Published Wednesday, August 6, 2008 in the Tucson Citizen as “Taking aim at problematic assessment test” and is forthcoming in Southeast Valley Opinions of the Arizona Republic and possibly the East Valley Tribune. Image credit: Arnie Bermudez, Tucson Citizen.
School’s back. With last year’s AIMS scores finally released, we’ll soon discover which schools are “failing.” Students’ scores on AIMS in grades 3-8 have no bearing on their report card, and don’t even arrive home until weeks after school ends, but high school students must pass AIMS or possibly not graduate.
We need change. Mesa School Board member and State House Representative Rich Crandrall has ruffled the feathers of Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. His legislation, tacked on to this year’s budget at the last moment, limits the next contract for a corporate AIMS test provider to 1 year and creates a committee to evaluate AIMS as a high-stakes test for High School graduation; he’s stepped in a good direction, but just not quite cast the net wide enough.
We need to re-evaluate the entire structure of the Arizona Instrument for Measuring Standards. On its face, who wouldn’t want to measure standards to assess student, teacher, school, and district performance?
But can 68 multiple choice questions measure 82 standards? Read the rest of this entry »