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It’s bad enough that Ohio’s definition of excellent is 75% of students meet the minimum standards, but just how low a standard is proficient?
Actually, it’s pretty darn low.
First of all, the proficient bar starts with the assumption that it represents the level at which a student who is “just barely proficient” would be able to answer the question correctly. Next, just to make it more interesting, a test’s difficulty varies widely by grade and subject. And if that’s not enough, the proficiency bar does not represent readiness for the next grade level.
The Columbus Dispatch takes a closer look at this issue.

Several examples show how to see beyond a school’s passing rate on the state tests given in grades three through eight and 10.

About 65 percent of the third-graders passed the state reading test last year at both Maybury Elementary and Ecole Kenwood Alternative, two Columbus schools. But the proficient students at Ecole Kenwood were much more likely to score in the highest performance range, which the state calls “advanced,” than those at Maybury were. Thirty-five percent of Ecole Kenwood’s students had advanced scores. At Maybury, 14 percent did.

Among schools that have low passing rates, such comparisons can show how close students are to making the grade.

Two other Columbus schools, Beatty Park and Lincoln Park elementaries, had passing rates of 31 percent and 32 percent on the third-grade reading test, respectively. A look at where scores fell shows that Lincoln Park students had a much-harder time.

More than half of Lincoln Park students were clustered in the lowest scoring range, which the state calls “limited,” while about the same percentage of Beatty Park students were in the next range up, “basic.”

Each of the state’s tests has five performance levels: limited, basic, proficient, accelerated and advanced.

Parents interested in this level of detail on state tests can obtain it by downloading data through the “Power User Reports” through an Ohio Department of Education website,http://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us. As the name suggests, this section is designed for people accustomed to dealing with spreadsheets.

But the annual state report cards issued by the department do show a composite score (all grades and all tests combined) for any school. The report cards can be found at the same web address.

Assigning ‘cut scores’

Examining schools’ passing rates on state exams often leads to debate about whether Ohio asks enough of teachers and students. Is the bar too low when, as in the case of the sixth-grade reading test, students must earn only 15 of 49 points (31 percent) to pass?

The minimum number of points to pass is called a “cut score.”

Third-graders must earn at least 31 of 49 points to pass their reading exam and 33 of 52 points to pass math (in both cases, about 63percent). The third-grade tests are easier, which is why students are expected to correctly answer more questions than on other tests. No other Ohio exam requires students to earn that many points to pass.

On the flip side, no other Ohio exam requires students to earn so few points as the sixth-grade reading exam.

“The only realistic explanation is that the test is a real humdinger, and they’re compensating for the fact that it’s difficult,” said Jerry D’Agostino, a measurement statistics professor at Ohio State University who has studied cut scores.

Cut scores were put in place between 2004 and 2007 and haven’t been changed since.

“If you keep changing the cut scores, you’re basically moving the target for schools,” D’Agostino said.

Some studies of Ohio’s cut scores have found the difficulty to be low compared with some other states, and some researchers have argued that the state should raise its minimum standards. The debate is most vigorous about the Ohio Graduation Test.

But the state won’t change the cut scores, Heffner said.

Most exams are slated to be phased out in the near future and replaced with different, more-rigorous exams. The cut scores for those will be more understandable to Ohioans without a degree in psychometrics because they’ll be selected using a newer method.

“We believe that process will lead to more-rigorous cut scores than currently exist because we’ve raised the bar on expectations,” Heffner said.

Did you check out the chart?
There are a couple of things left out of this story. First, when the state board adopted the original cut scores, the resolution included a requirement that the cut scores to reviewed and raised. (Some board members argued vigorously for higher standards to no avail. All we could get was a commitment to come back in the third year and revise cut scores upward.) It never happened. Second, the cut scores were set in the first year of test administration when scores and passage rates were expected to be lower.
That’s right. Everyone in the room knew the bar was set very low and that proficiency was an illusion. We were complicit in a cruel hoax perpetrated on students, parents and taxpayers.
And the excellent and effective banners that hang in schools and districts around the state? Don’t they signal quality education? Unfortunately, they often mean nothing of the sort.