After millions of dollars in tests, workbooks, texts and technology along with weeks of lost library time and class time, this CCS SBAC test that is to close the achievement gap, part the seas and bring about world peace… is not ready for prime time.
That’s right folks. The much anticipated results of all that work, stress, time and money poured into the SBAC testing will not be seen until September of this year. It is taking the powers-that-be four months to tally results of a computerized and much touted test.
The best part is after results are received, parents, students and teachers will not be able to see the questions or answers to know exactly what areas need to be improved. No, that will come out in pages of computer printout referred to as “data” that the teachers are to interpret in their free time. We don’t want to leave anything to the wisdom and experience of teachers, that would be woefully inadequate in the eyes of Randy Dorn, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and the plethora of soldiers who are demanding that we follow the orders of test taking and question nothing.
Here is the pathetic letter that just came out of Seattle Public Schools offices:
Dear Seattle Public Schools family,
The timing of the state assessment score reports has changed from June to September. These are the score sheets from your student’s spring Smarter Balanced tests in reading, writing and math. Last month, the district told families that the score reports would likely be sent home with final report cards in June. Due to unanticipated delays at the state level, the district will now send score reports home in September. Scores also will be posted online to the Source in the fall. September is the typical timing for state assessment score reports, but the district this year had initially anticipated they would be ready earlier. To learn more about the assessments, please see our Smarter Balanced web page: http://www.seattleschools.org/students/assessments.
Thank you for your patience as we work with this new state assessment system.
Dora Taylor
Seattle Education 
“Scores also will be posted online to the Source in the fall.” Gee, that’s only eleven days from now! I don’t expect the teachers to remember SBAC scores from four months ago for 25-150 students, so I won’t bother them while they do more important things, but for a data-sharing happy institution and state department, the reluctance to share SBAC results with parents is troublesome. My child’s asked me to opt him out of testing for this school year, and I’m likely to do just that if no one wants to share results with me.
Even when you get the results, the numbers will not make any sense.
It’s a worthless and expensive exercise.
A subgroup of Seattle Schools performance percentages on SBAC’s ELA and Math tests have changed since I first recorded them on a spreadsheet a few weeks ago too, Dora.
Changed?
Replying to this as I can’t see the reply link for “Changed?”
The Seattle Schools initial Scorecard Results for the grade and populations I checked have changed.
When the OSPI scorecard was released: 61.8% of males in Grade 7 in Seattle Public Schools at least met basic ELA standards in their SBAC test results, and 64.3% of foresaid population met Math standards; today, I see that 56.8% of Grade 7 males met basic ELA standards, and 59.3% met Math standards. There is no change for the individual school’s Grade 7 male population percentages.
Hmm. Let me see what I can find out.
Dora
Also, for Seattle Schools’ white 7th grade students taking ELA and Math SBAC tests, the following changes are noted: from 84.7% to 75.5% (ELA) and 80.9% to 72.9% (Math) reporting at least meeting basic standards.
This doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in whatever (multi-million dollar) system OSPI is using.
Not only have the percentages changed but no announcement was made about the revisions.
Dora
It is for data reporting situations like this that the neologism verb “refuculate” was created.
Excuse me?
That malaprop came from a “Trailer Park Boys” episode. The Latin infinitive verb for make is “facere” (Wiktionary source here, Re- is the prefix of verbs defining “to do again,” portmanteau with “calculate” = refuculate. TPB usage: “I’m gonna try & refuculate [engine4] & land on Juniper [sic].”
The Establishment needs time to fudge/fix test scores… this has never been about educating the children. This has always been about citizen control and indoctrination. Teachers beware…
I want to see the student survey results. If the tests are anything like the PARCC which we subjected kids to out here on the East Coast, the results will be awful. So many kids gave up on it.
Word has it that 41% of the third graders failed the SBAC.
Ryan,
What grade are the students?
Dora
There’s more.
From another parent:
In Idaho there have been problems with score reporting, explained here:
http://www.idahoednews.org/news/isat-test-results-hit-a-series-of-delays/#.VXeIglVVikp
Specifically, their problems were summarized this way:
“First, there were delays getting hand-scored results from one contractor, Measurement, Inc., and American Institutes for Research, a Washington, DC-based contractor delivering the state-wide assessments in 11 states and the US Virgin Islands.”
“Then, AIR had its own glitch. The completed test results weren’t feeding properly into its online reporting system.”
Washington is one of the 11 AIR states.
http://www.air.org/page/air-assessment-did-you-know
So the results getting into parent’s hands in Seattle/Washington State may be a tech glitch.
If that’s the case this entire system is faulty.
See this article:
Test fatally flawed, school officials say, http://www.mdislander.com/maine-news/education-news/test-fatally-flawed-school-officials-say.
“BAR HARBOR, ME — Local school officials aren’t too surprised that the Legislature is on the verge of scrapping the new standardized student testing system that was just introduced this spring.
Julie Meltzer, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Mount Desert Island Regional School System, said the new test, called Smarter Balanced, was itself untested and not ready to be implemented.
The Legislature’s Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs voted unanimously May 18 to recommend passage of a bill to end Maine’s participation in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which developed the test. The bill would require that a new assessment of student achievement be developed “with direct input from teachers, parents and school boards … .”
The bill has not yet been voted on by the full House and Senate.
The Smarter Balanced tests were taken this spring by students in grades 3-8 and by high school juniors across the state. The Maine Department of Education had said the assessment would give teachers and parents “valuable tools to understand where every public school student is and where they may need additional support to become college and career ready by graduation.”
But Meltzer said state education officials botched the rollout.
“It was the process of decision-making that failed at the state level, combined with poor support and communication from the state, the level of unpreparedness of the systems for test-taking … and the poor design of many of these systems,” Meltzer told the Islander.
“The tests themselves may be great examples of how to test for critical thinking and may be a real improvement over previous tests. But they take a lot of time and are very expensive, and we have no idea of the value of the data that comes back months later.”
Meltzer said the schools already have standardized math and reading assessments that provide “both fast and valuable snapshots of how our students are doing … and information about how to adapt instruction to meet students’ needs.”
Mount Desert Elementary School Principal Scott McFarland told the school system board that, having seen some of his student’s Smarter Balanced test results, he thinks the assessment is seriously flawed.
“I’ve seen enough of it, seen enough glitches to know that it’s invalid data,” he said.
Meltzer said local school personnel spent “days and days” preparing for implementation of the Smarter Balanced assessment.
Superintendent Howard Colter said that for the state to pull the plug on Smarter Balanced after just one year is “just stunning,” given the amount of “energy and time and money and training that went into it.”
Meltzer said that everyone involved with the local schools had done their best to get ready for the new assessment and to try to make it work.
“Our teachers stepped up; our technology people stepped up; our administrators stepped up; our families stepped up; and that was really impressive,” she said.”
This is what one parent said over at the Seattle Opt Out FB page:
“So, is anyone as miffed as I am about the email from SPS today that test results will not be available until September? I’m not miffed because I’m dying to see the results (my son will have none), but I’m miffed because I was told by school leadership that the sole reason 3rd graders would be tested in mid-April on the ENTIRE year’s worth of content (way to give finals before covering the material!) was because it was mandatory for schools to meet with all 3rd grade families that didn’t achieve a specific level by June. Now it appears that the singular reason for the illogical early testing is no longer a requirement or necessity. Scores won’t be available until September. Has anyone heard otherwise, or what the problem is?
I want to add that the importance of as many students as possible taking the test to Randy Dorn and our supe is because the test makers want to calibrate the test. That’s it.
Dora
Yeah…they are calling all the Spin Doctors to table, no doubt.
Hey! We will call ours!
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
I can only laugh. Today, Delaware’s Governor Markell said “This is the best test Delaware ever created.” I will crack up when the Delaware DOE makes this announcement. I’m guessing the scores are REALLY bad so they are trying to delay as much as humanly possible…
That’s my thinking.
Teachers have told me that the results of their students are available to them so…why can’t anyone else know?
I have heard the results are very bad, as anticipated, in our state as well so yes, I think they’re working on spin.
Dora
I have 2 results back out of 26 kids. Yay.
He wouldn’t know a good test if it slapped him in the face…LOL