A Message for Educational Critics.

I have heard plenty about how bad our students are compared to the rest of the world, state, nation. Our test scores are stagnant. Kids don't know anything. Teachers are bums.

If anyone is interested, the released questions from the 11th grade test are here:
http://education.vermont.gov/new/pdfdoc/pgm_assessment/necap/released_items/07/grade_11_math.pdf

Take an hour and see how you would do. On certain questions, a calculator is not allowed. Look for the icon. Getting 50% would mean you are proficient.

Think about how difficult this set of questions is for you and consider whether you need to know this information or be able to use these skills to do your job.

Then you can rant all you like about how bad our students are and what lazy overpaid teachers we have here in this state.

Damned lazy teachers. Kids aren't passing tests.

As a response to some of the folks who feel that kids should be able to get every question correct ...

First, remember that the questions are vetted. If any question is answered correctly by more than 90%, it is removed from the test.

Not every kid will have taken the math courses necessary to understand every question. Some kids are not "math types". They might be artists or writers or skateboarders.

Most importantly, none of the schools is allowed to make the test count towards graduation or even report all scores on transcripts, so the kids have little incentive to succeed.

I'm not sure that the readers of this paper realize how difficult some of these questions are. How many adults can answer the following released question? What does that say about you? Why are we expecting the students to understand things that most of the adults in this population cannot?

Here's one of the "easy" questions (easy if you know it):

There is a line drawing of a pyramid with a dihedral angle of 52°. The length of each side of the square base is 230 meters. Which equation represents the height, h, of the pyramid?
A. h =115 sin52°
B. h =115 tan52°
C. h =115/sin52°
D. h =115/tan52°

Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?

This one is easy, too ...
A square with a side length of 8.0 cm is rolled up, without overlap, to form the lateral surface of a cylinder. What is the radius of the cylinder to the nearest tenth of a centimeter?

Anyone?

Improving Math Scores - Fact or Fiction

"Vermont is also one of only five states or jurisdictions to show improvement in its scores for both fourth- and eighth-graders. Both Nevada and the District of Columbia showed improvement, as did the three states — Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island — that use the New England Common Assessment Program."

Ignoring DC and NV because they were a mess before - anything is an improvement there - you are left with this observation:

The only states that use the NECAPs are the only states with an improvement.

It's a pretty good trick. When you can't continually improve the scores using an old test (NSREs were used from 1998-2006), you change the test. Now the schools are getting to know the NECAP and redoing their curriculum to match it. Look for improvements to continue as teachers focus more and more on the new set of material.

Then we'll reach a plateau. Horrors! What do we do?

Change to a different test, of course. Set the cut score so that averages stay stable and then let the schools begin to adapt their curricula to it. Repeat as necessary.