State School Superintendent Richard Woods has been busy of late— first announcing some “good” testing news and then blasting as “untrue” media misinformation based on a statistical data service study.
First, the good news. Beginning with the 2015-2016 school year, students will take fewer tests due to a reduction of Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) required for schools to administer. “I have always believed that we test our students too much,” Woods said. “Eliminating some of the Student Learning Objectives is a step toward reducing the overall number of tests given to students, which will give our teachers more time for instruction and help our students focus on learning instead of testing. This change is another step toward a more responsible accountability model.”
For Race to the Top school districts, teachers will only be required to administer two SLOs, where they previously administered up to six SLOs. Non-Race to the Top school districts will administer only one SLO, where they also previously administered up to six SLOs. If teachers in a non-Race to the Top district teach a Milestones course (state standardized test), then they would administer no SLOs. “We have to get back to the business of personalizing, not standardizing, education for our students, and the fewer standardized tests we have in place, the more our teachers can do what they do best – teach, the superintendent says.
Another Woods pronouncement that has received little notice, however, is just as important. “Contrary to some news reports you may have seen last week, Woods says, “Georgia is ‘not at the bottom of the nation’ in math and reading. He is referring to a study released recently by the National Center for Education Statistics – “Mapping State Proficiency Standards onto NAEP Scales.” The school chief bristles that the study’s findings are being twisted to make Georgia look bad— that there is “a factually and contextually inaccurate interpretation of this study.” He explains:
“The study uses a complex formula to estimate where the CRCT’s expectations for student achievement in grades 4 and 8 reading and math would have fallen on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The study did not use actual 2013 NAEP scores – which do exist, and which showed Georgia students making gains in multiple areas, including scoring one point above the nation in fourth-grade reading. These actual scores were not part of the NCES study.
“What the study does show is that, under the CRCT, Georgia set the bar for its students far too low. That’s a serious problem, but it’s something we already knew. We’ve already taken the necessary steps to rectify the issue. The new Georgia Milestones Assessment System, which replaced the CRCT starting with the 2014-15 school year, sets a significantly higher bar for student proficiency. I’ll be entirely candid: that means scores, initially, will be lower. It does not mean that Georgia students know less. But we’re not here to make sure students score well on a test. We’re here to make sure they’re learning, and that means setting high standards and evening the playing field with the rest of the nation.
“I value the information provided by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the efforts of the news media to inform the public about Georgia education, flaws and all. This is not a defense of the low bar Georgia set through previous assessments. Georgians should know, however, that while this study provided valuable information, it did not show that our students are “last” in the nation. That’s simply not a fact.”
