It is difficult to trust any test developed, written, and administered by NC DPI, especially the state writing assessment given to fourth, seventh, and tenth grade students every year. Nevertheless, I will take the test results at face value (for now).
The headline reads, Student Writing Scores Improve In 2006-07. Now, this is true. Fourth and seventh grade scores did improve, but the tenth grade scores decreased. More importantly, the improvement means little when nearly half of the students failed the test. Here is the breakdown:
52.7 percent of fourth grade students scored proficient
50.8 percent of seventh grade students scored proficient
51.4 percent of tenth grade students scored proficient
(At this time, the state does not have disaggregated data available, so we cannot gauge the performance of subgroups or compare district and charter schools.)
May I suggest the following headline, “State Apologizes for Low Quality Writing Instruction.” That will be the day…
