Quote:
Originally Posted by agzg
But aren't the scores judged based on improvement from last year, and not so much whether or not they're actually at grade level? I mean, grade level is the goal, but I was under the impression that improvement and retention of improvement from year to year was what was actually being measured.
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I only know how they are measuring it on the tests here. The MEAP gives a score of 1-4. 1 is performing above grade level, 2 is at grade level. A 1 or a 2 is considered "passing". They look at the percentage of kids who meet that minimum vs those who don't. Their raw scores work like this: A 420 means they are working at a 4th grade, 2nd month level. 490 is 4th grade, 9th month level. If, in second grade, a child earns a score of 140, they are not "passing". If, when they take it in third grade, they score a 280, they are still not "passing", even though they've advanced a year and 4 months in one year. They are improving, they are catching up, but the way it's measured doesn't reflect that. Either way, they failed to meet the minimum required. That may be a problem with the tool being used here? Also, they used to test in May, so they were testing the learning from that school year. They changed it to October though, a couple years ago. I'm not sure why. It seems to make more sense to me to test at the end of the year if you're going to judge teachers on how their kids perform.