Middle School MSA Scores: Special Ed Testing to Blame, Weast Whines

July 21, 2009: Weast issues a press release with the following information:

"At the middle school level, 26 out of 38 schools met AYP—an overall success rate of 68 percent, compared with 86 percent in 2008. Three of the 12 schools not making AYP would have achieved it had the same process used in 2008 been used in 2009. The implementation of Modified Maryland School Assessments (Mod-MSAs) and the low pass rate (38.9 percent in reading and 23.1 percent in mathematics) on this new assessment likely contributed to the increased number of middle schools not meeting AYP in 2009."

Yet when the Report on the Phase-Out of the Secondary Learning Centers was finally released, earlier this year, it contained the following statements:

"Additionally, the Modified-Maryland School Assessment (Mod-MSA) which is designed for students whose regular coursework is modified significantly to address their disabilities, was not available from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE ) in the spring of 2008. The Mod-MSA will be administered for the first time in spring of 2009 for middle school students with disabilities. However, these students took the regular MSA which was not an appropriate assessment for reporting their outcomes."

So which is it? In case you haven't noticed, the special education students in the middle schools did extremely poorly on BOTH the MSA and the Mod-MSA.

Perhaps Jerry Weast would prefer that special education students not participate in any accountability testing at all!

The disability community can look specifically to SHIRLEY BRANDMAN, who voted to phase out the middle school secondary learning centers. You now see the fruits of her efforts. And, by the way, they are rotten.