them at the 80th
percentile on the WASL while your kids evidently fall back
to their level when they are tested what they are NOT taught.
You should be rightly outraged that the WASL does not at all
measure the remarkable skills of your students given their
background. Where there is Saxon which evidently is effective
in producing 80th percentile scores even among the poor non-
english speakers, there exists NO curriculum or even test
project which has demonstrated the 80% pass rate goal which
will be required of every school. Not even the richest school
in Bellevue where the only minorities are the Chinese kids who
score better than the anglos. They never told you this,
did they? Your kids basically don't stand a chancE with WASL.


You are right, the WASL has very little arithmetic. The
remainder are highly G-loaded tasks requiring hundreds of
mental steps of the sort that will give
you the one-standard deviation racial gap you usually see on IQ
tests. Most of the 10th grade questions can be solved by
punching 5 or 6 calcultor keys. You could completely master
99th percentile basic math and still flunk this test.




It also dramatically shows how "performance based" testing
adversely affects minorities. The racial gap is largely determined
by the difficulty level of the test with IQ and SAT test being
among the most difficult tests around. Constructed responses
and testing on content not taught are far more difficult than
multiple choice tests of content they have been exposed to. The
fact that you have chosen Saxon shows that you must also believe
that "progressive" education is disasterous to the very
minorities and underachievers it purports to cater to.


You and other teachers must help me and call the CSL and OSPI,
and complain to your superintendent about the test. I am the
only citizen out of 5 million who has informed the CSL that
there is a problem. I'm not kidding, MIT computer science
grads aren't even taught how to solve the scale sorting problem,
it would probably stump 80% of microsoft interview candidates.


I suspect even if you taught your kids through my solutions to
100% proficiency with the sample test, the actual test would
still test for something completely different. Unless you can
compensate for what rich educated motivated Asian parents like me
can provide
for my kids, I'm afraid you're going to be out of luck as long
as they insist on testing to what is not and can not be
learned in the classroom.


What is your school and district and grade level, I'd like to
dig up the actual numbers and see what's going on for myself.


Like I said, if you're getting 80th percentile on math, you
deserve to be in the national or at least statewide headlines.
My files has no other WA schools and only Wesley and Barclay
schools (both black) with that kind of performance.
Has your school gotten any recognition at all?


It ticks me off that the WASL, which allegedly seeks to measure
ways to improve performance for all kids, ERASES ANY EVIDENCE
that something like Saxon can produce the amazing results you
claim, and kick them back to their proper place on the racial
totem pole. That's what ed reform is all about. Make sure that
the last thing anybody worries about is direct instruction of 
basic skills to insure that even the weakest minorites get at 
least the same educational foundations as the rich kids. This
crap is going to insure that only the rich will rise to the top,
while the poor schools will be penalized for not reaching their
accountability goals. Man what a sinister system.


How did your school do on the CTBS tests, and is there any year
when your scores jumped up from the typical 25-30th percetnile
barrio scores up to your current levels?






On 1999-04-27 carlsona@destiny.esd105.wednet.edu said:
   >You need to read the part of my message that said only 12% of the
   >District kids in Grandview passed the WASL.  We are at level one
   >proficiency or deficiency.  I drilled my kids and practiced like
   >crazy. I might have over stated the 30% of my kids that passed.
   >May have only been 25.  We have a LONG way to go.  I agree with you
   >that many of the items are not grade appropriate.  I'd be happy if
   >all the kids understood addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
   >division and when to use which or even in combination.  The test
   >asks very few of those types of questions. Much more on thinking
   >(no numbers usually) and graphing.
   >A. Carlson


Arthur Hu "Fairness in Diversity" Kirkland WA 
http://www.leconsulting.com/arthurhu/


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