Now Bush knows what it means to be called a liar...............Gore cites study questioning Texas scores; Bush rejects report
10/25/2000
By David Jackson and Wayne Slater / The Dallas Morning News
A new study has raised questions about rising student test scores in Texas, prompting the Al Gore campaign to challenge whether George W. Bush's bullish claims of education achievement are real.
The Bush campaign dismissed the study, saying the timing suggests that it was politically motivated to discredit the governor on his top campaign issue two weeks before the general election.
The California-based Rand Corp., a nonpartisan think tank, reported Tuesday that rising scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills do not parallel student performance on a nationwide exam, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The study also found that while the gap between white and black students has closed in the state tests – a point Mr. Bush has stressed in his presidential bid – it has widened in the national surveys.
The authors raised the possibility that the Texas TAAS results are inflated because schools are "devoting a great deal of class time" preparing students for the exam rather than simply teaching subjects – a process that critics call "teaching the test."
Gore campaign officials pounced on the results Tuesday, saying they undermine Mr. Bush's credentials as an education leader in Texas.
"We all hope and pray for miracles, but they are not occurring in the Texas school system," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, Mr. Gore's running mate.
The Bush campaign fired back, saying the timing "is highly suspect" and erroneous.
"The conclusions are wrong and at odds with every credible study that has been done," said Dan Bartlett, a Bush campaign spokesman.
Bush aides cited an earlier Rand report that praised the Texas education system, but that study included only performance on math in 1996. The new Rand study includes more recent results on reading in 1998 and for the first time compares national and state test results.
A spokesman for Rand said the study is not aimed at any individual or timed to the election. "We don't sit on things for political reasons," Jess Cook said. "We don't do anything for political reasons. We just put out material when it's finished."
James A. Thomson, president and CEO of Rand, issued a statement saying that given the increased importance of student testing, it is important to gather empirical data on the subject.
"From the Texas standpoint, the good news is that the state ranks high in adjusted student achievement," Mr. Thomson said. "The bad news is that the statewide testing system in Texas needs improvement."
The authors of the new study said they did not know why the state test scores improved so much more than the national ones, but the discrepancies "raise serious questions about the validity" of the Texas surveys.
They said one reason may be that teachers specifically prepare students for the state tests, improving scores but not necessarily improving academic ability.
Still, Texas scores did go up on the national test, one of the points of the July Rand study touted by the Bush campaign when it was released this summer. Bush aides put out a statement by the author of that study, David Grissmer. He stuck by his conclusion that Texas' gains are among the highest in the country on math.
In touting the test results in Texas in his presidential campaign, Mr. Bush regularly cites both rising scores on the state TAAS test and one particular score on the national test: the 1996 math scores by black fourth-graders in Texas.
The national test is a sampling of fourth- and eighth-graders in about 40 states, conducted every two years.
Black fourth-graders ranked first in the nation when compared with black students in other states who took the test in 1996. But two years later, when students were tested on reading, black fourth-graders in Texas ranked 10th and Hispanics ranked ninth. And eighth-grade black students ranked somewhat lower.
Examining those numbers – and tracking the performance over time – the authors of the new Rand study concluded that the gap between Texas black and white students has grown in recent years.
"To put this in perspective, the average black student [in 1998] was at roughly the 38th percentile among all Texas test-takers whereas the average white student was at about the 67th percentile," the study said. "This gap was slightly larger than the difference between these groups in 1994.
"In other words, the black-white reading gap actually increased during this four-year period. The same pattern was present in fourth and eighth grade math scores," the study said.
The authors found the same trend among Hispanic students. Noting that the gap between whites and minorities in the state TAAS test got smaller during the same period, the authors said the results "raise serious questions about the validity" of the state test scores.
"There are concerns that these gains were inflated or biased as an indirect consequence of the rewards and sanctions that are attached to the results" of TAAS testing in Texas, the report said.
Staff writers Sam Attlesey in Knoxville, Tenn., and Todd J. Gillman in Dallas contributed to this report. |
