History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Growing use of simplified test inflates some California schools' scores
- 10-05-2011
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By Phillip Reese and Melody Gutierrez/Sacramento Bee
Threatened for the last decade with bad publicity and sanctions following poor test results, school districts have been known to grab at loopholes in state testing policy and rip them wide open. Critics say that's happening again with a new test for special education students called the California Modified Assessment. Introduced in 2007, the CMA is a simpler version of the state's regular STAR student achievement test. It's tailored to special education students in grades three through 11 whom teachers and parents deem to have no chance at passing the regular test. The federal government issued guidelines to the state saying the new test should be given to no more than 2 percent of students in those grades – about 100,000 children. (more...)
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