- Half Right On Test Gets An 'A'
-
- Palm Beach County high school students taking a new standardized
history exam this week need to answer just over half of the 100 questions
correctly to get an A grade on the test; to earn a B, only 39 correct
answers are required.
In fact, to pass the test with a D, a student needs to answer only 23 questions
correctly.
The new final exam for American and world history classes was developed
by school district officials to ensure students learn state required lessons
that include history about women, Africans, African-Americans and the Holocaust.
The questions -- including about 15 on African-American history -- are
multiple choice. The history program has been required since 1999.
The 100-question tests -- specific to Palm Beach County -- replace the
individual final exams that teachers create themselves. The district, which
recommended the scale, sent letters to schools giving them the option
to use it on the new test. Many said they will, while teachers in some
schools said the issue has not been discussed yet. It will be for this
year only.
But some teachers were concerned about the low passing scale, especially
for students who missed 10 days or more of school during the year and
had to pass the test to show "mastery" of the subject, or fail
the class. Does answering 29 to 38 questions correctly out of 100 to get
a C show mastery, some asked.
"I don't think if you administer a valid test and a kid misses half
of the questions, that they should pass," said Thomas O'Brien, a social
studies teacher at Lake Worth High School. "I think there is unwarranted
panic on the part of some people who feel like they didn't want to be
ambushed."
The typical grading scale awards an A for 90 percent or more questions
correct, a B for 80 percent to 89 percent correct, a C for 70 percent to
79 correct and a D for 60 percent to 69 percent correct.
To fail the new standardized history exam this year with an F grade, a
student would have to miss 78 of the 100 questions.
School board member Debra Robinson, who introduced the idea of using a
standardized history exam last fall, said she's OK with the grading scale
this year, because it's the first time the district is using the exam.
Final exams are worth 20 percent of a student's grade. It's possible, Robinson
said, if a student failed the new test, to fail the class for the year.
"This is the year of change and transition and it's really, in my
mind, the warm-up year," Robinson said. "When you have massive
change, it takes people time to adjust."
Robinson said she also heard concerns from teachers who felt they didn't
get information about the exam until it was too late to adequately prepare
their students.
Ana Meehan, executive director of academic programs, said teachers should
have received, in January, sample tests, African and African-American history
lessons, and charts of deadlines on what needed to be taught and when.
A handful of schools that used the exam in a pilot program first semester
received the information before school started.
Also, Meehan acknowledged, most of the information given to teachers covers
subjects that they should have been teaching anyway, based on the Sunshine
State Standards. The state standards outline exactly what a student should
learn at each grade level.
The scores from this year's test will be evaluated and changes to the test
or scoring scale could be made, Meehan said.
"We're hoping this year to get baseline data from the scores, but
also information from teachers such as whether the test is aligned to the
textbook," Meehan said.
William T. Dwyer High School Principal David Culp questions the low passing
rate on the grading scale. He understands it's the first year for the
history test, but said even a student guessing at most questions should
get 25 percent right.
"If I have an educated guess, I could get 30 to 40 percent correct,"
he said.
-
- http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/thursday/news_c35f9a6a05d50
2d100aa.html
-
-
- http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/thursday/news_c35f9a6a05d50
2d100aa.html
|
