Sunday, August 07, 2005

REACT: Part 2: Chicago school scores

Recall our reaction to the improvement in Chicago school scores? Just as a footnote. It is now reported that some 100 teacher actually used a portion of the test itself to prepare students for the testing downstate. Why does this have anything to do with Chicago? Well, the "contamination" caused the state board of education to throw out that portion of the reading test. It was about one-third of the entire reading rest -- no small adjustment. Some suggest that the removal reduced the scores of the downstate students, to that advantage of the Chicago students. The snafu, say some, makes Chicago students look a bit better in test results.

So ... what do we make of all that? Is it possible that the headline grabbing announcement of improved reading is about as real as a full days work by a Chicago precinct captain? I would not be surprised.

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