Texas Is the First State To Approve Modified Test - Essay Example

According to Zyskowski and O’Malley (2009), TAKS vertical scale allows scores to be compared across grade levels for a subject.  In this manner, it is very much useful for tracking a student's progress in performance across years, at the same time, its performance standards (i.e. Met Standard and Commended) can be numerically compared across grade levels (Zyskowski and O'Malley, 2009). Texas created the so-called vertical scale per Section 39.036 of Senate Bill 1031, which required TEA to develop a vertical scale for assessing student performance on the TAKS assessments (Zyskowski and O'Malley, 2009; TEA, 2009).

On the other hand, the Texas projection measure (TPM) is a multi-level regression-based projection model that is applied to TAKS, TAKS (Accommodated), and linguistically accommodated versions of TAKS. Furthermore, it projects student performance separately for each subject in the next high-stakes grade (defined by the Texas legislation as grades 5, 8, and 11) (Zyskowski and O'Malley, 2009, p. 25). The figure below illustrates the TPM: (taken from Zyskowski and O'Malley, 2009, p. 26. According to the stipulations in the Texas Education Agency's Accountability System for 2009 and Beyond - Standard Procedures (Commissioner of Education Final Decisions April 2009), the following quotations revealed the determination of the accountability rating for 2009: Standards for 2009 were published in the 2008 Accountability Manual and adopted as commissioner rule to provide districts and campuses with advance notice before the 2008-09 school year began.

The 2009 Academically Acceptable standards are 70% for reading/ ELA, writing, and social studies; 55% for mathematics; and 50% for science. These standards represent increases of five percentage points to the Academically Acceptable standards for four of the five subjects (writing, social studies, mathematics, and science.) The 2009 Recognized standard of 75%, which applies to all subjects, is unchanged from the prior year. (p. 2) Still according to the Texas Education Agency's Accountability System for 2009 and Beyond - Standard Procedures, the following are quoted statements regarding the changes in accountability rating for 2010: Standards for 2010 will be published in the 2009 Accountability Manual and adopted as commissioner rule before the 2009-10 school year begins.

The 2010 Recognized standard will increase by five percentage points to 80% as previously planned. The 2010 Academically Acceptable standards will increase by five percentage points for both mathematics and science to 60% and 55%, respectively. The reading/ELA, writing, and social studies standards will remain