Sunday, July 27, 2008

So What does testing Show?

Consider the following communication the next time a school is ranked.

> I just came across something interesting. School districts have the
> option of checking a box on the scoring information sheet from Riverside Publishing (publishes ITBS) that says: "Do not use Math Computation when calculating Total and Composite Scores." Math Computation is one of 3 areas tested in the Math Battery.

This makes me wonder just in what way the test is nationally normed. If my school decides not to count computation, and asks Iowa Test to exclude that part of the report, is only that part included in the national pool of scores that define the norm? And is my school placed in its position relative to schools that *also* have requested one of the exclusions along with mine, or are my school results (with exclusions) merely compared with the national pool such as it might be? This could
get complicated, since there are several possible exclusions for school districts who want them.

> So, beware of districts that may intentionally hide their weakness!!

What parent is going to know this?
--------------------
At the top of page 2 on the .pdf link below you will find:

2 SELECT REPORTING OPTIONS
■ Do not use Math Computation when calculating Total and Composite scores

http://www.riverpub.com/products/orderform/IowaCogatOSS.pdf

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can a mountain hide under a rock? Seems if kids do poorly on computation, they're not going to process or problem-solve either.

Much worse is OSPI's WASL index that averages reading scores with math scores? We're dealing with counselors and chimps.

Averaging two extremes is not recommended for any useful statistical purpose, other than hide data.