Excerpted:Kevin McCorry for NewsWorks
The number of Pennsylvania students who scored “proficient” or “advanced” on state standardized tests in 2014-15 fell precipitously compared with the previous year.
And it marks a fourth straight year of test score declines.
Analysis shows that the proficiency rates in grades 3 through 8 dropped by an average of 35.4 percentage points in math and 9.4 percentage points in English language arts on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exam.
Department officials attribute the declines to the increased rigor of the state standardized tests.
Last week, based on the new standards, the Pennsylvania Board of Education voted to readjust its expectations for how the more difficult tests would be scored – setting new cutoffs for “advanced,” “proficient,” “basic” and “below basic.” This process is known as setting the “cut scores.”
With the changes, the state has made it substantially more difficult for students to earn a proficient designation on its tests. The possible ramifications of large drops in student proficiency on the PSSA are still being hashed out.
The state’s new teacher evaluation system judges teachers, in part, based on student test scores – accounting for school-wide student performance, as well as the growth of students enrolled in a teacher’s class.
So how will declining scores based on more rigorous tests affect educators?
Despite saying that it isn’t “useful” to compare this year’s scores with past results, the department said those comparisons will be inherent in the the state’s evaluation of schools and teachers.
“The scores on the 2015 PSSAs will have an impact on teacher effectiveness ratings and the school performance profile,” said Reigelman.
“It’s almost like a perfect recipe to attack teachers in many ways,” said Clayton.
PDE executive deputy secretary David Volkman doesn’t believe the changes “will have a real negative impact on teacher evaluations.”
Fifteeen percent of a teacher’s evaluation is comprised of a three year rolling average of student growth on state tests. That part of the evaluation, though, doesn’t go into effect until 2015-16. By 2016-17, results of the old, easier test will have been phased out.
“These are more demanding standards and very ambitious cut scores. To the extent that the public and policymakers have that context, and understand that there’s more work to do, more investments to make, that could offer a teachable moment,” said Adam Schott, the former executive director of the Pennsylvania Board of Education, who now acts as director of policy research for Research for Action.
“On the other hand, there have been very concerted efforts to undermine confidence in public schools, specifically efforts that use standardized test results to label schools as ‘failing,'” he said. “I think we all need to be more mindful to police that kind of rhetoric.”
“We understand there are secondary impacts of these scores, and we’re committed to helping you – the state’s educators, school administrators, and stakeholders – in improving student achievement and communicating the new assessments and the results in your communities,” Rivera wrote.