No, No, Doug, USDE Approval Counts, Learning Doesn’t
United States Department of Education-approved assessment systems apparently don’t help, if the purpose is to boost achievement scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the so-called nation’s report card.
That’s the best sense you can make out of comparing the NAEP scores of the four states whose assessment systems have received USDE’s full seal of approval with the scores of the 10 states whose systems are so wretched, according to USDE, that it is withholding federal funds from the state education agency. USDE passes judgment on state assessment systems under the authority of No Child Left Behind, a bumbling federal law well-recognized for its consistently perverse effects.
At least seven of the ten miscreant states being punished for harboring vapid assessment systems that don’t improve student test scores rank above the national average on reading and math tests for 4th and 8th graders, and the average score for the 10 states is above the national average on each of the tests. Six of the ten (KS, ME, MN, MT, NE, and SD) rank above the national average on all four tests.
By contrast, only one of the four states getting USDE’s blessing for its assessment system (MD) scores above average on all four tests, while two rank below average on all four (TN and WV). Oklahoma, the other blessed state, ranks below average on three of the four tests.
On each test, the average score of the 10 states being faulted for poor assessment systems is not only higher than the national average score, but it is also higher than the highest state score among the four states meeting with USDE’s approval.
Reaction to the sanctions imposed against the ten states was sharpest from Nebraska’s Commissioner of Education, Doug Christensen. In a blunt statement alleging USDE has violated federal law, Christensen said “It is time for USDE to be held accountable, too. USDE must be accountable for the consequences of the law which is a far stretch from the law's laudable intentions. The intentions of the law are meaningless unless they are matched by outcomes. How can a law be "good for kids" that demoralizes educators, devalues their work and is punitive to schools?”
Christensen said he would challenge the USDE non-approval of Nebraska’s School-Based Teacher-Lead Assessment and Reporting System (STARS). STARS relies on local assessments that use multiple measures, as do a number of the states whose systems were singled out by USDE for censure. Christensen echoed the STARS philosophy in rebuking USDE, saying “I want assessment returned to the toolbox of teachers so they can use assessments to improve practice in the classroom.”
Doug, you are not getting the message. You’ll apparently have to get your test scores down, not up, if you want USDE to approve your assessment system.