The Relationship between Changes in the Percentage of Students Passing and in the Percentage Testing Advanced on State Assessment Tests in Kentucky and Virginia. Issues &amp; Answers. REL 2010-No. 087
Author: Jacobson, Louis
Date: 2010-03-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Federal Legislation,Testing,Academic Achievement,Multivariate Analysis,Minority Groups,Ethnic Groups,Accountability,Least Squares Statistics,Scores,Achievement Tests,Regression (Statistics),Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Elementary Secondary Education,Algebra

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires states to test students in reading and math and identify them as below proficient, proficient, or advanced. Schools are held accountable only for ensuring that students test proficient or better (both considered passing), leading to concerns that a focus on increasing the percentage of students testing proficient on state assessments may have an unintended consequence of reducing--or not increasing--the percentage of students testing advanced. Analysis of the data in Kentucky and Virginia finds that schools with the greatest increases in the percentage passing also have the greatest increases in the percentage testing advanced. This study examines the statistical association between changes in the percentage of students in a school testing below proficient, proficient, and advanced in Kentucky and Virginia in the early years of NCLB accountability. The study was designed to answer four questions: (1) What are the overall school-level trends in the percentage of students passing (testing proficient or advanced) and the percentage testing advanced on state assessment tests in Kentucky and Virginia? (2) What is the statistical association between annualized changes in the school-level percentage of students passing and annualized changes in the school-level percentage testing advanced? (3) Does this association vary when controlling for the percentage of students passing in 2001/02? and (4) Does this association vary when controlling for characteristics of a school's students, such as level and change in the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, level and change in the percentage of racial/ethnic minority students, and the school's locale (urban, suburban, town, or rural)? The study answered these questions using data on the percentages of students testing below proficient, proficient, and advanced provided by the Kentucky Department of Education and the Virginia Department of Education. In addition, the Common Core of Data (data sets maintained by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics) was used for information on school characteristics. The picture that emerges from this study is that, in general, schools with the smallest increases in the percentage of students passing in reading and math have the smallest increases in the percentage testing advanced, and schools with the largest increases in the percentage passing have the largest increases in the percentage testing advanced. Appended to this report are: (1) Data sources and methodology; (2) Detailed results of the bivariate analysis; and (3) Detailed results of the multivariate analysis. (Contains 4 notes, 2 boxes, 21 figures, and 27 tables.) [This report was prepared for the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) by the Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia administered by the CNA Corporation.]