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Reporting District-Level NAEP Data Summary of a Workshop (2000) / Chapter Skim
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4 Comparisons with National Benchmarks: Pros and Cons
Pages 19-23

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From page 19...
... states that "below state NAEP results could provide an important source of data for informing a variety of education reform efforts at the local level." While "reform efforts" are not defined in the NAG B document, presumably such efforts would involve making comparisons of local performance with national, state, and other local results. State NAEP answered the persistent question asked by policy makers, "I know how we're doing on our state test, but how are we doing in comparison to other states?
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From page 20...
... COMPARISONS AMONG LIKE DISTRICTS COULD SERVE IMPORTANT PURPOSES The most common argument made in favor of district-level results was the importance of being able to make comparisons among "like districts." Sharon Lewis, director of research for the Council of Great City Schools, reported that the council recently took an "unprecedented stand" by actively recruiting urban school districts to volunteer to take the proposed voluntary national tests. This action was prompted by council members' desire to know how school districts are doing when measured against high standards and in comparison to other districts with similar characteristics.
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From page 21...
... Amuleru-Marshall added that Atlanta was one of the districts that stood behind President Clinton's call for voluntary national testing and has been disappointed that the testing program has not been available to them yet. Representatives from several state assessment offices also pointed out that the state is ultimately responsible for ensuring that school systems are
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From page 22...
... EXTERNAL VALIDATION IS DESIRED Workshop participants observed that another appealing feature of district-level reporting for NAEP would be the ability to compare district assessment results with stable external measures of achievement. According to Paul Cieslak, research specialist for the Milwaukee Public Schools, NAEP is a "good, well-constructed external validation measure that provides a solid base for longitudinal and out-of-district comparisons." Others pointed out that there had been, and continue to be, revisions in their state assessment programs.
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From page 23...
... This difference creates problems for those who must explain and interpret the two sets of test results. In addition, confusion arises when NAEP results are released at the same time as state or local assessment results.
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Key Terms

  • naep results
  • assessment results
  • urban districts
  • state naep
  • larger populations

  • school districts
  • external measures
  • local assessment
  • local results
  • external validation

  • assessment governing
  • assessment programs
  • national assessment
  • common measures
  • urban school

  • typically score
  • city schools
  • voluntary national
  • compare data
  • representatives disagreed

  • recent results
  • students perform
  • districts administer
  • national tests
  • assessment directors

  • testing interval
  • district assessment
  • district funds
  • currently administered
  • trend data


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