How is the PSSA developed?

Who are these "almighty gods of standardized testing"? Who actually makes up the test?
The process by which the PSSA is developed is a complex one using experts writers, statistics, field tests, and Assessment anchors to develop questions. The Pennsylvania State Board of Education contracts with a company called Data Recognition Corporation (DRC) to compose suitable questions, find and reprint suitable reading passages, test the questions, gather statistical and subjective feedback on the questions, and then finally put the questions in to use on the tests. Data Recognition Corporation distributes the tests, collects the tests, and grades the tests. (DRC Tech. Report 2006) (Yes, it is a lot of reliance on one company to get the job done. Let’s hope they know what they are doing.)

DRC does not have total control. DRC works in conjunction with such organizations as The National Center for Improvement of Educational Assessment (NCIEA) and the National Center for Educational Outcomes to create a test that adheres to basic principles of quality standardized tests. Making sure the questions and graphics are neat, readable, measurable are all part of these principles. During the test composition process and before the final test is given, all aspects of the PSSA tests are reviewed by PDE (Pennsylvania Department of Education) committees. The committees are comprised of teachers, educators, administrators, and some members of the PDE staff. Members of the Board of Education have the final formal approval. (DRC Tech Report gr 5, 8, and 11)

In addition, there are guidelines to ensure test questions are free of bias toward any particular group. “DRC’s guidelines for bias, fairness, and sensitivity include instruction concerning how to eliminate language, symbols, words, phrases, and content that might be considered offensive by members of racial, ethnic, gender, or other groups. Areas of bias that are specifically targeted include, but are not limited to: stereotyping, gender, regional/geographic, ethnic/cultural, socioeconomic/class, religious, experiential, and biases against a particular age group (ageism) and against persons with disabilities.” (4, 6, 7 pg 14) A Bias, Fairness, and Sensitivity Committee including PDE staff members and DRC trained diverse men and women, reviews the test items to, once again, ensure they are free of any biased language or sensitive material. (DRC Tech Report 5, 8, 11) (Are any of us bias-free? With that in mind, and from sources which do not wish to be revealed, there are still some questionable items that sneak through).
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Legal Reasons for PSSA

My son is a special needs students who receives Learning Support. However, during the PSSA prep period, students who have no disabilities and do not qualify for Learning Support are pulled out of the regular classroom and taken to the Learning Support room where they are tutored so that they can possibly score in the proficient range on the PSSA. Who suffers? My kid, of course, since he is not given the attention from the Learning Support teacher that he is entitled by law. Why on earth is the school on the fringe of the law as it tries to get the borderline kids to score proficiently on the test? Click on Read More for the infomation on the leal reasoning for the PSSA test. Use the Bibliography page for the sources.

The PSSA is required in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). Though the PSSA has been given in Pennsylvania since 1999, the federal law that mandates testing in each state is the No Child Left Behind Act.

The goals in Pennsylvania are aligned with the No Child Left Behind Act. Schools are required by law to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) towards indicators of performance. Indicators include proficiency in reading and mathematics, test participation, improvement in student attendance in Kindergarten through 8th grade, and improvement in the four year graduation rate for secondary schools. Schools are required to meet preset proficiency goals for Reading and Mathematics. Progress in percentages must be made in each subject toward the goals every 2 years and then every year until the year 2014 when every student tested must be proficient in both math and reading. In other words, a 100 percent proficiency rate is expected. (Can anything ever be 100 percent certain?) Pennsylvania uses the PSSA to meet the requirements of this NCLB.
Schools are intent on moving toward this goal because there are consequences to the district if the yearly goal is not met. The first year the school does not meet the goals, a warning is given. School choice must be offered, assistance teams are used, and a plan for improvement must be formulated. In the second year showing no improvement, there is more of the same with a few more supplemental services. The third year of no improvement brings even more of the same, but there must be changes in leadership, curriculum, professional development or other strategies. The fourth year of no improvement leads to big changes such as chartering or privatization. (Bureau of Assessment and Accountability March 2007) Because of these “punishments” each school district has incentive to make sure their students make AYP. (Now we know why the schools spend exclusive time learning nothing else but how to take the PSSA. The students and the curriculum suffer as teachers resort to teaching to the test.)
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PSSA Testing Time AGAIN!

It’s that time of the year again... It happens from the middle of January just about to the middle of March. No, it’s not a holiday, not a vacation time, but the time when schools frantically prepare students for the PSSA test. It is a time when educators feel they must forget about field trips, hands on experiments, history, geography, and sometimes even recess. The majority of the time is spent on studying exclusively for one thing, and one thing only- The PSSA TEST! This infuriating approach is called “teaching to the test”. Does anyone have a story on the "prep process"? How is it done in your school?
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Bibliography

Click "Read More" to View the Bibliography for the information the older posts and those to come.



National Center For Home Education. (April 1, 2002). Home School Legal Defense Association. National Assessment Education Progress: Precursor to a National Test. Retrieved November 2007. from http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000002/00000215.asp .

National Center for Home Education. (September 2002). Home School Legal Defense Association. National Testing: A Federal Mandate?. Retrieved December 2007, from http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200210230.asp .

Mathews Jay. (November 14, 2006). The Washington Post. Just Whose Idea Was All this Testing?. Retrieved November 2007, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/13/AR2006111301007.html Washington Post Page A06.

Data Recognition Corp. (May 2007). Pennsylvania Department of Education. Technical Report for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment 2006 Reading and Mathematics for Grades 4, 6, and 7. Retrieved October 2007, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/lib/a_and_t/2006_ReadingMathGr4_6_7_Tech_Report.pdf

Data Recognition Corp. (May 2007). Pennsylvania Department of Education. Technical Report for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment 2006 Reading and Mathematics for Grades 5, 8, and 11. Retrieved October 2007, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/lib/a_and_t/2006_ReadingMathGr5_8_11_Tech_Report.pdf.

Bureau of Assessment and Accountability. (March 1, 2007). Pennsylvania Department of Education. Pennsylvania Accountability System. Retrieved December 2007, from
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/pas/cwp/view.asp?a=3&Q=94580&pasNav=6132&pasNav=6325.

http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=129181 2006-07 PSSA and AYP Results/ 2006-07 State Level Math and Reading PSSA Results Pennsylvania Department of Eudcation

Bureau of Assessment and Accountability. (2005). Pennsylvania Department of Education. Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content. Retrieved November 2007, from
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/lib/a_and_t/2005AnchorintoFINAL.pdf.


Bureau of Assessment and Accountability. (Nov. 14, 2007). Pennsylvania Department of Education. Grade Assessment Anchors. Retrieved December 2007, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/cwp/view.asp?a=108&q=103127&a_and_tNav=6309&a_and_tNav=.


Bureau of Assessment and Accountability. PA Department of Education. 2008 PSSA Accommodations Guidelines. Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/lib/a_and_t/2008AccommodationsGuidelines.pdf.


Bureau or Assessment and Accountability, Pennsylvania Department of Education The 2007 PSSA Handbook of Asssessment Coordinators and Administrators. Grades 3-8 and 11. Retrieved November 2007, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/lib/a_and_t/2007_PSSA_Handbook_for_Assessment_Coordinators_and_Administrators.pdf.

Cortiella Candace, (August 2006). National Center on Educational Outcomes. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. NCLB and IDEA: What Parents of Students with Disabilities Need to Know and Do, Retrieved January 2008, from http://cehd.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/Parents.pdf.

Committee on Education and Workforce, (February 17, 2005). Indiana Department of Education. Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Frequently Asked Questions. http://www.doe.state.in.us/exceptional/speced/pdf/idea_faq.pdf.

Committee Results. (April 1983). U.S. Department of Education. A Nation at Risk . Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html

Committee Results. (April 1983). U.S. Department of Education. A Nation at Risk . Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html. Recommendation B: Standards and Expectations #3.

Elert. Glenn (May 1992). ) (Copyright 1992-2006). Virtual Empire. The SAT: Aptitude or Demographics. Retrived November 2007, from http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/sat.shtml#ramist. Validity paragraph 3

National Assessment of Educational Progress. Institute of Education Services. United States Department of Education. Retrieved December 2008, from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/.

National Assessment Governing Board. Retrieved December 2007, from http://www.nagb.org/

National Assessment Gov. Board and the Institute for Educational Leadership, Policy Exchange. (Nov. 19, 1998). National Assessment Governing Board. Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.nagb.org/naep/tenth.pdf.

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. (January 2, 2008). Joint Organizational Statement on the NCLB Act. Retrieved December 2007, from http://www.fairtest.org/joint%20statement%20civil%20rights%20grps%2010-21-04.html.

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. (April 2007). Organizational Proposals for NCLB Reauthorization. Retrieved December 2007, from http://www.fairtest.org/NCLBReformChartp1.pdf. pages 1-4.

PA Department of Education. (December 2007). Pennsylvania Department of Education. State Board of Education Discussion Paper, Proposed State High School Graduation Requirements. Retrieved December 2007, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/stateboard_ed/lib/stateboard_ed/Chapter4RoundtablePaper.pdf.

Perez Christina, Fair Test. (May 22, 2002). The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. The Truth Behind the Hype: A Closer Look at the SAT. Retrieved November 2007, from http://www.fairtest.org/truth-behind-hype-closer-look-sat.

Raffaele Martha. (January 7, 2008). PennLive.com. PA Students would have more options for graduation tests. Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-58/1199741661252880.xml&storylist=penn.

Sinclair Andrea L., Thacker Arthur A.. Human Resources Research Organization. (Sept. 2005). Pennsylvania Department of Education. Relationships Among Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) Scores, University Proficiency Exam Scores, And College Course Grades in English and Math. Retrieved December 2007, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/lib/a_and_t/HUmRRo_PSSA_report.pdf.

Thacker Arthur A.. Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) (May 2004). Pennsylvania Department of Education. PSSA Issues and Recommendations. Retrieved November 2007, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/stateboard_ed/lib/stateboard_ed/PSSAIssues.pdf.

Thacker Arthur A., Dickinson Emily R., Koger Milton E.. Human Resources Research Organization. (May 2004). Pennsylvania Department of Education. Relationships Among the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) and Other Commonly Administered Assessments. Retrieved November 2007, from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/stateboard_ed/lib/stateboard_ed/Final_PSSA_conv.pdf.

Toppo Greg. (Nov. 11, 2003). USA Today. NAEP May Be Used As A Truth Serum. Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2003-11-10-neap-usat_x.htm.

U.S. Department of Education. (May 20, 2007) Elementary and Secondary Education Final Regulations on Modified Academic Achievement Standards. Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/modachieve-summary.html.
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PSSA History

Read on for the history of the PSSA:
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The PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment) is a term we all know and most of us hate. (at least most of the parents, teachers, administrators, and students) How did we get to this point? How did this one test, in the name of school improvement, come to define the teachers, label the students, and often times punish the school districts? How in the world was learning taken out of the hands of the educators and placed into the hands of the legislatures? The answer lies in a complicated array of world events, political platforms, underpaid teachers, and uniformed parents. How did the PSSA evolve into the all consuming and seemingly all encompassing test that it is today? Let’s start with a bit of history on standardized testing. Click below on "read more" to learn about the history of the PSSA.
In the United States, there are early examples of standardized testing revolving around IQ testing. But the real pre cursor of the modern day standardized testing came in 1900 when the College Entrance Examination Board was founded. The College Board (as it is now know) tested the three R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic), plus science, foreign language, and history. (Interestingly enough, all of the questions were essay. Multiple choice questions were a later invention!) Simply because these were the areas that the College Board tested, most education began to center around these subjects. By the 1920’s, the College Board had created (May I have a drum roll please...) the SAT. (Mathews 2006) There you have it: the benchmark for standardized tests.

Now let us fast forward to the 1950’s and 1960’s. The “space race” between the United States and the USSR was on and though national standardized tests were not used, demands began on schools to show improvement especially in the area of Science. (Better Scientists equals beating the USSR to the moon. Guess what? History will show that we did make it to the moon first without the cajoling of standardized tests.) In the 1960’s, 1970’s and the 1980’s real change came about in standardized testing. It was during these years that the Nation Assessment of Educational Progress NAEP was born. (NAEP is also referred to as “The Nations Report Card”.) (Mathews, National Center for Home Education April 2002) This standardized test helped policy makers and states to review the effectiveness of their schools. In 1983, a huge national revelation took place when a commission report, A Nation at Risk, was released. Basically, using a lot of the buzz words that we hear today, “global village,” “information age”, etc the report stated that the public schools expectations were mediocre.
Interestingly enough, here is an excerpt from the report stating the commission stance on standardized testing:
“Standardized tests of achievement (not to be confused with aptitude tests) should be administered at major transition points from one level of schooling to another and particularly from high school to college or work. The purposes of these tests would be to: (a) certify the student's credentials; (b) identify the need for remedial intervention; and (c) identify the opportunity for advanced or accelerated work. The tests should be administered as part of a nationwide (but not Federal) system of State and local standardized tests. This system should include other diagnostic procedures that assist teachers and students to evaluate student progress.” (A Nation at Risk, Rec. B)
Note there is a need for other diagnostic testing (not just one that can do it all), and the tests were not recommended every year!!
In the late 1980’s, then Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, spearheaded the drive for more standardized testing and continued to promote it into his presidency. (Sorry President Bush critics, this has been coming for a while.) (By the way, Hillary Rodham Clinton was on the 1986 NAEP study group which led to major changes in the NAEP. I wonder if her deep seeded presidential fantasy started then.) (Home School Legal Defense, April 2002)

In 1988, the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) was created to set policies and make decisions regarding the NAEP. Continuing through till today, yearly tests are given, but on a rotating basis. States participate in the tests on a voluntary basis. (nagb.org)

Now, once again, fast forward to 2001 and along comes the No Child Left Behind Act. This act is actually an updated version and reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. NCLB mandated standardized testing in grades 3, 5, and 11. The focus of the NCLB is to provide accountability and high standards for all children. So high are the standards in fact, that all children, from all backgrounds must test proficient on a state assessment in Math, Reading, and Science by the year 2014. (That’s correct, 100 percent! A lofty goal to say the least.)

This is where the PSSA comes into play. Its evolution parallels much of these national events. Basically, during the “space race” years (1969-1970), the first state assessment was administered. This test, called the Educational Quality Assessment, was used in schools until the mid 1980’s. (Not coincidentally, right after the infamous “A Nation at Risk” report was generated.) During this time, the Testing for Essential Learning and Literacy Skills (TELLS) was created. The TELLS program was used until 1992 when it was replaced by the PSSA. (DRC 2006 Tech. Report. Pg 1-2)


In 1992, when the PSSA was first developed, school districts were required to participate every third year, but it soon became a yearly requirement. Along with that, a grade 6 and 9 writing assessment became mandatory on a 3 year cycle. By 1999, the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Mathematics were implemented by the state. With the assumption of these standards, the PSSA became and still is an assessment measuring a student’s mastery of the academics that are deemed important by the state. (DRC Tech. Report 2006 pg. 2)

To further link instruction to the Academic Standards, Assessment Anchors were developed. Assessment anchors are slightly more broad goals which state what students should be able to accomplish by a certain grade level. Underneath these are more specific goals called sub assessment anchors and under these goals are even more specific statements called Eligible content statements. (DRC Tec. Report 2006 pg 5, Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content, 2005, Bureau of Assessment and Accountability 2007) Yes ladies and gentlemen, our great state has laid out everything that a student should know, by when, and without deviation from the norm. (Has the Zombie Nation begun?) Because of NCLB requirements, the PSSA began to be administered in grades 3 through 8 and again in grade 11. Writing assessments are given in grades 6, 9, and 11.

Now, after that long, albeit, watered down history, we know the evolutionary path of the PSSA is one filled with historic events, national politics, and a distortion of the original intent of standardized testing.

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