http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/commentary_2010-05-22.html

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/commentary_2010-05-22.html

Kent School District

Here is a case where Kent School District is being evaluated by their MSP and HSPE test scores.  This is a good example of superintendents and school districts being evaluated on an assessment that is supposed to be evaluating students.  Is it fair to evaluate a district and give it 5 out of 10 based solely on its test score?

Here's the site:
http://www.greatschools.org/cgi-bin/wa/district-profile/118#MSPResults

Community Blog: Teachers being evaluated based on students' test scores

This blog gives various perspectives on teacher evaluations or "evaluations" in connection to students' results on the MSP and HSPE.  I quote the word evaluations because administrative level heads are careful to connect students' results to teachers; Covertly, however, these connections are still being made.  Teachers are given the results of their students and asked to analyze the data and fill out Student Learning Plans. 

http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2010/08/thoughts-about-using-student-tests-to.html

Washington State's Report Card 2009/10

Here's the link to Washington State scores for the 2009/10 school year:

http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?year=2009-10

The OSPI website has some FAQs to help the community construct knowledge of the MSP and HSPE tests

Here is the link to the FAQs:

http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/StateTesting/FAQ.aspx

Superintendent falls because of WASL

Rationale

Who does the MSP really assess? Students? Teachers? Schools? Superintendents? 

Is the MSP so proficient that it can truly assess all of these groups? 

This is a compelling topic to analyze because of the incredible amount of money it takes to administer this test across the state.  In a time, where budgets are incredibly tight and resources are “tapped”, an expensive assessment tool may or may not be the best choice.  Especially, in lieu of the negative effect these dwindling resources have on students. 

This is also compelling because teachers’ evaluations are connected to students’ results.  Teachers with students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are unfairly tested.  In almost all cases, their test scores are lower (OSPI website) than their contemporaries with students of higher socio-economic backgrounds.  However, these teachers are being held to the same academic bar.  Is this fair? If not, how do we assess our teachers?