“Misinformation”

Us “Nay-Sayers” are often accused of spreading “misinformation.”  This is one of the reasons I started this website.  With the power of the Internet, verification is very easy.

 On Monday (Westerly Sun People’s Forum), a Chariho employee (and Hopkinton resident) chastised Hopkinton for failing the bond and said:

“Teachers are lucky to get a 1 to 4 percent raise. Chariho teachers are paid state average (middle-of-the-road pay) for being among the highest performing. You don’t believe me? Look at the books.”

The contracts are available on the links to the right and you can calculate the raises yourself.  Or you can wait as I will be doing that soon.  

As for “highest performing,” here is a reminder of data covered previously – besides, everyone loves charts.

This first chart shows the percentage of Chariho students who scored in the top 25% of the NECAP test and compares that percntage to our peers.  Level 4, “proficient with distinction”

This next chart shows the percentage of Chariho students who scored in the bottom 25% of the NECAP test and compares that percentage to our peers.   Level 1, “substantially below proficient”

The data clearly shows that we have more students who perform at the lowest level and less students performing at the highest level than our peers. 

What the Chariho employee has done (or whomever gave him the information) was simply look at the proficiency standards. 

Here’s how it works.  The federal gov’t requires the state to report the NAEP scores.  These scores produce a statewide score.  This is what is reported as RI’s test score.  RI ranks between 31 and 41 depending on grade and subject. 

However, individual schools report the NECAP test scores.  This is where the term “proficiency” is determined.  Just about all schools are proficient when looked at by this measure.  Basically, the numbers are paded. 

What do I mean by that?  You can look at the above linked analysis but in layman’s terms, it is as follows:  Each state reports the NAEP test but individual school scores are not reported.  Individual schools report the NECAP test and since other states use different tests, we cannot compare a RI school to those in other states, or even a state average.  Thus we only compare ourselves to ourselves.  There is no comparison to DIFFERENT school models.

So the question to ask is, can you compare my NECAP score to the Massachusetts NAEP score (the highest in the country) or an individual MA school MCAS test score.  If the NAEP and NECAP tests were equivalent in measuring student achievement, it could be assumed that the total RI NECAP test scores, when averaged, would be equivalent to the reported NAEP score of RI (there are some curve variations but this is the base of the theory).

Dr. David Anderson, a Fellow on Education Policy over at my day job, is in the process of performing these types of analysis throughout the country (PA is the latest state to contract the analysis).  What he has found is that MA, which has been the top performing school in the nation for two years running, reports nearly identical test scores.  In other words, if you add all MCAS test scores in MA, the average is very close to the reported NAEP score.  However, in RI we nearly double the scores.

So when we hear our schools are “high performing” take that in the appropriate context. 

But even putting all that aside, when you compare Chariho to our geographic peers, even by that comparison we do very poorly.  How do you think we would compare to MA?

I would suggest that Chariho stop telling us everything is rosey and start addressing the problems.  Maybe then the parents will feel an allegiance to the district.  Just be honest with us.