The Chicago Board of Education always appreciates when an independent body, such as the Tribune, examines our schools and compels us to perform better. However, I take issue with a story on 2006 Illinois Standards Achievement Test results (“Why test scores went up:
A. Pupils were given more time;
B. Only one essay factored into grade;
C. Passing bar lowered on 8th-grade math test;
D. Pupils smarter, teachers more focused;
The answers: State officials say D; critics say the test is easier,” Page 1, March 6).
Our children can learn. They can achieve and they can compete. Their performance on the 2006 ISAT is but one measure of proof. To continually question their record-breaking results demonstrates an inability to believe that they can actually meet the high expectations that we must set for them. They are proving they can.
Officials across the state agree that districts made gains all over Illinois, but Chicago Public Schools students led the way, gaining 14 percentage points on the test, compared to the overall state gain of 8 percentage points. Overall nearly 62 percent of all students are meeting or exceeding state standards, up from the previous district high of 47 percent and up 23 percentage points from five years ago.
The Illinois State Board of Education was quite careful in designing the new ISAT to make sure it measured students’ content knowledge, as opposed to how fast they could regurgitate facts. The extra time allotted to answer questions actually provided for a much better assessment of learning. The ISAT also went from two essay questions last year to one this year, a move that an equating study determined had no statistical effect on results.
Yes the state lowered the 8th grade math test passing bar, but it was to bring that exam in line with those for 3rd and 5th graders. The tests are supposed to measure a student’s growth from year to year, but the 8th grade test was determined to be way off scale. Statisticians have studied this year’s result and have determined that even without the lowered passing bar, CPS 8th grade scores climbed at least 10 percentage points.
The real challenge ahead for CPS is to continue our progress. Let us not minimize the effect that five years of the Reading Initiative, math tutoring and other initiatives have had on the way teachers teach and students absorb knowledge. Our students’ performance has definitely amazed us all. But they’re not done amazing us yet.
