Where is the NCLB money going?

[Moses]

The Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education



Johns Hopkins University and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) have received a five-year, $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences to create a research center focused on helping low-performing schools meet their states' academic performance standards. This center, the Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (CDDRE), will carry out research, development, and dissemination activities designed to do the following:

1. Help state and district education agencies organize and use data to identify where districts and schools need help to reach state standards.

2. Provide states, districts, and schools with reliable, actionable information on effective programs capable of helping schools achieve state standards.

3. Facilitate access to rigorously evaluated programs and practices designed to help schools meet state standards.

4. Evaluate the outcomes of district and school adoption of data-driven strategies for reform.

5. Disseminate information on effective practices and programs.

For information on CDDRE or to request participation, please contact us as follows:

Robert Slavin
[e-mail]


GwenCarol Holmes
[e-mail]



— Press Release
The Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education
2005-11-
www.cddre.org/index.cfm
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[Moses]

Five Firms Vie for CSAP


By Will Shanley

Five companies are in the running to administer the state's annual CSAP tests over the next five years.

The award, last made in 2002 for $77 million, ranks as one of Colorado's largest non-transportation contracts. The winning company will handle the Colorado Student Assessment Program, a statewide assessment used to gauge school performance.

The CSAP measures student proficiency in subjects such as math, reading and writing and was created in the mid 1990s. It predates the federal government's No Child Left Behind act, which required states to establish standardized tests.

Under state law, schools that consistently underperform on the CSAP are shut down and converted to charter schools. This has happened once in Denver, at Cole Middle School earlier this year.

Companies vying to administer the test:

CTB/McGraw-Hill of Monterey, Calif., which currently administers the test.

Questar Educational Systems Inc. of Apple Valley, Minn.

Data Recognition Corp. of Maple Grove, Minn.

Educational Testing Services of Princeton, N.J.

Pearson Educational Measurement of Iowa City, Iowa.

The state's division of finance and procurement will hear oral presentations from the companies in two weeks with an award due as early as the end of the year.

The winning firm will administer the tests starting in the 2006-07 school year, with one-year contracts running through the 2010-2011 school year.

This school year, CTB/McGraw Hill is to administer more than 1.5 million tests to Colorado students in grades three through 10. The tests are given in March.

The company, which handles similar testing in 23 states, including Arizona, New York and Florida, has administered the CSAP test since its inception in 1997 and won its most recent contract in 2002.

CTB/McGraw Hill develops, prints, distributes, collects, analyzes, scores and refreshes the test, according to the contract.

Testing has gone "smoothly" under CTB/McGraw Hill, said Phil Fox, deputy executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, a trade group.

CTB/McGraw Hill might land the contract again considering "the incumbent usually has an advantage," said Fox, who is not involved in the selection process.

Regardless of which company wins, some educators have questioned the tests' usefulness. Democrat Mollie Cullom, a school mental health counselor who ran in an unsuccessful bid for Colorado House District 39 in 2004, said the money spent on testing could be used elsewhere.

"The tests are not useful for instruction," Cullom said. "The costs could be better used in the classroom."

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Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-820-1260 or [e-mail].

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1997

Year the Colorado Student Assessment Program test began in grades three through 10

1.5 MILLION

Tests expected to be administered during the 2005-06 school year

469,480

Students tested in 2004-05 in reading, writing, math and science

Sources: Denver Post research and Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration

— Will Shanley
Denver Post
2005-11-23
www.denverpost.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3243937