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Campus News - October 15, 2001 |
Stevens taking a long look at school testing
By Carolyn Gonzales
Joe
Stevens teaches statistical and research methods courses, but he can tell you
that numbers dont always tell the whole story. As an educational psychology
professor he teaches graduate students to master the tools they need to
do research successfully. And that means the organization and structure
of data.
News abounds about accountability and school effectiveness. But, Stevens says,
the way data is used to judge schools often fails to tell the real story. One
reason is that the wrong tests and statistical methods are frequently used.
The most common method of rating a schools performance is to assess students
at one point in time. What needs to be done is to look at the students
longitudinally, or over the long term, says Stevens. We need to
look at patterns of learning and behavior over time.
Stevens has been working with the Albuquerque Public Schools, other New Mexico
school districts as well as the state Department of Education on how to apply
better statistical models including longitudinal models.
Stevens explains that, looking at only one point in time, students performance
levels are most strongly related to where they start out socio-economically,
culturally and linguistically in school. Using this one point in time or status
approach, schools that are low-performing are usually those who
serve students on the lower end of the economic spectrum and those that are
high-performing are those who serve students on the higher end of
the economic spectrum.
To better understand how schools are working we need to look at not just
what students status is but more importantly we need to look at students
subsequent growth, he says.
If you look at growth, socio-economics are no longer the best predictor
of student performance, Stevens says. He also says that once schools are
identified with low performance or low growth, those schools need to be offered
both additional financial and teacher support.
Stevens presents his results at local and national conferences and in journal
publications. He says that four or five states besides New Mexico are now looking
at longitudinal statistical models to assess school effectiveness.
Nationally, there is an almost desperate press for immediate results.
But it is very important that we do this right, not fast, Stevens says.
Careful consideration must be made to make sure these systems are fair
and reliable.
Testing is familiar territory for Stevens. He worked for the Educational Testing
Service, the folks who put together the SAT, National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) and the Advanced Placement tests. The psychology of assessment
is also part of his background as well.
I earned my undergraduate, masters and PhD in psychology, all at the University of Arizona in Tucson, he says.
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