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Test scores and understanding how the grading system works can be confusing. What number one school achieves might go further in another area. The 2016 State Test is changing, and obtaining a top ranking is getting significantly harder.
School district ratings for 2015 are coming later this week. And it just got a whole lot harder to make a good grade.
This is the first set of grades for schools under the new accountability model, with very different expectations, and the first using an online test (2015 PARCC). Both are likely to drive down district grades.
Fewer than one percent of districts are expected to make the “A” cut; fewer than 10 percent a “B.”
And to say that PARCC online testing didn’t go smoothly, well… among the thousands of problems reported, some of the most frequent were:
Tests “freezing” and repeatedly shutting down midstream, requiring students to restart many times
Online calculators not working and graphs missing from math questions
Unresponsive items and insufficient bandwidth
…you get the (very ugly) picture.
All the tech-snafus on this timed test left many questioning the validity of the assessment scores – and the resulting state ratings. Mississippi students are outpacing the rest of the nation in improvement on national tests. We know student achievement is improving. These ratings are not likely to reflect that.
The good news is that districts will be held harmless for the 2015 grades. But not for 2016 ratings, which are based on another new assessment and will be out in a few short months – with policy changes that punish below-B districts already on the books.
High expectations will yield better achievement for Mississippi students, and that is a very good thing. Unless the real agenda is to drive down ratings in order to justify privatizing public schools. The rhetoric and actions of the powers that be will be telling.
“The new system puts less emphasis on the performance of individual students and much more focus on the lowest performing students and the progress students are making.
According to an article posted in the Daily Corinthian “It puts a premium on how you educate the bottom 25 percent of your students and how you grow your students,” he explained.
More than half of a district’s score will be based on the performance of the lowest 25 percent of students and on graduation rates.
The emphasis on improvement in student performance means the highest performing districts and schools will have the toughest time with the ratings because when performance is already extremely high there’s not as much room for improvement.”
