Up, Up, Up! Part 2: School-By-School ISATs

As many of you have noted (see below), these are some big jumps -- too big, it seems to some. 

Here is the school-by-school spreadsheet of 2006 ISAT scores, from CPS -- what do you think?

Download isat.06.schoolbyschool.xls

No news about PSAEs or comparisons to the rest of the state so far. I'll keep checking. 

Comments

Does anyone know of any schools that took the test later? As you recall, there was a long window of opportunity for administering the test this spring. And there was concern that the schools taking the test later would have access to the test questions from schools that had already administered it.

These are the real scores! No cheating here. Face it, what BEW is doing is working.

You must be crazy to think that schools can read at or above 50% I work with schools and I can tell you first hand these scores are not telling the public the truth. Nothing this team has put out in the district had worked. Did you see the looks on the faces of the boards people? they looked like "I HOPE THEY BELIEVE US!" Don't be fooled we know the truth.

4:50pm- if you "work with schools" than it sounds like you might be to blame for any lack of success, huh?

doesn't seem to matter whether cps scores go up or down- people find something to complain about.

Yes I might be to blame for schools not doing well. My job is to support schools and work with teachers and believe me the work does not leave teachers thinking that we don't have work to do. The scores gives false information and its an insult to the hard work that goes into moving children from one stage to another.

[alexander]

please don't get personal towards other people or i'll have to close the comments

just like they say in couples thereapy

-- say how you feel
-- add some useful information or insight
-- avoid statements that start with "you..." or "you should..."

Jumps are too high - perhaps trend is upwards and this seems likely given the BEW push and initiatives etc but some of these schools jumping 20-30 percent in meets and exceeds seems too significant for one year unless population of teachers and/or students changed dramatically. however, 4:50 needs to quit - sorry don't mean to be personal but geez guy don't be so cynical. Chicken Little?

[Red]

Here are my concerns over these results.
1. This is the first year Harcourt made the tests for Illinois
2. When you look at individual schools and their grade level jumps, and when you know those schools have not done anything dramatically differently this past year, it causes one to wonder.
3. The opportunity to share questions from one school to another this year because of delivery foul ups was a real concern.
4. The Curriculum and Instruction office this year was more fractured and leaderless than it has been for years.
5. The ISAT became the measure for promotion this year making it a higher stakes test than it has ever been.
6. Objectively, dramatic increases are always viewed with caution and with a very critical eye.
It is great to see improvements, but I think we all need to calmly discuss the possible reasons for these kind of dramatic increases. Duncan/BEW supporters want to enjoy this increase, but seriously, these are valid questions to at least discuss.

You are correct Red. Duncan was interviewed about the scores and his responses were the same type given by schools that aren't making progress. Words like back to the basics, focused, after school programs, hard work etc. You never hear comments like we noted that most of the gains in reading was because the students improved in comprehension, drawing conclusions, making comparisons, and inferences. We still have to work on main idea, authors purpose. He can't make those statements because all they are looking at is the test scores. Remember in 2003 CPS dropped math as a rentention criteria and put the total emphasis on rfeading, according to Duncan. Now they claim their programs are working.

How are cut scores set? Who sets them? Are the same cut scores used by the whole state? How did cut scores this year compare with past? The decision to drop ITBS (norm-referenced test) and go exclusively with ISAT (criterion referenced test) means that if you set cut scores lower, you can make it appear that there are large gains each year, you can move more schools toward meeting NCLB, and you can make it appear that the gap in test scores among groups is shrinking. Gains are great, but we must also look critically at unprecedented gains (or declines) that take place in a short time span.

There is a state appointed committee that determines cut scores. It is a pretty exhaustive process, with some degree of subjectivity. ISBE did change the cut scores for 8th grade Math this year. Historically these cut scores were too high and consequently the scores were always bad. The new test this year reflects the lowered cut scores. But this was only lowered in this one grade and subject.

In addition to lowered cut scores, be aware of the following. The ISAT form administered this year is different than the one administered last year. Therefore, comparisons with 2005 are not valid. As the Cubs say, "wait until next year."

It would be interesting to take selected students with large gains and administer the 2005 ISAT to them to see if these gains were sustained. CPS used to retest classes with old forms of the ITBS if there were unusually high gains.
There should be some way to verify these results, even if it is just a small sampling.

I have some questions.
Are teachers now allowed to test their own students? Do teachers switch with other teachers for testing or use proctors? What is the recommended procedure?

Teachers test their own students, in many cases without a proctor because of lack of people available. Cut scores were changed at every grade level for reading and math. This test was easier than previous ITBS tests. So of course scores went up. However, grade levels that made improvements in quality of instruction had bigger gains than those that didn't.

[Nora]

Has anyone seen a similar file with PSAE scores? If so, could you post the link?