Matthew Ladner, who is analyzing the 2011 NAEP scores in the Jay P. Greene Blog, just posted “Something Rotten in the State of NAEP?”
Ladner writes:
“Last week, the Bluegrass Institute’s Richard Innes alerted me in the comments and by email about fishy exclusion rates for children with disabilities and English Language Learners. I had only casually examined the exclusion rates, but having examined them more closely, I’m concerned.”
Towards the end of his post, Ladner comments about the exclusion issue’s impact on NAEP score validity:
“I’m throwing my flag. I don’t know if it explains all of the gains in Maryland and Kentucky, but it seems pretty obvious to me the results from those two states and perhaps others ought not to be considered comparable to the other states.”
In a separate e-mail Ladner adds even more:
“I just did a quick run on the 4th grade reading scores for Kentucky, 2003 to 2011 by disability status of the student.
The disabled gains are almost three times as large as the non-disabled gains. There is no doubt in my mind that you are right- Kentucky’s numbers are utterly bogus.”
Add that to comments we heard from Kentucky’s education commissioner on October 5, 2011 that our NAEP scores are in question.
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