Research Archives in EDUCATION

Title: New Mexico Achievement Test Proficiencies: How Would New Mexico Public Schools Do on Nation’s Report Card? Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "By comparing the NAEP scores and the various similar testing regimes used by the states, we learn that most states “inflate” the actual performance levels by practicing a kind of “grade inflation” wherein they place many more children in the proficient or above category than are really deserve that designation. In the case of New Mexico, this inflation averages 110%, 152%, and 181%, respectively, in the 4th, 8th, and 11th grades. (Corresponding to inflation factors of 2.10, 2.52, and 2.81, respectively.) Over the three grade levels the average inflation is 148%." Download: Paper     Title: Oklahoma Achievement Test Proficiencies: How Would Oklahoma Public Schools Do on Nation’s Report Card? Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "Our NAEP scale estimates predict what the Nation’s Report Card would have reported for all K-12 public schools and districts in Oklahoma. We find that very few schools or districts have more than half of their students proficient. At first blush, we estimate that 27% of schools exceed this mark in 4th grade testing. However, when we disregard schools that had “unreliable” data, barely 5% had more than half of their students proficient. By the time Oklahoma children are tested in high school, only one public high school in the state- of 394 schools that provided data- had more than 50% of its students proficient. We estimate that 44% of Oklahoma’s public high schools have student proficiency percentages below 5%." Download: Paper     Title: Pennsylvania Achievement Test Proficiencies: How Would Pennsylvania Public Schools Do on Nation’s Report Card? Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "When we define what we call the high school failure rate to be the fraction of those entering 9th grade who do not complete 12th grade at a proficient or above level, the statistics available from SchoolMatters and NAEP allow one to estimate nationwide high school failure rates of approximately 85%. The same analysis for Pennsylvania suggests a 77% high school failure rate." Download: Paper     Title: Real Report Cards For New England’s Public Schools: Unvarnished NECAP Achievement Results Inspire Reform Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "Generally defined, social promotion is the practice of promoting children who are not proficient in a grade level. This means the promotion of children who would be subproficient on the NAEP test or on an achievement test administered by the state or district officials. Ideally, schools would not promote children who are not proficient in their grade levels. In what follows, unless specifically qualified we will define social promotion in terms of proficiencies measured on the NAEP scale rather than the ones from the NECAP. Our definition then is: • The percent socially promoted of a tested group is the percent found sub-proficient less a “grace” margin of 10%. This margin accounts for statistical errors and other borderline issues. Thus, for example, if a school achieved 85% proficiency on the NAEP scale we would classify this school as one engaged in social promotion- albeit at a low level of 5%." Download: Paper       Title: How Would Public Schools In New Hampshire, Rhode Island And Vermont Do On The Nation’s Report Card? A Real Report Card For Each School: Converting NECAP Reported Proficiencies To The NAEP Scale In Math And Language Arts Skills Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "In the field of public education across the United States, neither the Nation’s Report Card (NAEP) nor state administered achievement tests allow reporting of realistic academic proficiencies in subjects such as reading and mathematics at the local level. The former is a well-regarded benchmark but cannot report any jurisdiction below the state level, while the latter report at school & district levels but nearly always with unreliable inflated results. We have developed a mapping method that allows one to convert the state reported proficiencies to the NAEP scale to allow more realistic reporting of student outcomes. We have previously applied this method to several other states. Here we report on the three New England states that use the NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program): New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Our results confirm, as they have in other states, that these New England public school children are mostly sub-proficient in the areas of reading and mathematics. Moreover by looking at school-by-school proficiencies we find some schools barely teach at all while finding that the very best schools still have significant numbers of children who have fallen behind. By its very definition, social promotion is seen to be the major cause of these problems. We briefly describe how ending age-based group instruction can eliminate social promotion and thereby overcome the observed difficulties.." Download: Paper     Title: Real Report Cards for Rhode Island Public Schools? Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "Generally defined, social promotion is the practice of promoting children who are not proficient in a grade level. This means the promotion of children who would be subproficient on the NAEP test or on an achievement test administered by the state or district officials. Ideally, schools would not promote children who are not proficient in their grade levels." Download: Paper       Title: Rhode Island Achievement Test Proficiencies: How Would Kent and Washington County Schools Do on Nation’s Report Card? Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "We use a reasonably accurate mapping method to convert state reported proficiencies in math and reading to the same scale used by the Nation’s Report Card." Download: Paper

Title: Bringing the Nation’s Report Card Closer to Home: Converting Distorted State Reported Proficiency Percentages for Schools and Districts in Rhode Island and Bristol County, MA Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "Nearly every state in the United States administers achievement tests to children at the primary, middle and high school levels to determine, among other things, who is proficient (at or above grade level) in reading and mathematics skills. The United States federal government also administers an achievement test, the NAEP, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, which likewise measures the percentages of children who are proficient in these same two areas at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels. Unfortunately, the state administered tests, in almost every instance, report proficiency percentages well in excess of the numbers reported by the NAEP tests when they are compared on a statewide basis." Download: Paper

Title: Rhode Island Achievement Test Proficiencies: How Would Exeter and Nearby Schools Do on Nation’s Report Card? Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "We use a reasonably accurate mapping method to convert state reported proficiencies in math and reading to the same scale used by the Nation’s Report Card." Download: Paper

Title: Rhode Island Achievement Test Proficiencies: How Would Providence Schools Do on Nation’s Report Card? Author: David V. Anderson, Ph.D., OSPRI Fellow for Energy and Education Policy   Extract: "We use a reasonably accurate mapping method to convert state reported proficiencies in math and reading to the same scale used by the Nation’s Report Card." Download: Paper