Don't let Herndon mislead you on education

Humorist Garrison Keillor used to tell stories about a fictional small town called Lake Wobegon, where, in his words, “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” I think of Lake Wobegon every election season when some politicians (like candidate Scott Herndon), invariably try to disparage our state and/or national public schools and their teachers and students for political purposes.  

They use NAEP, the only standardized tests that are administered on a regular basis to a random sample of 4th, 8th and 12th grade students across the entire country to show trends over time in performance on the tests, as well as make comparisons between the states. This is what they were designed to do.

What they were not designed to do is to show “grade level performance.” Politicians like to either imply or state that the NAEP performance level “proficient” means grade level. It does not. Originally, in 1969, NAEP set five performance levels and gave them the following names: Rudimentary, Basic, Intermediate, Adept, and Advanced. In the early 1990s, the NAEP achievement level descriptors were changed to Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. You’ll notice that five levels became four: “intermediate” was eliminated, “rudimentary” became “below basic,” and “adept” became “proficient.” NAEP said at the time that the “proficient” cut score they set was “aspirational” (i.e. high, something to aspire to). NAEP expressly states that “proficient” does not mean “grade level.” 

It is true that a majority of students, nationally and in Idaho, do not reach the “proficient” cut score on NAEP. This is by design. It is a high bar. Idaho students, on average, perform quite well on the NAEP tests when compared to their peers nationally (one of the stated purposes of the testing data). Don’t let politicians mislead you by telling you otherwise.

TODD RILEY

Sandpoint