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| Also listed in: Du Page County Democrats | Friday Forums | NCLB and Education Issues |
Tags: Chicago Tribune, Illinois State Board of Educaiton, ISBE, NCLB, State Accountability, Statewide Educational Assessments, U.S. Department of Educaiton
Friends:
By now, everyone is surely aware that the NCLB Education act "mandates" annual standardized, "high-stakes" tests be developed and administered in all our States to nominally increase "accountability" in public education.
I want to raise another question. What agency has responsibility for oversight of the "testing companies" that are building and administering the States' standardized tests?
The obvious answer is that the USDOE has "statutory responsibility" for oversight and final "approval" of the State's testing systems.
But recent developments in Illinois seemingly call the "efficacy" of the DFederal Department of Education's oversight system into question.
Here's the link to a story in today's Chicago Tribune that started me examining the issue and related facts:
Errors may snarl state testing Officials hire auditor, worry state test scores may show failure of system (By Stephanie Banchero - Chicago Tribune reporter August 2, 2008)(Click Link for Story)
Here are some links to the "official correspondence" between the US Department of Education and the Illinois State Board of Education about the "review and approval" of the Illinois Statewide Assessment and Accountability system.
(June 23, 2006)
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/nclbfinalassess/il.html
(September 8, 2006)
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/nclbfinalassess/il2.html
(June 29, 2007)
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/nclbfinalassess/il3.html
(January 4, 2008)
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/nclbfinalassess/il4.html
The apparent problems with "validity and reliability" of the ISAT were resolved; according to USDOE's standards for oversight of state assessment systems.
These are the facts; as reported by the Chicago Tribune today and from the US Department of Education's "official correspondence" with the Illinois State Board of Education.
Does anyone besides me see a discrepancy here? Could it be either the Illinois statewide assessment system is flawed, or the Federal oversight of that system is flawed.... OR BOTH?
I'm very temped to offer my "interpretation" of what this might mean and the situation's underlying causes. But I'll hold off on that and monitor the posting to see if anyone besides me thinks this subject is worth talking about.
If appropriate, I'll conntribute my views to subsequent discussions.
BobBl
So you mean this needs an ombudsman to the ombudsman to the ombudsman....
Not only do policies and programs need to be the product of pluralistic processes ensured in priority, but evaluative measures as well.
Empirical processes are inherent properties of pluralistic models. If the process does not fit the model, corrupt practices are very likely to occur.
Obama 2008!
Very best wishes.
What Illinois needs is a GAO investigation looking into where all those millions of $$'s are going and what all the various state education agencies are or AREN'T getting for our taxpayer contributed public $$'s!
Let's look at the facts for one single state. The contractor that's doing the Illinois assessment system (which I won't mention by name, but you can read for yourself under the links) is making 3.2 MILLION $$'s per year over a five year period!
There are 49 more states. If you want to see what the Feds have had to say about approval or non-approval of the assessment systems for the other 49, look here:
Link
You do the math. Is Illinois getting what they are paying for?
If something like this were going on in the "private sector," the contractee would have broken the contract long ago and gone with another service provider.
This whole thing smells pretty bad to me.
BobBl