Those Darned Test Results

I will get off the topic of testing and setting standards one of these days. However, it is heavy on the mind at the moment and so here goes.

The first major unit exam results are now in. The picture isn't pretty. We assume that the English curriculum is based on the text. We don't have time to build curriculum from scratch and we don't have people trained in writing curriculum. So I wrote the first unit exams based on the material. We tried to be very straight forward about what was going to be on the exams. We had at least two major review sessions in each class lasting the entire class period. I took notes on each session (which is more than many students did) and I wrote the exams straight from the review material.

The results show about a third of all students failing. We did have a number of students do very well on the exams. We have additional analysis to do. We suspect a heavy percentage of students new to the school in the failing group. We also know that grades have been padded in the past to get students into the passing range and we have a certain percentage of students who are counting on this. (Ain't gonna happen!)

I will do a total analysis of the test results using Excel. I will have the results graphed and a picture available for all to see by meeting time this coming Friday afternoon.

OK! I feel better!