April 30, 2009
If the NAEP scores are the best uniform standardized assessment of learning we can come up with as a nation, why don’t we give the NAEP to everyone?
April 30, 2009
If the NAEP scores are the best uniform standardized assessment of learning we can come up with as a nation, why don’t we give the NAEP to everyone?
April 30th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I clicked through from my feed reader, hoping there would be an answer in the comments, but there is none.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Well, because that would just make too much sense now wouldn’t it.
But seriously, my first thought was “Amen, sista”.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
You mean, why don’t we give it to everyone nationally? Right now it is given nationally, but to a sample, iirc.
April 30th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
@Dave: LOL.
@Nicolasa: I mean, multiple measures, right? Hang on to the best local/state assessment procedures, *and* use the NAEP as a baseline for national policy decisions.
@Tom: Understood prior, so noted and revised.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Expense.
Actually, I think the NAEP is the way we should do standardized testing. Just test a sample – you never know if it is going to be your school/class so you still have to be prepared. But we don’t have to waste so many days of testing for every student in so many grades.
Plus, we could save enough money that we could actually create more meaningful standardized tests if we were only testing a random percentage of the population.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Silly rabbit. Trix are for kids.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:18 am
Good question. The probable short answer – states’ rights and the 10th amendment.
I personally am rooting for national standards before a national test.
May 1st, 2009 at 11:36 am
@Jenny: Yeah, I get this. Lord knows we don’t need another exam crammed down kids’ throats. However, there must be some way to fold the NAEP into state assessments such that it doesn’t represent an undue burden.
I also don’t think money is going to solve the problem of meaningful standardized assessments. Some would argue that you can’t have a meaningful standardized assessment by definition, for example. As for me, as I state above, I would only hope the NAEP would serve baseline/snapshot data for large policy decisions, one of many sources of input and information.
@Zach: National standards would be lovely– as long as they, too, are baseline (power standards), growth-model, and allow for additions appropriate to local communities’ needs.
May 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
This is by design. If it were given to everyone, people would teach to the test. If that happened, it wouldn’t measure anything except how good your test prep is.
It’s also designed to be as non-intrusive as possible so that even in the sample, each individual student only takes a small portion of the test.
Some of this is answered on the NAEP website: http://www.nagb.org/faqs.htm