Former Gist supporter is now anti-NECAP activist
Jean Ann Guliano is the Robert McNamara of the Rhode Island ed reform movement, said our mutual friend Bob Houghtaling. It’s a good analogy. Diane Ravitch works too. Guliano is a former school committee chairwoman from East Greenwich who ran for Lt. Gov. on the Moderate Party ticket. As chairwoman, she was very fiscally conservative [...]
WaPost: Gist controversial on national level too
Deborah Gist is not only raising hackles with the education community here in Rhode Island, she’s doing it on a national level too! On Tuesday, Chiefs for Change released a letter attacking labor leader Randi Weingarten for opposing high stakes testing. Gist is on the board for Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change group and she [...]
PSU students challenge Gist to debate
With public school teachers organizing to Dump Gist (they meet today at 4:30 at Cranston West High School) as her continued employment is debated later this week, students from Providence are applying some pressure as well. Following up on the Providence Student Union‘s high-profile action in which adults took the NECAP test, they now want [...]
Our schools and the truth about policy
The commissioner of education has an op-ed in the Providence Journal this morning. Entitled “Our Schools and the Truth about Testing” it painted a rosy picture of what high performance in schools means: “Every high-performing school I have ever visited has been a vibrant, rich educational environment where learning is fun and well-rounded, and where [...]
More illogic from RIDE
In a reply to my post about sneaky changes in the NECAP documentation, the RI Department of Education spokesman wrote this: “The NECAP assessment is designed to measure whether students have attained the knowledge and skills expected at each grade level, that is, whether students have met grade-level standards.” This, of course, is the heart [...]
Department of Education responds to Sgouros post
Tom Sgouros’ post showing that Deborah Gist and the Department of Education of covered up and altering published descriptions of the NECAP test’s veracity as a graduation requirement caused quite a stir yesterday. As such, RIDE spokesman Elliot Krieger sent me this email yesterday afternoon: Commissioner Gist has been forthright about the changes in our [...]
Students missing math classes needed for NECAP
More than a third of Providence high school students who took the NECAP test in October may not have taken either the necessary algebra or geometry classes to fare well on the test, according to the Providence Student Union. A full13 percent of NECAP test takers haven’t taken either algebra and geometry in school, the [...]
Sneaky changes in NECAP documentation
The NECAP-as-graduation-test has occupied a lot of my attention recently. As I have written before, the NECAP test is a fundamentally different kind of test than one you would use as a graduation test. The questions you’d put on a graduation test are exactly the ones that the test designers consider a waste of time [...]
2 speech Tuesday: State of Education; State of Student
Deborah Gist has been doing her darnedest to ignore the Providence Student Union as of late. But before her annual “State of Education” speech tomorrow night at the State House, they will be giving the inaugural “State of the Student” speech there as well. “Students are the ones who actually experience the “State of Education” [...]
What’s wrong with the ed. reform movement
While it is great that so much emphasis is being placed on the misuse of NECAP testing there is much more that needs to be looked at regarding how our present youth population is treated by the education system. Recent studies indicate that nearly 1 in 5 school aged youth are taking prescription medications. In [...]
Boston Globe Says No To NECAP Requirement
An editorial in today’s Boston Globe recommends that Rhode Island not use the NECAP test as a graduation requirement. While Education Commissioner Deborah Gist keeps comparing the NECAP to Massachusetts MCAT, the state’s biggest newspaper agree with what Tom Sgouros has been writing about on RI Future: The fundamental problem, though, is that the test [...]
How RIDE Undermines Their Own NECAP Test
If I had to pick one thing to complain about with the high-stakes NECAP testing regime it wouldn’t be the pressure on the students, the deformation of the curriculum, or any of that. If it was just one thing, it wouldn’t even be the misguided policy to use NECAP as a graduation test. It would [...]
Another Issue With High Stakes Testing: Cheating
Education reformers in Atlanta have raised another potential concern with high stakes testing. The 2009 superintendent of the year and 34 Atlanta educators were indicted Friday for allegedly running a racket to change students’ answers on standardized tests so they would seem more proficient than they actually are. I guess this is the superman we’ve [...]
Students Statewide Should Boycott NECAP
It is a bright autumn day in early to mid October. Students from all over the state are sitting quietly in rows. On their desks are booklets and number 2 pencils. It’s NECAP time. Soon the teacher gives the O.K. to begin and in unison kids take out a book and begin reading instead. Thus [...]
URI Psychometrician Agrees With Tom Sgouros
I promised last time to write about the other psychometrician I encountered last week. His name is Peter Merenda, and he’s something of a psychometrician’s psychometrician. He’s written a textbook about testing, along with another book on statistical analysis and about 250 articles in various journals. He’s won prizes, fellowships, awards. He founded the URI [...]
Psychometrics R Us
A few days ago, I wrote about the NECAP test, and the statistical goals of its designers. Since then, I’ve been called “not a psychometrician” on the radio, among other things. I hear that Monday I was insulted on John DePetro’s show, too. So I thought I’d provide accounts of what a couple of psychometricians [...]
A Civics Lesson For Ed. Commissioner Gist
Commissioner Gist does not appear to be someone I would recommend to teach high school civics. In fact, I believe she should go back to high school and retake the course. While there she can learn about the value of participating in our democracy, and meet many wonderful Providence students. Our state education commissioner thought [...]
Gist Offers Logical Fallacies On NECAP Value
I was on the radio ever so briefly this afternoon, on Buddy Cianci’s show with Deborah Gist. Unfortunately, the show’s producer hadn’t actually invited me so I had no idea until it had been underway for an hour. I gather they had a lively conversation that involved belittling the concerns about the NECAP test that [...]
Supermajority Of Adults Flunk NECAPS Too
Of the 50 or so lawmakers, educators, and all-around successful individuals that partook in the mock NECAP test on Saturday, 60 percent scored a grade that would put them in danger of not graduating high school under the state’ new high stakes test graduation requirement. At a press event at the State House, Darren Fleury [...]
Weekend Epiphanies: Oh, SNAP! I Failed the NECAP
Saturday afternoon, I joined lawmakers, legislators, educators, and other concerned citizens in taking the mock NECAP math test sponsored by the Providence Student Union at Providence’s Knight Memorial Library. I have to give the folks over at PSU a lot of credit for organizing this event. It certainly opened my eyes to what our soon-to-be [...]
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