The sound of bubbles bursting: Student gains on state test vanished into thin air

BY Diane Ravitch

Every year for the past four years, the New York State Education Department has announced dramatic test score gains. And every year, it turns out they were misrepresenting reality. This year, New Yorkers got an accurate accounting of student performance, and it was sobering.

Since 2006, scores have gone through the roof. Teachers and principals quietly told reporters that the tests were getting easier to pass, but no one listened. A few critics and testing experts warned that outsized annual gains were not credible, but no one listened.

At the same time that the state was announcing phenomenal annual gains, national tests administered by the federal government – exams considered the gold standard – told a different story. On those tests, the state’s scores in reading were flat from 2000 to 2009. Math scores were up in fourth grade, but not in eighth grade, where they were flat from 2005 to 2009.

New York Commissioner of Education David Steiner made a bold move. He decided to end the inflation – and administer some shock therapy. The sharp contrast between mostly flat scores on national tests and dramatic annual claims by the state made it necessary for him to act, and he did.

Now we know the painful truth. Last year, 86.4% of the state’s students in grades three to eight were deemed proficient in mathematics; today it is 61%. Last year, 77.4% of students in the same grades were deemed proficient in reading; today it is 53.2%.

When the scores were released, there was a sound of bursting bubbles across the state. What once were miracles turned into mirages.

Since 2005, Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein have trumpeted historic gains. But after the state’s adjustment, the pass rate on the state reading test among city students fell from an impressive 68.8% to an unimpressive 42.4%, and from an astonishing 81.8% to a disappointing 54% in mathematics. Overnight, the city’s historic gains disappeared.

Now, look at the achievement gap between the performance of white students and that of minorities. Last year, black students were 22 points behind white students in passing the state English exam. This year – after the state corrected its scoring – the gap increased to 30.4 points.

In math, the gap grew even more. Black students were 17 points behind whites last year. Now they’ve fallen 30 points behind.

Charter school advocates saw their bubble burst as well. The pass rates in the state’s charter schools, overall, dropped even faster than those in regular public schools. In third grade math, it plunged from 96.1% to 61.6%, and in eighth grade, from 84.5% to 50.4%. On the 2010 reading tests, the scores of charter students in New York City were nearly identical to those of district schools: 43% compared to 42%.

In math, 63% of the city’s charter students passed, compared to 54% in public schools, which was an advantage but nothing like the miraculous results previously claimed by charter promoters.

Among other bubbles that popped were the city’s school report cards, which based 85% of their grades on the state’s test scores, mostly on gains on the test now proven to be vastly overstated. Some schools were given an A for “progress” on dumbed-down tests, and others were closed because they didn’t make the grade. But the measure was a deeply flawed instrument.

The hundreds of millions of dollars that the city has spent on test preparation turned out to be a bad investment. Students were learning test-taking skills, not truly learning reading or mathematics.

As a result of the fiasco, we now know that the bonuses of more than $30 million handed out last year to teachers in schools that made “gains” on the state tests were a waste of precious money.

Why does test score inflation matter? Aside from the fact that the state misled the public, the inflated scores caused tens of thousands of students to be denied needed remediation. The inflated scores also help to explain why 75% of the city’s high school graduates require remediation when they enroll in community colleges at the City University.

Now we know that achievement in the city and state did not grow by historic proportions, as officials claimed.

The way to avoid similar messes in the future is to use test scores for information and diagnosis, not for rewards and punishments.

Two questions remain: Will Bloomberg and Klein accept this new reality or will they continue to deny the plain facts and refuse to be held accountable? And will the state education department find and fire the bureaucrats and private contractors responsible for this scandal? Unfortunately, the prospects for genuine accountability by the city and state are not promising.

- Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University.

Original Article

Thank you to Curtis Sliwa, the upcoming morning host of 970 AM The Apple, and Salem Communications for their $25,000 grant to 20/20 Vision for Schools, presented this afternoon at their Empire State Building studios.

+ From Youth Specialties Blog:

I hope you are as challenged and encouraged by Jeremy’s deep sense of bringing educational justice to New York City. His goal is to help churches engage more than 2 million children. 2 million kids! Head over to the 2020 Vision for Schools website. If you’re ready to jump in on the discussion of bringing the 2020 principles to your community, join the facebook group.

+ From Urban Youth Workers Institute Blog:

20/20 Vision mobilizes churches regarding educational justice and why they should embrace it in their own city and community. Your church likely has connections to your local schools and 20/20 Vision challenges your church to become the educational motivant in the community. Join the movement to transform public education nationwide, and feel free to adapt 20/20 Vision experiences and strategy to your city.

+ From DJ Chuang’s Blog (Leadership Network):

I’ve met Jeremy on several occasions, and he comes across as a gentle giant, a soft spoken lawyer. But I know there’s a lot of fire and passion in him, and seeing the fruit of his labor, an amazing guy. Keep an eye on this one, and bring it to your community too.

+ From John Liotti’s blog (CCDA board member):

I’m praying that this idea will take hold in [Northern California].

+ From Steve Trevino’s Blog (Victory Family Center, Houston):

This could be the single most transforming initiative for public education ever. Let this vision stir you and your church to action. This could change everything!

Join the unofficial blog campaign to help cast the vision. Embed this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oy2_7bupd8), and encourage readers to register their church online here: http://2020.coalitionnyc.com/contact/. Also, include a word or two why educational justice matters and why you support the cause (personally and organizationally).

Here are some initial thoughts and a synopsis of two launch events in three days.




1) The New York City Leadership Center’s Executive Forum
“An Urgent Appeal to Engage a Generation At-Risk: Helping Everyone Reach Their Highest Potential,” Thursday, September 18, 12-5 pm, at The Cornell Club

Hosted by:

• Hon. Dr. Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia and president of Amachi
• C. William Pollard, former CEO of ServiceMaster and chairman of FairWyn Investment Co.
• Dr. Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA and chairwoman of Leader to Leader Institute

Convened by:

• The New York City Leadership Center

Presenters included:

• Hon. Cory Booker, Newark Mayor
• Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake, Pastor of Greater Allen Cathedral and former US Congressman (D-NY)
• Hon. Dr. Wilson Goode
• C. William Pollard
• Dr. Frances Hesselbein
• Jeremy Del Rio, architect of 20/20 Vision for Schools
• Edward Tom, principal of Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics
• Peter Vanacore, executive director of the Christian Association of Youth Mentoring
• William Collins, executive director of the National Church Adopt-a-School Initiative
• Mark Goldsmith, president and CEO of Getting Out and Staying Out
• Dr. Larry Acosta, president of Urban Youth Workers Institute

Participants:

• 120 Executives Representing Religious, Business, Government and Social Sectors to Collaborate to Address a Generation At-Risk
• Participants include representatives of the Geneva School, United Federation of Teachers, Teach For America, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Cornell University, New York University, Deutsche Bank, M&T Bank, Salem Communications, Dow Corning Corp., Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American Express Business Travel, The West Paces Hotel Group, World Vision, Latino Pastoral Action Center, hedge funds, and more.

Format

In keeping with our theme – “An Urgent Appeal to Engage a Generation At-Risk” – we structured the program into four parts.

The first part laid the framework for the rest of the afternoon. In their introductory remarks, Mayor Wilson Goode and Jeremy Del Rio made the case for the urgency of the appeal by describing the risk factors confronting young people in 2008. Hon. Goode focused on the national crisis and Del Rio emphasized the dynamics in New York City, while also putting flesh and blood on the stats.

Next, a panel facilitated by Mr. William Pollard explored how the panelists are empowering young people to overcome the various risk factors in their unique contexts, as well as recommendations for how they, and the other guests, can collaborate for scalable impact.

The heart of the gathering was the table discussions facilitated by Ms. Frances Hesselbein. The audience consisted of experts in their respective fields, including business leaders, youth specialists, educators, and foundation executives. The round tables solicited their collective wisdom to find common cause for future collaborations for exponential effectiveness in New York City and beyond. We will post the table questions separately as discussion questions in the 20/20 FaceBook Group. Join the group today so you can weigh in.

Finally, Dr. Larry Acosta captured the day’s recommendations and proposed workable next steps for a scalable engagement strategy. Rev. Gary Frost concluded with specific suggestions for how the NYCLC can serve an ongoing conversation.

Jeremy Del Rio will be working with a team of contributors to collate the findings and recommendations into a White Paper and action plan consistent with 20/20 Vision for Schools.

2. The Launch Event
Saturday, September 20, 2008 @ Christian Cultural Center

Fifteen hundred church leaders attended the launch of The New York City Leadership Center and 20/20 Vision for Schools. Pastors Rick Warren and Dr. A. R. Bernard headlined the event, and sandwiched between them was a session co-facilitated by Pastor Gary Frost and Jeremy Del Rio called, “The Power of Promise: Empowering Emerging Leaders.”

Pastor Gary contrasted Moses’ investment in Joshua with Solomon’s lack of investment in Rehoboam. Del Rio introduced the concept of the Joshua Paradox (“Moses groomed Joshua and others to lead in his absence, but Joshua’s generation failed to reproduce the investment — and their children and grandchildren paid a steep price”), and from there focused on the failure of successive generations to invest in the education of our children. Against that backdrop we launched 20/20.

If you haven’t already done so, register your church today.

Some have asked me about the relationship between 20/20 Vision for Schools and the New York City Leadership Center. Officially, 20/20 Vision has launched as a joint venture between the Coalition of Urban Youth Workers, the local network of youth workers who conceived and birthed the plan called 20/20, and the NYCLC. At the executive forum, The NYCLC described their interest in 20/20 this way:

The New York City Leadership Center has embraced education reform through 20/20 Vision for Schools as its first initiative because investing in future-oriented, emerging leaders insures leadership for generations to come; and transformational leadership requires engaging critical social issues with meaningful solutions.

20/20 Vision begins with the idea that New York City public schools can and must be transformed within a single generation of students, so that first graders in September 2008 – who are the graduating high school class of 2020 – reverse decades-long, chronic under-performance. We seek to mobilize grass-roots community partners to reject status quo failure and fight for our students’ future.

Related

+ Download launch weekend PowerPoints
+ Event photos coming soon