Who measures What and WHY? Dr. Andrew Ho explains standardized testing and NAEP scores

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, otherwise known as the Nation’s Report Card, was first given in 1969 with the purpose of measuring the educational achievement and progress of the nation's students at established grades and ages in relation to the content of NAEP frameworks. Every two years, a sampling of schools across the nation are selected for testing: students are chosen at random to participate in NAEP. Every student has the same chance of being chosen—regardless of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, status as an English learner, or any other factors. (Beginning in 1990, these tests were made voluntary, and parents can opt their student(s) out if they do not want them to participate.) Historically, all 50 states, and the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity, participate in this testing. Students in grades 4, 8 and 12 are randomly selected to participate in testing in the areas of civics, economics, geography, mathematics, music and visual arts, reading, science, technology and engineering literacy, U.S. history, and writing. Student performance is reported on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scales, which run 0–300 (for most subjects) or 0–500 (mathematics and reading only). The focus of testing is on reading, mathematics, and (12th grade) science.Our country saw trends of math and science scores declining in the 1970’s, then rising during the 1980’s and 1990’s. In the early 2000’s, limited growth was seen, and in the 2010’s we appeared to plateau. In 2020, NAEP testing was just beginning when CoVid hit, and the testing was put on hold. In 2022 testing resumed, with shocking scores being released in October 2022. These scores demonstrated that not was there a trend of decline in scores, but on average students had lost between 2 and 9 months worth of learning! This may not sound significant: 2 months? Well, in 2 months my student will catch up. WRONG! Learning continued to move forward leaving students who were behind getting further and further behind, not catching up. The scores that came in October 2022 demonstrated catastrophic declines.This episode Dr. Andrew Ho, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and psychometrician, joins us to discuss NAEP scores and what they actually mean! Dr. Ho has served on the governing boards for the National Council on Measurement in Education and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. His research ​​is known for his research documenting the misuse of proficiency-based statistics in state and federal policy analysis. He explains WHO is measuring WHAT and WHY when our nation puts “standardized testing” into place.Does this episode sound “heavy” and boring? IT’S NOT!! Dr. Ho takes this dry information and brings it into perspective with real world understanding of why we all need to know about our Nation’s report card, and explains what is driving so much expensive and time consuming testing in our schools.Join us for an informative and meaningful look at where our nation’s students are currently at, and ways we can begin to move forward!Links:https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/andrew-ho https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcardhttps://edopportunity.org/