Is the SBAC Illegal to Administer in Idaho?
I had to issue some corrections to this post. They can be found here. However, the same premise still exists, Idaho is using this test in a manner that is contrary to how it should be used. The assessment is still not Valid nor Reliable.
A lot has been said about a parent’s right to not have their child take the SBAC or ISAT 2.o assessments. IDAPA (Idaho’s Rules for Thoroughness) is always cited as the foundational reason school administrators give parents for denying their parental request. There is no “opt out” option written in these rules.
These rules are interpreted to have the force of law. So, according to this same document the SBAC is illegal to administer in Idaho!
According to Idaho Rules Governing Thoroughness page 24,
(Emphasis mine)
With that in mind I contacted the Idaho Department of Ed to ask what information they had regarding the reliability and validity of the SBAC. They quickly sent me back the Memo_Validity_Overview_2014-09-11
Test reliability will initially be modeled through simulations using the item pool after item review, which is due to be completed December 31, 2014. Operational test reliability will be reported in the technical manual following the first operational administration in spring 2015.Because this type of evidence continues to be gathered through the operational administration of the assessments, this table mostly reflects future plans for external validity research.
In addition to what Ze’ev says, each state must demand more than a validation of a “process.” It must have a review of all high-stakes test items by qualified academic experts. You must go beyond testing experts. You want content experts. Otherwise, the whole deal should be dead on arrival. How can Idaho accept test items developed in secrecy, vetted in secrecy, and used in secrecy?
What is needed is not the establishment of the validity of a process, but the validity of the test items themselves. Do they assess at each grade level (and especially in high school) what the standards call for and what is to be taught to students at each grade level. Don’t let them tell you that the “process” takes care of it. It doesn’t. There are testing experts (psychometricians) and content experts (academic experts). And you especially need the second group–and from your own higher ed institutions since that is where these “college-ready” students are going, for the most part.
As I read through this document you shared with me… it looks as if there have been no external validity measures taken. Are we administering a assessment [that has no evidence of] validity [and] hasn’t been proven by external measures?
- Achievement-Levels-Approval-Release (with highlights)
- ALS-Statements-of-Support (with highlights)
- Smarter-Balanced-Achievement-Levels-QA with highlights
These documents discuss the validity of the process used to set the cut scores, but they have nothing to do with the validity of the assessment itself. There is no evidence that this assessment is valid.
When you, as a parent, go in to refuse the assessment and you’re told you don’t have that option just let them know that your child will not be subject to taking a assessment that has not been proven valid. It’s illegal.
No way, no how!
Thank you.
If the test is invalid, there is no way they can administer it to our students. They would have to follow the standardization process followed by test producers such as Riverside Publishing. They would have to define a sample representative of the US demographics and then get permission to test a predetermined amount of students which would have to be large enough to be establish validity and testing error. They are doing this process as they go along which is highly illegal, but when has legality ever mattered to this administration.
Total local control is what is needed. Each state needs to have total control of the education in that state. I also believe teachers should be the people responsible for the curriculum in their classrooms. The need to design it through collaboration and then teach it. A study done in Colorado did this very thing with a specific district. The teachers wrote the curriculum and the students were followed for several years. Compared to the rest of the state the graduation rate and college entrance scores were far ahead of the rest of the state. Local educators know the needs of their students and should be totally resonsible for teaching the students what they need.
I blasted this very same information in a Idaho presentation on Nov 1 in front of your state superintendent of schools.
Reply? Reaction? Nothing.
Guess what? Same thing in Utah, Colorado, Wisconsin and California.
One does not need a validity test done if the sole purpose of the test is to gather data to be sold to researchers.
Every education official in Idaho should be sued civilly for fraud, and your Govenor should resign.
Sorry, but there’s nothing illegal about using SBAC in the Rule, which rule basically established a restriction on reporting SBAC — or any assessment — data for federal purposes. It is my understanding that SBAC cannot be used for FEDERAL REPORTING “until” it is independently reviewed for technical considerations. Indeed, the Rule requires that using data for federal reporting cannot, will not happen until AFTER the test has been operationally administered and an independent technical review of the test has been conducted. If the state decides not to use SBAC, this rule will also apply to the “SBAC replacement test” that Idaho will use for federal reporting. Simply put, the Rule says, WE WILL NOT SEND BAD DATA TO THE FEDS, PERIOD.