A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Poverty And The Smarter Balanced Assessment

63 Comments
Last week LiberalGeek took a comment I posted about the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) scores and turned it into a graph. Now we have many graphs and charts. Inside you will find charts of the four districts that serve city of Wilmington students (click on charts inside to enlarge). You will also find a chart of Charter Schools. Pay attention to the trend lines. Some are more obvious than others. Before I continue, let me say this: I do not support the SBA, but since we'll be using these scores to judge and label students, teachers and schools we need to look at the data. This test will have consequences.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Results Are In

22 Comments
I'm not even sure where to begin. I'll start here:
Only half of Delaware students are proficient in English and fewer than four in 10 are proficient in math, according to results of the state's tough new standardized test, the Smarter Balanced Assessment. (link takes you to the results)
. It's no secret I'm not a fan of standardized tests, mainly because I think we're using them incorrectly.  We focus on handing out gold stars to schools who pass and slap "failing" labels on schools that don't. But... maybe this is changing?
"There will certainly be an increase in regards to how the state allocates resources--and that's really part of the value here--let's understand which districts and which schools have the greatest struggles, and let's make sure that we, as a state, are able to allocate resources to those students who need it most."
Hey, that sounds like equitable funding. Could it be? I'm skeptical tho, since I lived through the Priority School fiasco. "Allocate resources" is usually followed with the threat of charter conversion, privatization and closure. We'll see. That said, if these tests were actually used to help struggling schools (instead of punishing them) I'd change my tune.
Where Are The Smarter Balanced Test Results?

Where Are The Smarter Balanced Test Results?

6 Comments
According to Kavips (posted on August 1st):
It has been 7 days now that the Delaware Department has sat on the results of the Smarter Balanced Assessments. Day one was the release by other states of their preliminary data alerting all that the state now had the results… One must ask why in the “most open and transparent administration in Delaware’s history” (Markell’s state of the state claim) we are still waiting for the preliminary data to be released.
Do we really have the results? The test was given last spring (March and April) so you'd think for a test to have educational impact the results would be available quickly.
Petition To Allow Parents To Opt Out Of Testing

Petition To Allow Parents To Opt Out Of Testing

As usual, please sign. Here's the petition's wording.
The Smarter Balanced Assessment is the new state assessment based on the Common Core State Standards for Delaware.  Many states have adopted this assessment as part of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, of which Delaware is a part.  This consortium was approved by Governor Markell without any legislative approval. Many parents in Delaware, as well as across the country, believe the Smarter Balanced Assessment, as well as the PARCC test in other states, is not an effective standardized test.  Therefore, we are electing our Constitutional right to opt our children out of this assessment.  We believe it is a parental right to choose the best educational outcome for our children.  We also believe our children are not the property of the state.  Many of us have experienced, at a minimum, vast confusion in regards to the opt out time period, which began in earnest in February of 2015, from our Governor, our Delaware Department of Education, our schools, and several administrators from our schools. This legislation would help codify what is already our right, and would prevent the opted out students from adversely affecting the schools in Delaware.  As well, this would also put all the school districts and charter schools in the state on the same level playing field based on a clear and distinct law.