2005-2006 IOWA TEST SCORE RANKING
It is very unfortunate and sad that Iowalive has found such extensive cheating in Iowa school districts that it is no longer meaningful to continue to post State 4th and 8th grade rankings in reading and math--with scores provided by the corrupt schools and Dept. of Education. Iowalive has also found there is so little improvement in the schools--that the rankings posted on websites: 2003-2004 IA. SCHOOL HONESTY/INTEGRITY RANKINGS and 2003-2004 STATE PROFICIENCY RANKINGS OF IOWA SCHOOLS remain the best available, and are very suitable for making comparisons of school district performance in student achievement--until schools are persuaded to install quality control systems to stop the cheating, such as those used in Iowa casinos and other Iowa businesses.
The Institute for Tomorrow's Workforce completely ignored school cheating. As a result, implementation of their Performance and Standards recommendations are worthless and meaningless. Schools can and will easily cheat to meet any Performance Measures or Standards recommended. School teachers and administrators will continue to receive pay raises for poorer and poorer performance--to the detriment of Iowa students, parents, taxpayers and the State's economy.
As if to add insult to injury, Register editors refuse to retract the following editorial advising Iowa school officials to dumb the tests, keep two sets of books and do anything legal (there are no laws against school cheating in Iowa) to make Iowa schools look better than they are. No State or local school board member, DE official, superintendent or principal complained about the unethical editorial, which would have generated loud complaints of protest had it advised Iowa Boys or Girls Athletic Association members to cheat. This is a very disturbing indictment of Iowa K-12 school officials.
It is also disturbing that Register editors did not tell you the Iowa Department of Education adopted the lowest student achievement Proficiency Standard in the Midwest--which encourages Iowa schools officials to claim students proficient (expert) in reading in math when scoring more than a full grade below enrolled grade level.
UNETHICAL REGISTER EDITORIAL
05/26/2003
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Other
states are lowering their testing standards to avoid penalties imposed by the
federal No Child Left Behind Act. The New York Times reports that Texas and
Michigan are among the states adjusting the numbers to make themselves look
good. Iowa should, too.
Anything
the state can do to legally sidestep the law is acceptable.
In
time the absurdity of the law will become widely apparent, and the wisdom of
those who sidestepped it will be vindicated.
Meanwhile,
Washington insists every child in public school be proficient in reading and
math by 2013-14, an impossible goal. If progress isn't fast enough, no matter
what the circumstances, individual schools will be stamped in need of
improvement - or failing.
Supporters
of the policy seem to relish the prospect.
In
Iowa, state education officials hope to use two standardized tests - the Iowa
Tests of Basic Skills for younger pupils and the Iowa Tests of Educational
Development for older students - to measure whether children are proficient in
reading and math. As many as half of all Iowa schools could end up being labeled
in need of improvement in a couple of years, estimates Ted Stilwill, director of
the Iowa Department of Education.
Nonetheless,
Stilwill doesn't think Iowa should dumb down its "reasonable
expectation" for students. Skill levels that constitute proficiency were
set before the No Child Left Behind Act, he notes. "There's not an adequate
reason to change all that just because of this legislation."
Yes,
there is.
Iowa
will end up looking bad, when it has one of the best education systems in the
nation. Each state gets to set its own proficiency standards, so lowering them
is a big advantage in terms of appearances. That isn't fair to this state.
Iowa
should work hard on its own to improve student achievement - in a sense keep
two sets of school books - but it should not let itself be compared
unfavorably.