Yes, another 2009 example of the corruption of the CSAP regimen. So rigid, so inflexible, so inverted ... at a Greeley high school the second part of the math portion of the test was handed out by mistake before the first part to a whole sixteen students!
Automatic ZEROs!
Now, why should the school be worried about all those zeros? Is funding actually at risk because of this mistake? Will the reputation of Northridge High School be sullied now for years to come?
Is this the consequences of high stakes standardized testing?
We repeat: time for this CSAP travesty to end.
32 Northridge CSAP Scores Tossed | Greeley Tribune - April 15, 2009
A portion of the Colorado Student Assessment Program scores from 16 students at Northridge High School will be thrown out from the school’s most recent testing results after a teacher administered the tests in the wrong order.The misadministration of math and science CSAP tests took place in one 10th-grade class when a teacher handed out section two of the test before section one — something that Roger Fiedler, spokesman for Greeley-Evans School District 6, said appears to be an accident.
“There was no intent to give an advantage to the class,” Fiedler said. “It’s just an honest mistake that was made.”
The mistake, however, means that the math and science scores from all 16 students in the affected class will be thrown out — a blow to the school’s CSAP scores as it affects almost 5 percent of the 331 students, who took the tests at Northridge.
“We don’t know what kind of work these students may have done because these tests won’t be scored and they will get zeros,” Superintendent Ranelle Lang said.
Northridge principal Margaret Neeley said she hopes the loss of tests does not affect the school’s scores too greatly, though it is unclear what impact this will have for the school until results of the 2009 10th-grade test are released in late July. Lang said student scores will likely drop as a result of the incident.
In 2008, 13 percent of the 10th-graders at Northridge High School scored proficient or better on the math CSAP tests, down from 17 percent the year before. In the science CSAPs, 27 percent of the school’s 10th-graders performed at or above proficient level in 2008 — the first year of new model content standards for the science test.
Mark Stevens, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Education, said the department knew of the incident but did not plan an investigation — citing the fact that District 6 already started one and that the incident appeared to be an accident.
These are not the first CSAP tests to be thrown out this year. Tracy Webber, principal of Silver Hills Middle School in Westminster, was recently put on paid administrative leave on suspicion of telling teachers what was on the sixth-grade writing CSAP tests before they were administered. As a result, the scores from 300 students will be thrown out.
Fiedler, however, said this is the first misadministration of an entire class of CSAP tests in District 6 in recent memory. Three students’ tests were thrown out this year because the students did not stop when the test required them to, while two tests were thrown out last year for the same reason, Lang said.
“We want to do everything we can to make sure it’s the last time as well,” Fiedler said.
Fiedler could not comment about whether any disciplinary measures have been taken against the teacher because it is a personnel matter.
Each teacher at the school already undergoes two training sessions a year in preparation for the CSAP tests, according to Neeley.
When a proctor misadministers a test, how can we call the test stupid? The error was made by the proctor, not the test. The fact that the scores were thrown out is silly, yes. However, that incident doesn't make the test "stupid." So let's hear why you think the test is stupid. By the way, if we don't use CSAP, how do parents, teachers, and students know if students are progressing? How do we really know the learning is taking place at the rate needed for the student to be successful in his/her chose field?
Posted by: JB Phillips | July 29, 2009 at 10:56 PM
How do you know if your student is progressing? The fact that you even ask that question boggles my mind as a person and parent. Just my opinion here, but I hope, and am striving to guide, my children to develop into responsible, intellegent, compassionate and giving members of their community. I don't need or expect a school (or worse yet, a standardized test that doesn't account for the varied learning styles and multiple intelligences of kids) to do that for me. I constantly engage my kids in activities, such as, oh I don't know, reading, writing, going on hikes and exploring the world so that I can actually see if my kids are progressing. Some kids learn kinestetically, others verbally, others auditorially, others visually. These tests do not account for this fact. As far as the comment on "... successful in his or her chosen field?" What are you raising an engineer or a person?
Posted by: MZ | September 30, 2009 at 04:25 PM