MCAS in the News 10

MCAS in the News 10/2- 10/12

Statewide MCAS scores will be released Monday, October 15; school and district scores will be released the week of October 22. News leading up to these events includes:

- MCAS reporting guidelines change to deal with "compression" at "both ends" of the scoring range, making scale score comparison from year to year irrelevant;

- Score and testing "irregularities" continue to be reported - 10 students missing scores in one voc high school, while UMass professor Gene Driscoll reports on flaws in 10th grade MCAS math questions;

- Commissioner Driscoll visits a Compass School, and DOE plans a school review in Springfield;
- Commissioner Driscoll also reports lower "failing" rates are expected on MCAS, and DOE begins a $700,000 ad campaign aimed at relieving parents' anxiety and designed to show off MCAS as the tool to a better education.

Lowell Sun, 10/12: Initial feedback gives 10th graders higher marks in latest MCAS tests
http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1002,4746%257E179592%257E105%257E,00.html

.... About two weeks ago, districts received a student-by-student breakdown of multiple choice responses, and while they
don't paint the entire picture, the results point to some progress.
"The commissioner has been hearing anecdotally from superintendents around the state that there has been a noticeable
improvement in the 10th grade (results)," said Heidi Perlman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education.
The students took the high-stakes tests last spring, but it takes several months to score the exams. District and school
scores won't be available for another two weeks.....
.... Based on the early numbers, Perlman said it appears the failure rates will go down. But she acknowledged that many students will fail the test.....
"People shouldn't panic because there is a lot being done to make sure before June of 2003 arrives, these kids have gotten every opportunity possible to pass," Perlman said. "There are remedial programs offered around the state and the department is building up MCAS tutors so there will be people in high schools everywhere working with the thousands of kids who will undoubtedly fail."
The state will offer a "focused" retest to students in the fall, which will not included the most difficult questions. Students will have three additional opportunities to take the test before the end of the 12th grade....
Commissioner Driscoll's full statement of 10/12/01 is posted at:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?id=399

Springfield Union News, 10/12: State will review Van Sickle School
http://www.masslive.com/springfield/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/se1012va.html

A state Department of Education review team will visit Van Sickle Middle School next week to check on the 400 children who transferred from Rebecca Johnson School, cited last spring for lack of leadership and poor student performance.
Juliane M. Dow, associate commissioner for accountability and targeted assistance, said Van Sickle is one of eight middle schools across the state scheduled for follow-up reviews next month.
"Our choice of schools for review is always based on student performance results," Dow said.
Van Sickle is unique in that it is the only middle school being reviewed that was not cited early this year for continual poor performance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests. That happened at Johnson, which educated children in kindergarten through eighth-grade. Local officials decided to close the middle school component down rather than work towards improvements. ....

AP wire/Daily Hampshire Gazette, 10/10: State to launch MCAS ad campaign
http://www.gazettenet.com/10102001/schools/7323.htm

The state is kicking off a $700,000 advertising campaign to promote the MCAS test Wednesday, days before officials release the latest results of the contentious exam.
The 30-second ads will run on Boston-area television stations through the end of November, and are even more costly than the $500,000 spent in April on a previous round of ads to promote the test.
"This specifically targets parents, and in particular parents of the Class of 2003 who are the most anxiety-ridden right now," said Heidi B. Perlman, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education...."Parents are concerned, and we know they're concerned," Perlman said....
.... Bob Duffy, spokesman for the 92,000-member Massachusetts Teachers Association, said there are better ways to spend $700,000 to improve education than by wasting it on "public relations." ....
.... Duffy, of the teachers' union, said education officials likely timed the release of the ads to soothe parents who would be disappointed by their children's poor performances.
"What they're trying to do in anticipation of the scores coming out is soften the blow," Duffy said.
Three Boston television stations, WBZ-TV, WCVB-TV, and WHDH-TV, confirmed that the ads would begin running on Wednesday.

Boston Globe, 10/10: State set to air ad campaign touting MCAS; Critics charge $700,000 blitz is wasted effort
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/283/metro/State_set_to_air_ad_campaign_touting_MCAS-.shtml

In a $700,000 television ad campaign that begins today, the Department of Education touts MCAS as ''a way to know that all students are getting the education they deserve.''
The ads, set to run through the end of November, direct parents to a Web site, www.mcasinfo.com that is packed with MCAS-related material. Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said the state has a responsibility to keep parents informed. ''We understand that parents of juniors and sophomores particularly are anxious about MCAS,'' Driscoll said. ''We feel it's
the state's obligation to address the anxiety with information.''
The 30-second spot shows a classroom, with teachers helping students with their work. It also shows students taking a test. A narrator says the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is ''about higher standards, having faith in our kids and preparing them for the future.''
State education officials hope the average viewer will see the ad about a half-dozen times....
.... Karen Hartke of Cambridge-based Fair Test, an antitesting group, agreed that DOE should focus on ''real support for kids in schools.''
''Where's the sense of priority from the DOE, when it's spending close to three-quarters of a million dollars on an ad campaign instead of books and smaller class sizes and things that people really need?''
The current ads will lead up to the first MCAS retest on Dec. 10. This year's high school juniors who failed the exam last year will take the retest.....
This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 10/10/2001.

Boston Herald, 10/10: MCAS web site may ease fears
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/lnib410102001.htm

Hoping to ease parental anxiety about MCAS exam scores set for release this month, the Department of Education today will launch a month-long television advertising campaign touting an informational Web site.....

Springfield Union News, 10/6: Education boss lauds school in Longmeadow
http://www.masslive.com/news/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ae106com.html

Schools that perform well on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test are schools like Williams Middle School here, which demonstrate more focused classrooms and shared decision-making by teachers acting as a team, state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said
yesterday..... .... A report on the achievements of all of the Compass schools will be released in the next two weeks, Driscoll said. "It won't be a critical analysis. It will show some of the things that are happening in the Compass schools that the state would like to see more schools doing. These include a sense of shared decision-making, focus in the classroom and parental
involvement," the commissioner said. ....
.... "Obviously, this is a great school or it wouldn't be a Compass school," Driscoll said.
Principal Mary Ann M. Sedran said that since the school received the Compass school designation and won a Massachusetts Insight Vanguard Award, also based partly on MCAS performance, there have been a lot of visitors coming to the school. Compass schools receive $10,000 to host visitors from other schools seeking to learn about the accomplishments of the successful schools.

Springfield Union News, 10/5: MA Ed Commissioner: Higher MCAS scores official wish
http://www.masslive.com/news/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ae105dri.html

State Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said last night he is hopeful there will be a marked rise in student test scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test given in the spring. Driscoll made the remarks prior to a meeting with public school educators and elected school officials from the 2nd Hampden District of state Rep. Mary S. Rogeness, R-Longmeadow, assistant minority whip. She introduced Driscoll to the gathering at Bay Path College.
"Anecdotally across the state, teachers, superintendents and parents have told me the kids really buckled down (on last spring's MCAS exams)," he said. "I'm hoping for a decided increase in the scores." The results will be released this month. .... .... Springfield school officials are predicting that 1,200 of the 1,640 students who took the test last year will fail. Driscoll also announced that he plans to release MCAS results for individual schools and districts statewide during the week of Oct. 22.

Springfield Union News, 10/4: Test results missing for 10 students
http://www.masslive.com/chicopee/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ho104tet.html

HOLYOKE - Test results for about 10 students who took the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test at Dean Technical High School [in Holyoke] last spring are missing.
Kevin J. Hart, vocational director at the school, said that when the state Department of Education provided a preliminary report of scores, 20 students were missing scores.
However, at least 10 of those students did not take the test for a variety of reasons, Hart said.
"We definitely know we have kids that we can prove by attendance records that they were here, but we don't have a score," Hart said....
.... Jonathan E. Palumbo, spokesman for the state Education Department, said that a small number of school districts have reported a few missing scores, but it will be resolved before officials results are released in two weeks.....

Boston Herald, 10/4: Some MCAS results to be adjusted due to glitch
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/mcas10042001.htm

Technical changes to the MCAS scoring system will mean some results of the 2001 exam - due out later this month - won't be comparable to past results, education officials said yesterday.
But the most-watched number - the percentage of 10th graders who fail the exam - will be clearly visible despite technical tinkering by the statisticians behind the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam..... .... The end result will be a slight bump up in scores in the lowest range - from 200 to 220 - by four to six points, he said. The old method tended to place low scores at 200, even for students who got more answers correct than their peers in the ``failing''
category.....
.... The change will more accurately reflect the students' performances on the test, Driscoll said. It will have no effect on intermediate-scoring students, and will not move any students from the ``failing'' category, which is below 220, to ``needs improvement,'' which is above 220, he said.
The move could lead to an increase in students ``on the bubble'' of a 220 score who request the chance to appeal their scores, Driscoll said....
.... ``We're acknowledging MCAS isn't perfect,'' Driscoll said. ``If MCAS were perfect, then we wouldn't need an appeals process.''...
..... Other changes in the MCAS results include:
* Scores on the fourth-grade English exam will be done under a new method to better reflect student abilities. Despite strong performances on other standardized tests, comparably fewer fourth-graders have cracked the ``advanced'' category on MCAS.
* Results will be available for the youngest group of MCAS test takers, third-grade students who took a reading comprehension exam. The results will simply show how many students scored in the ``warning,'' ``needs improvement'' and ``proficient'' categories.

AP wire/10/4: In MCAS preview, officials warn against year-to-year comparisons
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/276/region/In_MCAS_preview_officials_warn:.shtml

See also, AP wire/Daily Hampshire Gazette: MCAS warning issued
http://www.gazettenet.com/10042001/schools/7135.htm

The biggest date on the state's academic calendar - the release of the MCAS test results - is still two weeks away, but education officials are already warning that this year's scores can't be compared with past years....
.... "There's a compression at both ends," Driscoll said. "As you get down towards the ends, it kind of mushes." Driscoll has in past years even sent letters congratulating students on answering all the questions correctly, though the scoring methodology gave them less than a 280.
The change will more accurately represent the students' performances on the test, Driscoll said. It will have no effect on intermediate-scoring students, and will not move any students from the
"failing" category, which is below 220, to "needs improvement," which is above 220, he said....
..... "It looks as though there might be some increase in the number of students who are eligible for appeals," said Beverly Miyares, consultant for the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union.
Driscoll does not believe the readjustment will lead to more appeals being filed by students whose scores will now be slightly closer to 220....
.... Results for the 2000-2001 exams will be announced the week of Oct. 15.
..... In past years, the governor has joined with legislative leaders to announce the annual results in high-profile Statehouse news conferences.
The MCAS test has been touted as the key to accountability for the billions of dollars spent on Education Reform since 1993.
This year's results will include for the first time the scores of about 5,000 special education students, which will likely lower statewide and district-by-district averages, said Jeffrey Nellhaus, the Department of Education's associate commissioner for student testing. The inclusion of those scores, which were determined through schoolwork portfolios instead of testing, are another
reason that parents and school officials should resist the temptation to compare this year's results with past years, Nellhaus said....

Springfield Union News, 10/4: Tweaking will refine test scores
http://www.masslive.com/springfield/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ae104mca.html

.....When scores from the 2001 tests are released mid-month, they will reflect technical changes made by the state education department.
Emphasizing that these changes can cause a jump or decline in scores, Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll yesterday warned against making comparisons to past results.
This year, low- and high-end scores will be readjusted to better reflect performance, MCAS scores of severely disabled students will be wrapped into district results, and the fourth-grade English test uses redefined scoring guidelines. The department does not, however, intend to change its practice of releasing results to schools a few days before releasing them publicly, a practice the secretary of state's office has ruled against..... .... In a briefing for reporters, Driscoll said the department is tweaking the way it calculates test scores — called scaled scores — that range from 200 to 280 points. It takes at least a 220 to pass, and to ensure that MCAS tests are comparable from year to year, the department annually determines how many questions are needed to be considered failing, proficient, needs improvement or advanced. Under the statistical method used in the past,
students who correctly answered a few questions could still have earned a 200, while some who nailed every single question did not necessarily receive a 280....
.... The new method solves these problems without affecting whether students pass, [Commissioner David Driscoll] said.... ... Students with severe disabilities had the option of an alternate assessment that is essentially a portfolio of their work. For the first time, scores from the 5,000 students eligible for this test will be reported with district results, which could lower averages. In light of hundreds of complaints that fourth-grade MCAS results have been suspiciously lower than results registered by the same fourth-graders on national exams, the state also adjusted requirements for the four scoring levels on this test.
"The expectations we set in those (original) performance-level definitions set the bar too high," said Jeffrey Nellhaus, associate commissioner for student testing. Officials expect more students will be advanced or proficient now.... .... This is the earliest release ever scheduled for the exams, with statewide results expected the week of Oct. 15. Schools and
districts receive their results a few days later, and the department will publicly
release that data a few days after that, Driscoll said....

Boston Globe, 10/4: State officials alter scoring of MCAS tests; few students seen affected
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/277/metro/State_officials_alter_scoring_of_MCAS_tests-.shtml

State education officials have altered MCAS scoring so it better reflects student performance, but the change will make it impossible to compare this year's scaled scores to those of previous years.
However, it still will be possible to track improvement by comparing failure rates from year to year, said Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll. The percentage of students in each scoring category - failing, needs improvement, proficient, and advanced - should not be affected, Driscoll said. But he acknowledged that it might make a few more students eligible for a proposed MCAS appeals process, which will be limited to those who come close to 220.
The state made the change because under the old system, students who got a few questions right ended up with the same score - 200 - as those who did even worse. At the other end of the spectrum, students who got every question right on some tests still couldn't get 280. Mediocre fourth-grade English scores - no more than 1 percent of fourth-graders statewide scored in the ''advanced''
category in 1998, 1999, or 2000 - have prompted another change, Driscoll said. A panel convened to study the test has determined that the bar was too high for children that age. This year, it will be easier for students to reach the proficient and advanced categories. Driscoll noted that the fourth-grade scores were particularly puzzling because that age group has done well on national
standardized tests. ''We expect that the percentages in these categories will better mirror what's happening on other tests,'' Driscoll said..... This story ran on page B8 of the Boston Globe on 10/4/2001.

Berkshire Eagle, 10/2: UMass prof: MCAS math test has errors
http://search.newschoice.com/ArchiveDisplay.asp?story=d:\index\newsarchives\ ne\nebe\fpg\20011002\1122674_mcaserrors.txt&source=www%2Eberkshireeagle%2Eco m&puid=2269&paper=Berkshire+Eagle+Onlin

A University of Massachusetts professor says there are several errors on this year's 10th-grade MCAS math test, which he thinks could make the difference between a student passing or failing the test -- and not graduating. But the Department of Education dismisses the professor's analysis of the test and stands by all its questions. In fact, the department changed its scoring policy on the 10th-grade tests this year to safeguard against errors, officials said.... .... Eugene D. Gallagher, associate professor in the UMass Boston department of environmental, coastal and ocean sciences,
said he came across the errors during statistical workshops he gave for high school and elementary school teachers this summer. Gallagher said he found problems with six of the 41 math problems on the test -- at least three of which he thinks should be dropped from the scoring.
Gallagher said some questions were wrong, others were worded incorrectly and some were improper for the grade level.
"It was a shock to see these errors in the exam and it's disturbing that students will be getting their grades in October and there is no mechanism in place if they get the question right and MCAS
is wrong," Gallagher said. Gallagher said the tests should be rescored or students whose scores could be affected should be given the right to appeal their scores. "With more than 60,000 students taking this test, and based on the high failure rates on the 2000 test, problems with these questions could affect the pass/ fail decisions for hundreds to thousands of students," wrote Gallagher in his
analysis..... .... Gallagher said the questions may be "technically adequate," meaning that good students tend to answer them correctly anyway, but poor students don't. He said failure by the department to immediately implement a process to change scores based on errors in the test would raise even larger questions about the fairness of the MCAS testing process....
... But even though a formal process won't be in place, [Associate Commissioner for Testing Jeffrey] Nelhaus said students don't have to wait. "If there seems to be something very hard to explain in a score report, people can bring that to our attention right now and we'll act on that," Nelhaus said....
.... But the department doesn't expect many technical appeals because there is a new scoring system in place this year. There are now two readers scoring every 10th-grade math and English open-ended, short-answer and long-composition question, Nelhaus said. And if there is a disagreement over an answer, a third person will review it....