A story today on American Family Radio News (One News Now) about the pending investigation of two Denver schools for testing irregularities featured comments from senior policy analyst Ben DeGrow. In an interview with reporter Bob Kellogg, DeGrow noted that for at least one school (Beach Court Elementary), the evidence of inappropriate action was “fairly compelling,” and that the case points to the need to change how high-stakes assessments are done:
DeGrow says the answer is not to do away with standardized testing, but to develop better ways of administering the tests.
“It also is a reminder that we should be looking at creating a new system of testing that uses online software [and] adaptive tools to measure where individual students are learning — a step he says also will provide security and “prevent cheating like this from being able to take place.”
Follow the link to read the story and listen to a 1-minute audio clip.
Update, 6/11: The state’s investigation concluded that the Beach Court Elementary principal had committed CSAP “testing violations” in 2010 and 2011. The same investigation found that “technical errors” but no cheating occurred at Hallett Fundamental Academy.
