("The nation should understand that it cannot fully appreciate the premeditated academic corruption of TAKS that will unfold without first understanding the retroactive corruption of TAAS. How did Texas pull off the miracle? And, is this where the nation really wants to go?" EdNews.org: "Texas Equity & Other Pleasant Fairy Tales"/March 7, 2003)

"Wrapping Up TAAS: Part 1"
By GEORGE SCOTT
Senior Editorial Writer EdNews.org

Since the State of Texas has begun releasing student test results from the first round of its new TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) testing program, the scope of the academic corruption of the TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills) testing program has been confirmed beyond debate.

Just a year ago, as Texas said goodbye to TAAS, the vast majority of all students were said to have grade level skills in reading, math, science, algebra and biology when tested by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Moreover, the TAAS testing program asserted that vast percentages of students either had or were on pace to have skills significantly above minimum grade level predicted to reach higher levels of college readiness according to the scoring standard of the TEA's Texas Learning Index.

However as the TAKS test is implemented this year, Texas students do not have nearly the "grade-level or college-ready" academic skills this year as last. As if on cue and dutifully so, the majority of the Texas media has fallen in line with the TEA's public relations strategy to focus upon the asserted increasing rigor of the TAKS rather than the fundamental discrepancy of the conclusions that the past decade of "reform" asserted.

The TEA's public relations machinery has been brilliant for a decade. This brilliance has transcended from TAAS to TAKS. Earlier, the TEA had "predicted" failure rates knowing full well that its field-testing strategies would enable the TEA to produce "gains" in the first formal administration.

Again, dutifully on cue, many Texas newspapers and broadcast outlets have reported student test results so far this year as "better" than predicted without a shred of analysis of the nature of the "improvement" or the actual standard of the "new" rigor.

From TEA's perspective, the TAKS represents a dual opportunity to escape from accountability for its prior dishonesty and to chart a new decade of deception. The foundation has been laid. This process has already begun.

When I started this column in March, my goal was to reach June having explained the basics of the TAAS deception so that my focus could turn to TAKS and more. With this 'wrap-up' treatment, I believe that this basic objective will have been accomplished.

Before venturing into TAKS and beyond next week, I want to reiterate some key points that have been made while introducing some summarized performance data regarding Texas students.

Let's begin with a basic question.

Have the significant increases in criterion excellence asserted by the TAAS testing program (including end-of-course testing in algebra and biology) been matched by academic indicators other than those developed and controlled by the State of Texas?

The bottom line answer to that question is "no."

My personal research that dates back many years was actually the first in the nation to begin documenting this fact. Many others working for more prestigious organizations and institutions (government and private) have subsequently reached the same conclusion.

There are regional and national reporters (current and former) in the United States who know that this has been my message for well over five years.

It is important to note that the TEA has never once asserted that the TAAS testing program was anything other than valid and valuable measurement of grade level skills with "college-ready clusters" attached. Texas' reform efforts transitioned from TEAMS and TABS (Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills and Texas Assessment of Basic Skills) to TAAS.

When TAAS arrived, it was and has continually been hailed by the TEA and others through written publications (until the credibility starting falling apart under rigorous scrutiny) as a rigorous academic assessment used to assert both grade level and college ready skills by students.

The rigor of TAAS as a reliable measure of grade level skills was the foundation of achieving constitutionality in the state and federal judiciary. Any effort to retroactively paint TAAS as something less than it was described by TEA for the better part of decade is a lie.

From the TEA's perspective, the transition to TAKS and the opportunity to divert attention away from its past misdeeds could not have come at a better time. The corruption of TAAS could not have survived one more year. However in one form or another, the story of TAAS will become the story of TAKS.

Here are some reasons.

READING/Math : Whether is was my study that correlated student performance on the TAAS and Stanford Achievement Test (SAT9) reading tests in Houston I.S.D. or the same study done by Dallas I.S.D. on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), TAAS conclusions of growing excellence did not hold up to scrutiny.

MATH: For almost a decade, the percentages of students who failed to give the right answer to math questions that did not need the Hubble Telescope to "see" grade level rigor was extraordinarily high. For this reason, the TAAS math tests at the upper grade levels were stacked with easy, repetitive-style and far below grade level questions in order to "pad" results while producing annual progress. To keep the "math train" on its tracks, the end-of-course algebra tests were "dumbed-down" to junior high pre-algebra or low level algebra rigor. Even when this academic compromise produced reasonably high passing rates, the raw number of failures on EOC Algebra foretold the bitter truth.

SCIENCE/BIOLOGY: You have seen the extraordinarily high passing and mastery rates on 8 th grade science and the high passing rates on EOC Biology. Of course, you have also seen the methodology of the EOC Biology tests themselves. Texas specialized in putting problems on its EOC Biology test that would allow students to guess the answer without even knowing the problem. Or, it would mask junior high math problems as EOC Biology. As needed, TEA would wrap simple IQ-type questions with decorations of biological terms.

Not counting reports that I produced or commissioned, the TAAS credibility began falling off the tracks in Texas itself in 1999 when Dallas I.S.D. produced its study correlating student performance on TAAS and ITBS.

While the academic corruption was well known by many independent researchers such as Walt Haney, I believe it was Rand Corporation researcher Dr. Stephen Klein who began to deliver the credibility-eulogy to TAAS in June 1999.

Dr. Klein used a California conference sponsored by the National Academy of Science to signal that independent Rand testing of Texas students made the TAAS scores "suspect."

In fact, he described the correlation of Rand's independent testing of students on the free and reduced lunch program in Texas who had also just taken TAAS test as if "somebody had hit this thing with a shotgun."

Just a year removed from the soon-to-be- white-hot environment of a Presidential campaign involving then Texas governor George Bush forced the Rand Corporation to look again. In October 2000, a formal Rand report essentially reiterated the more informal assessment of Dr. Klein made a little over a year earlier. TEA didn't like the formal conclusions any better than that foreshadowed at the California conference.

While expressing some "limitations" to its study due to the nature of the NAEP, the findings were clear. The staggering gains asserted by Texas on the TAAS it controlled were not matched by Texas results on NAEP. ".Nevertheless, the stark differences between TAAS and NAEP (and other non-TAAS tests) raise very serious questions about the generalizability of the TAAS scores.However, given the findings reported above for Texas, it is evident that something needs to be done to ensure that high-stakes testing programs, such as the TAAS, produce results that merit public confidence and thereby provide a sound basis for educational policy decisions."

Let's recall the basic question.

Have the significant increases in criterion excellence asserted by the TAAS testing program (including end-of-course testing in algebra and biology) been matched by academic indicators other than those developed and controlled by the State of Texas?

. Correlation analysis from Dallas I.S.D. student performance on TAAS and ITBS answers "no."

. Correlation analysis from Houston I.S.D. student performance on TAAS and SAT9 answers "no."

. Correlation analysis performed by Rand using TAAS and NAEP answers "no."

The answer is "no." The TEA's dishonesty and the academic corruption it permitted in its name is etched into eternal stones because the answer will forever be "no."

Let's look at the big conclusions of Texas testing during the TAAS era. Previous columns have explained how TAAS results are technical expressed by the Texas Learning Index. You have seen independent evaluations of both the EOC Algebra and EOC Biology tests.

What all these tests combine to assert is an extraordinarily high level of academic excellence in reading, math and science far beyond what others states in the union have been able to assert as a result of its testing programs.

This column will present links to four tables that show some of these bottom-line conclusions about all students in Texas tracking back as available to the 1993-94 academic year. The four tables show results for all students as well as for African-American, Hispanic and White students.

The tables will report student performance in raw numbers for 8 th and 10 th grade math, EOC Algebra and EOC Biology, SAT verbal and math, and a grouping of 14 College Board Advanced Placement tests.

The tables document that hundreds of thousands of Texas students have not only passed 8 th and 10 th grade math, but scored at a standard indicating a higher level of college readiness. The tables will document that hundreds of thousands of students have passed EOC Algebra, EOC Biology and EOC English testing under a state-administered program.

The tables will reflect relative stagnation on SAT scores during the same period of explosive growth in criterion excellence as measured by the Texas testing program.

The tables will show that despite extraordinary growth in student academic performance at the 8 th and 10 th grades, the percentage of attrition in "on-time graduation rates" measured by four years from the start of the 9 th grade as defined in state law has barely improved.

Further, it will show the raw numbers of the students in Texas who have scored 3,4 or 5 on key College Board advanced placement tests. These results are also expressed in terms of the percentage of those scores in relationship to the total junior and senior enrollment because that is the "pool" from which the vast majority of test takers come. Remember that any given 11 th and 12 th grade pool of students contains hundreds of thousands of raw numbers of students who have achieved grade-level or higher levels of academic excellence in reading, math and science per Texas-controlled tests.

Part 2 of this "wrap-up" column tomorrow will deal much more extensively with analysis of the College Board test results. While some may challenge using AP test results, I will outline my positions as to why I believe it is a valid approach so long as important qualifiers are acknowledged and fully explained.

However, since I am presenting the tables today showing AP results, there is one area of analysis that I want to foreshadow that I will address in greater detail. Many districts in Texas did not have an aggressive AP program back in 1993-94. Consequently, some of the growth that has taken place since then is attributable to the mere implementation of the program in a more sustained and sophisticated way.

I will use statistics from the Katy I.S.D. in Texas to demonstrate the impact this has and the 'leveling off' that occurs. It is not at all uncommon for schools to show a "surge" (by loose definition given the actual raw numbers) of progress for a two to four year period before the program reaches some equilibrium.

Katy I.S.D. is ranked as one of the very top school districts in Texas. Analysis of this district will prove helpful in understanding the implications of the statewide data.

Here are the tables showing some academic performance indicators for Texas students since 1993-94.

LINK FOUR PDF TABLES HERE

Statewide All Students

Statewide African-American Students

Statewide Hispanic Students

Statewide White Students