South Carolina's students are confounding the state's DOE; the students improved substantially on math but dropped at every level on English, according to the most recent Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT) scores. Right now, almost 30% of SC's students do not score at even the "basic" level in English/language arts, a drop of 4 percentage points, whereas math scores increased by 6 percentage points. Educators blame test fatigue for the decline:
Something happened (in English/language arts) that we can’t explain,” said Sandra Lindsay, deputy state superintendent. “We’re checking everything we can think of.”
State Department of Education officials already have ruled out the possibility of errors in the way the tests were scored and problems with the questions. But tired kids are a real possibility, education leaders said.
They note that 2003 was the first year social studies and science were included on PACT, extending the testing period from four to six days for most students. And the English/language arts tests, which have the longest reading passages, were tested the last two days.
“By that time, they were losing focus,” said Mini Johnson, a fourth grade teacher at Lewis Greenview Elementary in Columbia.
That's possible. Educators have moved the English portion to the beginning of next year's exam, and if their theory is correct, the decline in scores will not continue.
Posted by kswygert at September 29, 2003 11:54 AM