Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 7, 2006 APRIL FOOL

Gotcha!

Unfortunately, April 1st is as good as anybody else's guess at this point!

I mean...the law says no later than October 31st for release of School Report Cards! Then it was November...December...January. Now we are told FEBRUARY?!

And nobody seems to care...folks seem to think it's kind of funny...a "comedy of errors".

What about the teachers and administrators that are being held accountable for "school improvement"...whose jobs and reputations are on the line! Anyone who loses her/his job over this fiasco should have one heck of a defense when he/she sues the District/State for arbitrary and capricious dismissal!

I'll testify to that!

From the Chicago Tribune...

State says delay to last until at least February

By Diane Rado
Tribune staff reporter

Mistakes in scoring state exams given to high school juniors last spring will mean further delays in getting test results to the public, state education officials said Wednesday.

It will be at least February before scores are released in annual school report cards, which are supposed to be disseminated before Oct. 31 each year. The state earlier projected a January release date.

Illinois is one of the last states in the country to release scores on federally mandated exams for 3rd through 8th graders as well as for 11th graders, after a series of snags in the state-testing program.

This week, the state revealed that every Prairie State Achievement Examination given to juniors in April and May is being rescored--all 160,000 tests--because of several problems, including use of an incorrect answer key for some tests.

State officials blamed contractor Harcourt Assessment for use of the answer key. San Antonio-based Harcourt has been stripped of most of its duties in connection with state testing because of several problems, but the company has said that schools share the blame for some of the mistakes.

Overall, 107 composite Prairie State scores have been changed by the rescoring, with most of those students getting higher scores, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

The Prairie State is administered over two days, with the ACT college entrance test given the first day. State officials said ACT scores were not affected. Students take a state science test the second day, and a job-skills exam in reading and math called WorkKeys. About 1,500 students have gotten higher WorkKeys scores on rescoring.

The problems were discussed Wednesday by the State Testing Review Committee.

Becky McCabe, the state board's testing administrator, told the committee that the board is trying to ensure that districts receive scores that they can count on as accurate.

She also said she understands that the situation "is very frustrating to everyone because we are so late and it is high-stakes."

The state tests are used to judge schools under No Child Left Behind federal standards, and schools face sanctions if too many children fail.