Report charges schools suspend low performing students before testing to raise school performance
A report by University of Florida economics professor David Figlio charges that schools disproportionately suspend their academically weakest performing students just before standardized testing is scheduled, in order to ensure fewer of those students take the tests and lower the school's overall score. Mr. Figlio says that the introduction of high stakes testing has led to disciplining low-performing students during test periods at disproportionately higher rates. His study analyzed suspensions of students involved in 41,803 incidents at 504 elementary, middle, and high schools in Florida from 1996, when the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) was introduced, to 2000. Comparing the disciplinary actions taken against pairs of students suspended for the same misconduct to determine if the suspensions were influenced by students' previous year's test scores, the study found that nearly 60% of the two students received different punishments. Students who had received lower scores on the FCAT were suspended for an average of 2.35 days, with 23% receiving sentences lasting one week or longer, while the higher scoring students averaged 1.91-day suspensions, with 18% receiving suspensions of one week or longer.
Since the introduction of the FCAT, Florida has changed its accountability rules so schools no longer have any incentive to exclude low-performing students from testing. But Mr. Figlio contends that Florida is the exception rather than the rule. "The accountability systems in most states, and certainly that of the No Child Left Behind Act at the federal level, are very much like Florida's initial system in this study," he says. Mr. Figlio contends that another way schools manipulate the system is "teaching to the test." He says other potentially questionable approaches have been documented, including increasing the calorie content of school lunches during test week, which helps boost academic performance by improving short-term cognitive ability, and moving poorer students into special education classes, which often are not required to take the test. However, John Nori, director of instructional leadership resources for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, is skeptical of these claims. "Under the [federal] law, students are tested whether they are in special education or not," he points out. "And it would not be ethical to suspend anyone [for poor performance on an earlier test]. Ninety-five percent of kids must be tested, and there is no hiding that I know of."
Washington TimesBy Joyce Howard Price
[Link to full story]University of Florida NewsBy Cathy Keen
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