NAEP: A flawed benchmark producing the same old story

By James Harvey

The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress were released this week and can be summarized quickly: New NAEP numbers tell the same old story. Fourth- and eighth-grade students have inched ahead in mathematics but only about one third score at the proficient or higher level in reading.

Proficiency remains a tough nut to crack for most students, in all subjects, at all grade levels. NAEP routinely reports that only one third of American students are proficient or better, no matter the subject, the age of the students, or their grade level. But no one should be surprised.

NAEP’s benchmarks, including the proficiency standard, evolved out of a process only marginally better than throwing darts at the wall.

That’s a troubling conclusion to reach in light of the expenditure of more than a billion dollars on NAEP over 40-odd years by the U.S. Department of Education and its predecessors. For all that money, one would expect that NAEP could defend its benchmarks of Basic, Proficient, and Advanced by pointing to rock-solid studies of the validity of its benchmarks and the science underlying them. But it can’t.

more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/naep-a-flawed-benchmark-producing-the-same-old-story/2011/11/03/gIQAbnonmM_blog.html

Education SHOULD be local, and locals SHOULD have good standards, but its a BIG country, extremely influenced by politics, so I KNOW 'standards' in Mississippi will NOT be anywhere as 'good' as those in Massachusetts. (I'm a senior New Yorker, and believe our standards, Regents, in 'my' day, were pretty good.)

AND drives me nuts that teachers + education administrators seem to be unable to use good sense and discretion in deciding what's appropriate: 'Can we DISCUSS differences among religions and effect on U.S. history? Can we discuss cultural differences in history/social studies? What about Emma Lazarus' poem? Can students wear T-Shirts w certain words on them?'

Anti-gay? Are those t-shirts okay? Sexist sayings? Are they okay?

My friend's kid (6th grade) was recently sent home to change because he wore a t-shirt with a marijuana leaf on it to school. Should that be okay?

Yes I think we can discuss differences you mentioned and we can do that rationally. But I say leave the controversial t-shirts at home.

I also disagree about standards in Mississippi. They certainly CAN be as good as any other state in the country. But I believe it should be up to the people of Mississippi.