Testing Being Gamed in School Districts
The Tribune has an article that should concern everyone in McHenry County and Illinois.
You know it has to be bad for the State to step and say
“Whoa! Wait a Minute!”
Here is the link to the story.
“These students didn’t qualify as juniors in May, and their districts chose not to test them, state records show. But months later in October they were listed as 12th graders — seemingly skipping 11th grade.“With little (if any) board member oversight in school districts, apparently administrators feel they won’t get caught if students drop skip 11th grade.
No one would do that in McHenry County, would they?
“The number of students who were never technically juniors has almost doubled during the last two years, state records show. Across the state, 78 of the 473 school districts that tested juniors excluded more students than average, but two dozen districts accounted for a third of all the current 12th-graders who did not take the exam last spring.”
What are the chances that administrators will voluntarily confess to how many (truthfully) are in their district?
How large of a problem is this? You can get an idea from what was written in the article:
“The state recommendations come on the heels of a Tribune analysis published last month that found 34,000 Illinois sophomores — about 20 percent — didn’t officially advance to junior level status in 2008-09 and, therefore, didn’t take the high school exam.”
