Thursday, April 30, 2015

Merryl Tisch Gives Herself A Medal For Getting CCSS Test Scores Out Six Weeks Earlier (UPDATED - 3:55 PM)

Methinks Regents Chancellor Tisch sets the bar far too low for herself:

The Department of Education plans to release the results of the most recent round of standardized tests by July 1, following a vocal push to have students opt out of the Common Core-based examinations.
“One of the most important benefits of assessments is their use to inform instruction and strengthen student learning,” state Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said in a statement released Thursday. “The early release of these reports will give districts the time they need to adjust curriculum and focus on improving learning outcomes for students in the upcoming year.”

Explain to me how releasing the Common Core test scores two-and-a-half months after students took the tests helps to "inform instruction and strengthen student learning" when the school year is over and students are on summer vacation?

In high school, Regents exams are given in January and June and the results are known days after students take the exams.

Frankly, I think the process for how those exams are graded is problematic, but you can argue that those exams (at least the January ones) might help "inform instruction and strengthen student learning" because the results are known right afterward, the tests themselves are published publicly and if students fail those exams, they can find out what they need to work on before they take the test again.

The CCSS 3rd-8th grade test results come out far too late for anything other than to use the score as a bldugeon for teachers, schools and, after the CCSS moratorium on using student scores ends, students.

I love that Tisch is patting herself on the back for getting the scores out a little earlier than normal this year but still not early enough to actually matter.

It's like she wanted a medal or a new set of pearls or something for doing what's not all that extraordinary.

UPDATED - 3:55 PM:

State of Politics blog offers the following update on this:

SED clarifies that the state is releasing instructional reports in July based on raw scores. The results won’t include new scale scores or performance levels.
So what initially wasn't much of a change is now even less of one.

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations Madame Tusch--lot fewer papers to score this year--that will allow you t get invalid scores out even earlier. WOW--we should keep this loser for another term--NOT!

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  2. by the time we have 80 percent refuse the test statewide, she will have the tests marked by June 1st.

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  3. Tisch should treat herself with a shopping spree at Bloomingdales.

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  4. I just love an ivory tower queen who doesn't realize the peasants in the village are ready to stone her to death when she decends. She's as delusional as Cuomo. Roseanne McCosh

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  5. Great news kids! That platter of shit sandwiches we promised you for an end of summer treat will now be served in time for your 4th of July celebration.

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