MY COMMENTS ON THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARTICLES ON TPM:

 

 

Regarding an article in the Houston Chronicle on the Texas Projection Measure

 

marymcgarr wrote:

Actually none of you understand the fraud going on here. The Chronicle explained the Texas Projection Measure about a month ago. George Scott (www.georgescottreports.com) has an article on it too, and he does a better job of explaining.
Basically TEA has declared (and school districts had meetings and seminars about the subject before school was out) that if a kid improves from last year, even if it's a screamingly tiny improvement, the fact that he did so thus indicates to people at the TEA (and not anybody else) that the odds are that the next time he takes their standardized test (in whatever form with whatever name), he will surely do better! Thus the student's school should not be penalized with low ratings but should be given higher ones based on the expectation of future plenty! It's about the most illogical, contorted and devious scheme to have been cooked up by these loons in just years! So yes, the TEA probably changed the test, probably adjusted the passing scores, probably lowered the bar in any other way they could imagine, and then they tacked on the Texas Projection Measure.
Of COURSE they don't want the public to understand, and they probably all sat today and guffawed at everyone's guesses and concerns.
Shame on the Chronicle for printing HISD's press releases and shame on the Chronicle for not doing a better job of presenting the truth.
What's new?

 

8/1/2009 3:36:10 PM

marymcgarr wrote:

The Chronicle's Rick Casey is responsible for shining a light on the Texas Projection Measure. and deserves credit here .State Representative Scott Hochberg was a year late to the party, but better late than never.
I was at a Katy ISD school board meeting two summers ago where the TAKS results were announced, and all the administrative faces were long and scrunched. A small discussion was held concerning the continuing low TAKS science scores that had been produced by Katy ISD students. The TEA had just instituted a TAKS test on science with a rather low level of minimum standards, and Katy students had failed to meet even that mark. One could just see the chagrin of the new superintendent, Alton Frailey, and the other administrators.
Couple of weeks later, Voila! The TEA lowered the standard for passing even more and all of a sudden KISD was back in the money --I mean back to a "recognized" status.
Of course it was all smoke and mirrors --and fraudulent.
The next year here came the Texas Projection Measure with explanations that bordered on the bizarre. And mostly no one could figure it out, and so it went into effect. We can probably thank the Texas Association of School Administrators' lobbying group for this scheme. Those administrators know on which side their bread is buttered and how to fix things to their liking.
Miraculously, last year Katy ISD bounded into the "exemplary" status and continues to stay there. Once again, fraud at its best.
Standards as designed by the State and are worthless. We can thank Bush as well as Obama for them. They are a political ploy to fool parents and taxpayers.
Parents are led to believe that their children are learning something, when in fact they aren't learning anything. Don't blame teachers for that; it's the curriculum (or lack thereof).
Taxpayers are fooled because the school districts need to pass bond referendums so they have money to spread among all the greedy dolts that feed at the public trough. Taxpayers are more prone to vote FOR a bond if they think their schools are academically superior. The TAKS test is supposed to tell them that, but of course it doesn't.
And so the parents stay happy, the bonds get passed, the vendors get rich, and the students are the losers.
If Mr. Casey, Scott Hochberg, the Houston Chronicle and the Dallas News are able to turn off the Texas Projection Measure, it doesn't matter to me how late they were to the party; my hat's off to them all!