Standardized Test Scores

Posted March 20, 2007

0 |

I found this helpful Thank You! Your vote will be tallied soon!

A nationally-renowned professor of Measurement at UCLA once told me that children's standardized test scores really only tell you one thing for sure: their parents' social class.

The higher the test scores, the more expensive the homes in the neighborhood.

It's just that simple.

That there is ALWAYS a direct correlation between a pricey neighborhood and high test scores in the local public schools.

Don't believe me? Go to your state's department of education website and look up the school districts in the most expensive neighborhoods in your area. Do it. I promise you that every school located in an upscale hood will have group median API of 800 or above (out of 1000).

Never heard of API? Academic Performance Index. Or as comedian Sandra Tsing Loh calls it: the Affluent Parent Index. http://www.sandratsingloh.com/index.php?pr=Scandalously_Informal#1

Otherwise known as the 1.2 million dollar GOOD SCHOOL (in California, at least).

So, if you are looking for a strong public school for your child, take the test scores with a grain of salt.

One last caveat: high test scores can sometimes be an indication that teachers are teaching to the test, but that -- as I now like to say -- is yet another can of worms for a later posting.

Member Comments On...

Standardized Test Scores

3 Comments

Create / Edit your profile

vftcmt says:

March 22, 2007

Teaching to the test is really wrecking some schools. Creativity?? What's that again? The teachers in the higher SES schools usually don't need to spend quite as much time preparing for the tests, so sometimes they CAN break out of the test-prep hamster wheel. No Child Left Behind is not the way to reform education, sorry. My kids' schools are higher API ones than the one I formerly taught at, and wow - is there a huge difference in what can be done in the classroom!

Not Acceptable

BrideofRainDog says:

March 21, 2007

My husband's experience as a public school teacher is that, when he worked in a low-income area and taught very rigidly to the test, the scores were below state average. Now that he is in a high-income area where the schools do not teach to the test (at least as strictly), the scores are above state average. (Interestingly, the state has more or less left this school alone, as opposed to much pressure it placed on the previous district.)

Not Acceptable

ThompsonClanMom says:

March 21, 2007

Teaching to the test is most definitely a post worth reading - one of my pet peeves, actually - I'll be waiting!

Not Acceptable

Family

Account Warning

Professor Mom

by emilyarms

I'm supposed to have all the answers, but I don't

Professor Mom

I'm supposed to have all the answers, but I don't

Standardized Test Scores

Member Comments On...