Meaningless D.C. test results!

TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2019

Meaningless promises made:
Annual test scores have been released for the D.C. public schools. This seems to mean all `D.C. public schools, traditional public and charter.

If you read the Washington Post's hard-copy report today, the headlines were mainly upbeat:

"District students improve on exam," the largest, boldest headline said. Perry Stein's news report topped the front page of the Metro section, beneath this triple headline:
District students improve on exams
PARCC SCORES SHOW GRADUAL GROWTH
Hurdles remain in efforts to close achievement gap
That third headline was the kicker. You had to read to paragraph 10 before you got any actual data. But when you finally got there, you encountered these passing rates:
Passing rates, DC public school students
PARCC tests, 2019

Math tests, all grades combined:

White kids: 78.8%
Black kids: 21.1%

Reading tests, all grades combined:
White kids: 85.0%
Black kids: 27.8%
District students may have "improved." But those gaps seem remarkably large.

That said, those giant gaps may not be massively meaningful. D.C.'s public schools tend to serve a standard population of urban black kids, offset by a smaller, vastly more advantaged population of upper-end white kids.

The black kids often come from low-income homes. The white kids typically come from wealthier homes, not uncommonly from double-PhD families.

For that reason, we may not have a lot to learn from those large achievement gaps. That said, the black kids' passing rates do seem extremely low.

With that in mind, we'll take a guess. These remarks from today's report may not be real meaningful either:
STEIN (8/20/19): D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said that after seeing the math scores, he plans to rethink math teaching strategies and will increase access to interventions for struggling students.

Ferebee said that fewer students scored a 1 or 2 on the exam—the lowest scores on the test—an encouraging development not captured in passing rates.
Taking nothing away from Ferebee, is he really going to "rethink math teaching strategies," given results of this year's math tests?

Last year, an even smaller percentage of D.C.'s black kids passed these same math tests. Ferebee is new to the D.C. schools, so he wasn't present to rethink strategies in the wake of those passing rates.

That said, what sorts of changes in strategy might he have in mind? The Washington Post doesn't seem to have asked. Nor can we say that we really expect much of a follow-up.

Then again, we have the way "city leaders" responded to these "improved" results. Starting right there in paragraph 1, Stein tells us this:
STEIN: The percentage of public school students passing a critical standardized exam in the District is gradually growing, according to results released Monday showing that students across all demographic groups improved on the English portion of the test. Progress in math proved more modest.

[...]

In announcing the results, city leaders celebrated the progress while acknowledging that further improvements are needed, particularly in the way the District approaches math. They stressed that achievement gaps are not closed overnight and that the goal is steady growth each year.

“For the fourth year, we are seeing continued, steady improvements, which means more students are performing at higher levels,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at a news conference at Whittier Education Campus, which registered double-digit gains in the English and math portions of the exam.

“The achievement gap is still too wide,” Bowser said. “We can build a fairer and more equitable city when we know that our African American and Latino students are achieving at the same levels as their white peers.”
How "gradually" are those passing rates growing? Last year, 20.7% of D.C.'s black kids passed their grade's math test. This year, the rate climbed all the way to 21.1%!

That is extremely gradual "progress." With apologies, Mayor Bowser is speaking the way a person speaks about things which simply don't matter.

We'll say this for former chancellor Rhee. She said this sort of thing isn't good enough every single time. In our view, she never seemed to have real ideas about the way to make things better. But in her favor, she never pretended that "continued, steady improvement" like this was anything like good enough.

You won't hear about this on "cable news." Of one thing you can feel quite certain:

On "cable news," nobody cares. They don't waste your time with this. They talk about Donald J. Trump.

Growth on the reading tests: Last year, 24.7% of D.C.'s black kids passed their grade's reading test. This year, the passing rate rose to 27.8%.

"City leaders celebrated the progress." As recorded above, 85.0% percent of the system's white kids passed.

21 comments:

  1. "That said, those giant gaps may not be massively meaningful."

    Duh. To begin with, dear Bob, the combinations of letters "white kids" and "black kids" have no meanings whatsoever.

    ...to a human being, that is. To liberal zombies these are, of course, magical sacred spells.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Mohamed,

    I have a message and maybe you can help spread it.

    For a wonderfully magical experience, meet at the gas station across the street from the Target store in Rosslyn, VA on 8/24 at 1 am.

    Go inside to the counter and ask for The Butt Cracker.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You'd think the media would care if only to argue that the test results were exhibit A for " “...empire and its relationship to white supremacy, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism and other forms of power and oppression.”'

    I had heard these issues were going to be almost as sexy as Mueller had been.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, the Mueller bullshit's fizzled out, and so 'race' will be the main zombie obsession again. The new-york-times has already announced it, and gave orders to the rest of zombie media.

      Delete
    2. Mao,
      And let you and the rest of the Reagan Republicans off the hook for your incessant Establishment ass-kissing?
      Surely, you jest.

      Delete
    3. Remember to wipe off Mao's binky before putting it back in his mouth.

      Delete
  4. Actually if the white kids are as much the children of an elite and educated caste as you say the rate at which they passed might well be low. Without comparison to other places or for that matter national numbers those percentages are meaningless.

    ReplyDelete
  5. “Last year, 20.7% of D.C.'s black kids passed their grade's math test. This year, the rate climbed all the way to 21.1%!”

    To be fair, the mayor was talking about the last *four* years:
    “For the fourth year, we are seeing continued, steady improvements”

    About achievement gaps, Somerby says this:

    “That said, those giant gaps may not be massively meaningful. D.C.'s public schools tend to serve a standard population of urban black kids, offset by a smaller, vastly more advantaged population of upper-end white kids. “

    And this:
    “For that reason, we may not have a lot to learn from those large achievement gaps. That said, the black kids' passing rates do seem extremely low.”

    Although he is talking about passing rates on PARCC tests, and not NAEP test results, the same arguments can be made about NAEP tests. There is no need to list the multitude of Somerby posts where he takes liberals and the media to task for not caring about or even discussing the achievement gaps. In this story, there is nonstop talk about achievement gaps, and he proceeds to try to explain them away. There is no reason to expect the same kinds of “reasons” that Somerby puts forward here wouldn’t explain away the gaps in other big cities. They just may not be “massively meaningful” there either. Can Somerby get any more inconsistent?

    Finally, Somerby says
    “she never pretended that "continued, steady improvement" like this was anything like good enough.” Would Somerby care to share what level of improvement is acceptable? Perhaps the very slow, continued, steady improvement in NAEP test scores over 45 years?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Although he is talking about passing rates on PARCC tests, and not NAEP test results, the same arguments can be made about NAEP tests.

      No, they can't. The populations that report NAEP results aren't
      nearly as socio-economically bimodal as the PARCC.

      Would Somerby care to share what level of improvement is acceptable? Perhaps the very slow, continued, steady improvement in NAEP test scores over 45 years?

      Perhaps? That's the point he makes practically every time he derides the "public schools are failures" reporting

      Delete
    2. "No, they can't. The populations that report NAEP results aren't nearly as socio-economically bimodal as the PARCC."

      This is inaccurate in as much as it conveys anything at all. Dig deeper into NAEP.


      Delete
    3. “The populations that report NAEP results aren't nearly as socio-economically bimodal as the PARCC.”

      Where is your evidence for this?

      Delete
    4. @deadrat
      Assume your statement is true for a moment. How does that render the PARCC test results “not massively meaningful?” On the contrary, does it not say something quite meaningful about the relationship between socioeconomic status and test results? One assumes the NAEP scores for DC would show a similar gap.

      Delete
    5. @6:29A: It either makes a meaningful but inaccurate statement or it conveys nothing. Make up your mind -- looking up bimodal might helpt -- and get back to me.

      @10:56A: A brief look at the economic demographics of DC and say, NYC should convince you. GIYF.

      @12:06P: I stand corrected. I think you're right about socio-economic status and test results. TDH's discussion was about the racial disparity, and I should have limited my statement.

      Delete
    6. No one gives a shit if you are insulted or not, boring faggot.

      Delete
    7. bwahahahaahahahaha

      it didn't helpt

      yeah right, bimodal is such a tricky word. you are a clueless bhenchod, deadrat. your daily bimodal:

      meaningless and inaccurate

      examples abound! just read your comments


      NAEP provides SES data and PARCC aligns fairly well with NAEP, there are reasons for that, dig my sensitive friend. NAEP tests nationally including DC (which even participates in TUDA), PARCC is in two states and DC.

      Somerby: "The black kids often come from low-income homes. The white kids typically come from wealthier homes"

      so yeah, SES

      but wait

      "we may not have a lot to learn from those large achievement gaps."

      whoa hard to argue with insight of that precision.

      You and Somerby may suffer from the same limiting bimodal and literalist way of thinking, notions like historical context and humans' natural contradictions and nonlinear communications are lost on lost souls such as yourself. I sense something, a presence I have not felt since...Adam Smith's self interest garbage.

      Somerby's post was itself largely meaningless, and slightly inaccurate. Others may offer somewhat more.

      The role of demographics in NAEP and PARCC scores

      The Increase in Higher-Income Children in D.C.

      EPI Income inequality in the U.S.

      NYC is 15th, DC is down at 25.

      so yeah

      Delete
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