Published Wednesday, April 22nd in the Tucson Citizen as “Let’s set goal to reconfigure AIMS” and published Saturday, April 25th in the East Valley Community Sections of the Arizona Republic as “Flaws in AIMS test demand scrutiny and overhaul.” You may also wish to read my prior article on the challenge with the standards of AIMS from August 2008 entitled, “Where AIMS fails“.
Less than a month after finishing AIMS, my 6th, 7th and 8th graders (my children, not my students) are now taking NWEA MAP testing. Students will be pulled out for one to two periods at separate times to take the math and reading portions—far less invasive than the many hours required to administer AIMS.
The Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress (NWEA MAP) testing is typically done three times a year to track a student’s progress. While the NWEA provides immediate results, as it’s an adaptive computerized test, Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) results won’t be known for a couple months yet. While both tests factor into the school’s label under AZ LEARNS (e.g., “Performing Plus”), neither factors into whether a student moves on to the next grade. Schools are accountable, not students. Read the rest of this entry »