Sue Atkinson
Baxter
Iowa Assessment tests for the 2014-2015 school year are still being taken and analyzed, but results from the 2013-2014 school year have been recalibrated to the grade-level 65th NPR by the Iowa Department of Education (upon request), and I am furnishing them here so the public can question attempts by schools to tout inflated results using the lower standard of 41st NPR once this school year’s testing has been completed.
Reading results will be the focus for this time, because the National Council on Teacher Quality 2014 report finds Iowa’s teacher prep programs lacking in training to effectively teach “the science of reading” (as they term it): “Iowa does not require teacher candidates to pass an assessment that measures knowledge of scientifically based reading instruction prior to certification or at any point thereafter.
Iowa also does not require that teacher preparation programs for elementary teacher candidates address the science of reading. The state has neither coursework requirements nor standards related to this critical area.” A draft of changes to Iowa teacher prep is on the Iowa DOE website with no mention of tying training to grade-level 65th NPR.
Iowa has already dumbed down the national Common Core by adding memorization (such as sight words to reading for kindergarten), and Iowa schools have taken it upon themselves to add more memorization (for sight words at increasingly higher grade levels), further dumbing down the standards and taking those schools farther away from the grade-level standard of 65th NPR in spite of purchasing reading programs that do not use sight words.
Student proficiency results for Jasper County schools 2013-14, keyed to grade-level 65th NPR follow. Fourth-grade: Baxter 43.5, Colfax/Mingo 46.8, Lynnville/Sully 51.7, Newton 44.3, PCM 52.5. Eighth-grade: Baxter 43.8, Colfax/Mingo 50.0, Lynnville/Sully 65.6, Newton 56.5, PCM 52.5. Eleventh-grade: Baxter 37.0, Colfax/Mingo 45.0, Lynnville/Sully 51.5, Newton 37.6, PCM 37.8.
Proficiencies based on concepts matter because they represent the skill levels of graduates as they move on to the job market, trade/tech training, or college – followed by the job market. Many higher-level jobs are going unfilled because applicants lack the required critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, due to the use of memorization rather than effective teaching of concepts. This impacts business expansion as well as location.
States and countries that can graduate more students at grade level with critical-thinking and problem-solving skills demonstrate their ability to get results, and this offers more opportunities.