Friday, March 12, 1999
Omitting special ed kids may have aided Ky. scores
BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WASHINGTON — The three Southern states, including Kentucky, that enjoyed big gains in national reading scores released last week may have been helped by the high rate at which they excluded special education students.
The percentage of special education children in Louisiana, South Carolina and Kentucky who were excluded in 1998 from the testing rose significantly, a review of the scores shows.
On Thursday, Mark Musick, chairman of the National Assessment of Educational Progress board that oversees the test, said the issue merited further study.
In Louisiana and Kentucky, the number of special education children excluded from the test has more than doubled since 1994, the last time the test was given.
“That could affect the score,” said Mr. Musick. “What I don't know is what level of change (in exclusion rate) it takes to affect the overall score.”
Independent test experts gave similar answers.
“Could it have affected the scores? Absolutely,” answered Dan Koretz, a Rand Corp. expert on high-stakes testing.
“If the question is "Did it affect the scores?' we should have to look at it. And that's not a minor job,” he said.
“It's a fair question to ask,” said Kentucky Education Commissioner Bill Cody. But he said an internal analysis shows the state's reading score gains were a result of improved reading skills — not excluding more special education children.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is no ordinary test. The federally run national math and reading sample of about 2,500 students per state is the only way to compare one state against another.
When a state plummets in scores — as California did four years ago, tying with Louisiana close to the bottom of all states — it sets off political shock waves. California's low rank was a major issue in the recent governor's race, where Gray Davis won on a strong education reform platform.
In the rankings released last week, Louisiana moved ahead of California.
As commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, Pascal Forgione oversees how the test is administered.
“We are aware of this and are studying the issue,” he said. “We have found no evidence that anyone manipulated the testing.”
Mr. Forgione said he has asked for two studies that would help answer the highly technical question of whether the exclusion rates would affect a state's total test score.
Manipulation is unlikely, said Mr. Forgione, because the schools and children are chosen by a national testing contractor. Not until a school principal is handed a list of names does the special education winnowing take place.
The criteria for excluding children should be stable across states. And in fact, there was no change between 1994 and 1998 in the national special education exclusion rate — 6 percent — which means national data are not in question.
The questions arise in states that had sharp changes in the percentage of children excluded, such as Kentucky, Louisiana and South Carolina.
Louisiana excluded 13 percent in 1998, the highest rate in the nation and more than double the national average. In 1994, the state excluded 6 percent from the reading test.
Kentucky excluded 10 percent in 1998, compared with 4 percent in 1994.
South Carolina excluded 12 percent in 1998, compared with 7 percent in 1994.
Compared with most other states, all three enjoyed stronger test score increases among their fourth-graders.
Those higher test scores were especially gratifying to Kentucky education officials, who for the past 10 years have carried out the nation's most ambitious education reform experiment. However, until last week's reading scores were released, Kentucky had seen no improvements in national tests — only in their state tests.
The first to point out the special education issue was Kentucky education critic and commercial pilot Dick Innes, who crunches education data on the side. “At this point, I am very concerned and maybe a little bit saddened, although obviously we need more information,” Mr. Innes said.
The controversy was first reported Wednesday by The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Jim Parks, a spokesman for the Kentucky Education Department, suggested a reason for Kentucky's identifying more special education students.
State assessments in Kentucky require nearly 100 percent participation, he said, so that schools excluding a special education student from testing receive a zero for that child. That motivates many principals to seek special “accommodations” for disabled children to take tests.
That same standard of needing an accommodation to take a test might trigger an exclusion on the national sample, he said.
Mr. Parks said Kentucky officials did a “back of the envelope” calculation and concluded the extra special education exclusions might have raised the state score by one or two points.
Kentucky registered a six-point gain over the four years, one of the highest gains in the country.
Agreeing with Mr. Parks is Jim Ysseldyke, director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes at the University of Minnesota and an expert on special education issues.
“It's presumed that adding the special education children would decrease the scores, but the evidence is it won't change the average that much,” he said.
What concerned Mr. Ysseldyke was the sharp increase in the rate of exclusions. “I'm surprised and concerned about it. I don't understand it.”
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