Estados Unidos: New York State Test Scores Inspire Conflicting Interpretatio

América del Norte/Estados Unidos/12 de Agosto de 2016/Autora: Elizabeth Harris/Fuente: The New York Times

RESUMEN: Cuando el Departamento de Educación del Estado de Nueva York anunció puntuaciones de la semana pasada de las pruebas estandarizadas de este año, se llevó con la buena noticia – casi el 38 por ciento de los estudiantes del estado eran competentes en Inglés y alrededor del 39 por ciento eran competentes en matemáticas, a partir de los resultados del año anterior. Pero también advirtió que los resultados no pudieron ser comparados con los resultados anteriores «manzanas con manzanas», debido a los cambios en la forma en que las pruebas fueron escritas. Casi inmediatamente, en lo que se ha convertido en un ritual anual, políticos, educadores y defensores de todo tipo educativo han  interpretado los resultados de manera contradictoria. En una conferencia de prensa el lunes, el alcalde Bill de Blasio, con el canciller de Educación de la ciudad de Nueva York, Carmen Fariña, sonriendo a su lado,  celebró el hecho de la tasa de competencia de la ciudad en la prueba de Inglés, dada a tercero a octavo grado es, por primera vez, en el 38 por ciento de los examinados. (Índice de competencia de la ciudad en matemáticas estuvo por detrás del estado de por cerca de tres puntos porcentuales.)

When the New York State Education Department announced scores last week from this year’s standardized tests, it led with the good news — nearly 38 percent of students statewide were proficient in English and about 39 percent were proficient in math, up from the previous year’s results. But it also warned that the scores could not be compared with previous results “apples to apples,” because of changes in the way the tests were written and given.

Almost immediately, in what has become an annual ritual, politicians, educators and advocates of every educational stripe popped up to interpret the results in myriad contradictory ways. And they did not let any asterisks get in the way.

In a news conference on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio, with the New York City schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, beaming by his side, celebrated the fact that the city’s proficiency rate on the English test, given to third through eighth graders, matched the state’s for the first time, at 38 percent of test-takers. (The city’s proficiency rate in math lagged behind the state’s by about three percentage points.) Mr. de Blasio also happily noted the increase in English scores in “every single one of our 32 local districts.”

Although the tests were shorter and given without a time limit — which the state education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, repeatedly pointed out while presenting the results — Mr. de Blasio said that the changes actually made the exams a more accurate measure of what students had learned.

“We think the previous test focused on endurance, if you will,” he said. “This test, because they changed the structure of the test, allowed a cleaner, better look at how the child is actually doing.”

Families for Excellent Schools, a charter school advocacy group that makes a habit of vigorously criticizing Mr. de Blasio, also ignored Ms. Elia’s caveat and went a step further, crediting gains at charter schools with lifting the city’s scores.

Not quite. While the city’s charter schools as a group did outperform traditional public schools, the charter school scores were not used to calculate the city’s proficiency levels; they were broken out separately.

Asked about that discrepancy, Jeremiah Kittredge, chief executive of Families for Excellent Schools, said in an email on Friday, “Any way you look at the data, charter schools outpaced district schools in nearly all categories of achievement and are leading the way in public education in this city.”

Others weighed in from different corners of the educational world. The gains were a victory for the Common Core, said High Achievement New York, a group supporting those controversial national standards.

No, they were unreliable, because the state had manipulated the underlying data to have more children pass, said some groups opposed to the tests, led by Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters.

Emily DeSantis, a spokeswoman for the State Education Department, called Ms. Haimson’s analysis “flawed, irresponsible and misleading.”

Then there was the matter of the children who had not taken the tests at all and what the results said about the strength of the opt-out movement. In 2016, 22 percent of eligible students did not take the tests, but the state said that only 21 percent formally refused to sit for the exams. The rest did not take them for other reasons. The state had not made that distinction in previous years.

The department described the opt-out numbers as essentially flat compared with the previous year, when 20 percent of children did not sit for the exams. But opt-out activists objected.

“Half-a-percentage proficiency gain on math is popping the champagne,” said Lisa Rudley, a founding member of New York State Allies for Public Education, an opt out-group. “But two percentage points is flat!”

Fuente: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/06/nyregion/new-york-state-test-scores-inspire-conflicting-interpretations.html?_r=0

Fuente de la imagen: http://www.top10de.com/los-10-paises-con-mejor-educacion-en-el-mundo/