More Validity Analysis from Teacher Expert

The following is reproduced with permission by teacher and psychometric expert Darcey Addo, a school board candidate in Brevard County as more information continues to emerge about how problematic the FSA and the validity study are (see also the FSCCC study analysis amd discussion of the AIR contract) ******************************************************************
Diane Ravitch recently called Florida legislators "test-crazy", but if the legislators are test-crazy, then the Commissioner of Education, in conjunction with Alpine Testing Solutions and the Florida Department of Education may be delusional. Sometimes, people can lie to themselves so much that they begin to believe themselves. We have an obligation to educate parents about the reality of testing in our public schools. Here are five fairly basic things I think every Florida parent should know about the testing debacle: 1.) The Florida Commissioner of Education testified to the Florida Senate on March 4, 2015, that the FSA was "the content of the test is absolutely psychometrically valid and reliable." She said that she would "be happy to provide" the evidence to support that claim. (More on that here if you're interested.) Repeated requests for the evidence were made, with no success. You can come to your own conclusion about the truthfulness of her statements. 2.) The Florida legislature demanded (in CS/HB7069) a "validity study" of the FSA. This $600,000 legislative requirement is in spite of the fact that studies of validity and reliability are not performed after a test with high stakes (graduation, retention, remedial placement, etc.) has been administered. Rather, best practice dictates that assessments are first alpha and beta tested, and then administered to students. Psychometric studies are certainly never with done with a legislative deadline - in this case, less than three months.3.) The study found the test "valid", which is difficult to take seriously, because validity is not a Read more

Posted in Testing. Tagged as AIR FSA Validity Study.

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