New and Interesting . . . .
This website uses the term "neighborhood school" rather than the terms "not-charter school" or "not-a-charter school" or "regular school" or "traditional school" for comparative data analyses and reports.
The content and format of this website are "under construction." Please be patient!
School Reform . . . .
"A
Close Look at Don't Fail Idaho's Student Achievement Message."
PowerPoint Show (950kb) or PDF (500kb)
Current notes about school reform in Idaho:
p1304o71 Idaho Education Field Guide
confuses the issue by using NAEP Proficient
p1304051 Histograms
and percentile ranks for Idaho's White students vs. national peers
p1304181 No difference in NAEP Proficiency
for Idaho charter vs. neighborhood schools
NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) Notes . . . .
Misuse of NAEP results promotes wariness of American public schools!
Much of the dissatisfaction with student achievement in public schools springs from the improper use of results from the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to compare states or to "confirm" state testing results. The two most frequent abuses are (1)
using NAEP scores based on student samples to rank order the fifty states and (2) comparing NAEP's 1990 definition of above-grade-level
proficient with a state's 2001 "NCLB required" definition of at-grade-level proficient. To better understand these unfortunate errors, browse through two short, peer-reviewed papers available online at
http://pareonline.net/genpare.asp?wh=4&abt=stoneberg
This problem is illustrated in Idaho In Focus: The School Choice and Digital Learning Landscape, released in 2013 by the Albertson Foundation. NAEP results were used in this report to "rank order" Idaho's charter and neighborhood schools without regard to the uncertainty in NAEP data that is inherent in sampling procedures. Click here for evidence and comments regarding how NAEP scores were misused in the report.
A non-statistical way to understand NAEP achievement levels.
The English language descriptors in the table below were gleaned from various NAEP publications
that used them to describe and clarify the meaning of the NAEP achievement levels. The descriptors seem
also to relate to grades students might receive for their classroom performance.
| Achievement Levels | English Language Descriptors Used to Explain the NAEP Achievement Levels | Classroom Grades |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced | A to A+ | |
| Proficient | Some of the best students you know Many words and terms above grade level Mastery of complex material Higher than grade-level performance |
B+ to A |
| Basic | Proficiency in subject (common language meaning) Overall understanding of grade-appropriate text More than minimal competency |
C- to B |
| Below Basic | Minimal competency | F to D+ |
Source: Stoneberg (2007), p.4. See also Ravitch blog (2012).
Data Display(s) of Interest . . . .
School Improvement Surveys . . . .
The K-12 survey instruments for students, staff and parent offered here were developed, adapted, and/or revised by Oregon classroom teachers in the Albany and Ontario school districts in the mid-1980s and 1990s. They are not intended for commercial use. They are made available here for free use by educators who want to assemble "quick and dirty" data to support their school improvement decisions and activities. No scoring service is currently available, but model printouts are provided to guide self-scoring.
Click here for the K-12 "quick and dirty" surveys:
• Opinion Survey for Students (OSS, Grades 6-12)
• Opinion Survey for Parents (OSP, Grades 6-12)
• Instructional Quality Survey (IQS, All Staff, K-12)
• Student Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ, Grades 1-9)
• Parent Opinion Questionnaires (POQ, Grades 1-9