Agency:	MSDE	Writer:	John Rosson	
Client:		Producer:		
Project:	Board News - August	Director:		
Title:		Art Director:		
Subject:		Medium:		
Job #:		Contact:		
Code #:		Draft:		

VIDEO 		AUDIO	
			
SLATE - AUGUST 26, 2008		(music full)
	
SLATE - NEWS FROM THE BOARD		(music full)
	
SLATE - MSA TEST RESULTSSOT LESLIE WILSONCG - DR. LESLIE WILSON         ASS'T. SUP'T., DIV. OF ASSESSMENT		(sot leslie wilson)
'Let's quickly review what stayed the same. First of all, we assessed the exact same content which is aligned to the state curriculum, the number of the questions were the same, the rigor of the items was the same, and the test difficulty was the same.'	
BOARD CUTS		(narrator track)
the newly constituted board, headed by james degrafenreidt, probed students' soaring success on the maryland school assessements.	
FILE STUDENTS TAKING MSA'S		students in grades three thru eight take the msa's.	
SOT KATE WALSHCG - KATE WALSH         MD BOARD OF EDUCATION		(sot kate walsh)
'Would there not have been some kind of impact for the test being a whole hour shorter?	
BOARD CUTS		(narrator track)
several board members questioned the results because of changes in the oh-eight test.	
GRAPHICMSA CHANGES: 2008- REPLACED NRT ITEMS WITH    IDENTICAL QUESTIONS- ELIMINATED SOME MULTIPLE CHOICE    NRT QUESTIONS- REDUCED READINGTEST TIME (28                 MINUTES - GRADES 3 & 4)   15-16 MINUTES - GRADES 5-8		here are the changes in a nutshell:	
		maryland replaced reading and math items from a national 'norm referenced test' with questions of identical rigor, aligned with the voluntary state curriculum.	
		it eliminated some multiple choice reading and math items used for the national test, which did not affect msa scores.	
		the resulting time savings was about 28 minutes (in reading for example) for third and fourth graders; 15-16 minutes for 5th-thru-8th.	
SOT KATE WALSH 623		(sot kate walsh)
'How did you determine uh, that the test that you were giving in 2008 was comparable to the test -- how did you field test it?	
SOT LESLIE WILSON		(sot leslie wilson)
'Well we use an IRT model, and we do a pre-equate as well as a post-equate model.'	
			
PAN LESLIE WS TO KATE		(NARRATOR TRACK)
THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION RAN ALL test CHANGES ...	
SOT NANCY GRASMICK 1057FROM 'WE & PSYCH' 		(sot nancy grasmick)
'... not unlike ones we've submitted in past years...'	
HOLDING NANCY -- POT UNDER 		(narrator track)
BY WHAT IS CALLED A 'national PSYCHOMETRIC COUNCIL' TO BE SURE THE OH-EIGHT TEST, AS MEASURED AGAINST PREVIOUS RESULTS, WOULD BE 'APPLES TO APPLES.'	
SOT LESLIE WILSON 907		(sot leslie wilson)
'The psychometric council certified that the 2008 test was of the same difficulty and maintained the standard from the previous MSA's.'	
SOT NANCY GRASMICK		(sot nancy grasmick)
'... particularly when it was validated through the equating process that the rigor was exactly the same.'	
SOT BLAIR EWINGCG - BLAIR EWING        V.P., MD BOARD OF EDUCATION		(sot blair ewing)
'I understand that, but on the other hand, the state board didn't know about this as far as I know, I didn't know about it anyway ...'	
SOT ROSA GARCIA(& HOLD ROSA VIDEO)		(sot rosa garcia)
'I'm very concerned that we found out about this after the fact ...'	
HOLDING PAN		(narrator track)
some board members made clear they want to know about such changes in the future -- 	
BOARD CUTS		and  lamented the impression their questions about the good news results might be misinterpreted.	
SOT ROSA GARCIACG - ROSA GARCIA         MD BOARD OF EDUCATION		(sot rosa garcia)
'We got this letter from the NAACP and their concern is that -- that the public might perceive any kind of questions that board members or others might have about this test as simply that folks do not -- people out in the community do not believe that you know kids of color could actually be doing better on the test...'	
SOT MARY KAY FINANCG - MARY KAY FINAN         MD BOARD OF EDUCATION		(sot mary kay finan)
'You know it was the media it was the public that threw up the red flags because 'dear heavens' if our students are doing better, if our teachers are doing better, there must be something wrong... (murmur/laughs) and so let's take a look...'	
BOARD CUT		(narrator track)
the debate rolled on.	
SOT KATE WALSH		(sot kate walsh)
'The issue is, a test was significantly altered, creating huge context issues that a test was seriously -- was much shorter than it had been, and kids were not encountering questions that they had, in other years, had difficulty answering. So we can all sit back and say 'let's ignore this change because we're so proud of our kids and teachers and kids are learning and that may be the case. But we cannot ignore the fact that the test was psychometrically -- had -- had psychometric problems with it.'	
SOT JAMES DEGRAFENREIDT		(sot james degrafenreidt)
'If I may Ms. Walsh, the documentation doesn't support what you just said I don't think. The independent panel of psychometricians confirmed that the changes were not --'	
		(Walsh) '... no they did not...'	
		(Degraf) '... material, materially significant to the test results.'	
SOT JAMES DEGRAFFENREIDT		(sot james degraffenreidt)
'If we just focus on 'yes, they had concerns,' and 'yes they had discussions' -- that's their job.' The issue is what's their conclusion based on the data. And their conclusion based on the data was that the changes did not materially influence the outcomes, but they did support the appropriate calibration of a comparison of the results year over year.'	
			
DIP TO BLACK		(fade audio)

SLATE - HIGH SCHOOL ASSESSMENTS		(music full)
'tba'	
SOT LESLIE WILSON		(sot leslie wilson)
'We're now focusing on the status of a child as of a certain grade level has this child met the requirement in Algebra, passed the English test, so we'll be getting their status of all their accumulative efforts, rather than a snapshot in time...'	
BOARD CUTS		(narrator track)
tracking the hsa's...	
		reveals a heavy concentration on following a students closely throughout their high school career.	
		school systems have an array of remediation plans in place for those students who may be on the bubble.	
SOT LESLIE WILSON		(sot leslie wilson)
'The principals are very aware of which students they have in grade 11 what their issues are, and they are working with those students ... they have plans for each one of them to get to graduation...'	
STUDENTS CLASSROOM FILE		(narrator track)
ALL SENIORS MUST PASS THE FOUR HIGH SCHOOL ASSESSMENTS TO GRADUATE.	
		DR. GRASMICK REINFORCES THE HUGE PRIORITY THIS HAS BEEN FOR THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.	
SOT NANCY GRASMICK		(SOT NANCY GRASMICK)
'I have spoken with every single superintendent. I met this week with Dr. Alonso which has -- he has one of the greatest challenges as you know, he has an analysis of every single student... there are absolutely defined intervention plans, for every student, that is true across the state...'and because we have an individual student identifier, we are able to say this student needs this support.'	
BOARD CUTS		(narrator track)
dr. grasmick calls this the pivotal year to know if maryland is on track regarding the hsa's...	
		and she reiterates the hsa's are but a floor from which to reach higher standards.	
SLATE - BOARD BRIEFS		(music full)
'tba'	
SLATE - A.P. SCORES UPGRAPHIC:ADVAMCED PLACEMENTMASTERY (3-5) LEVEL - UP 4.6%PARTICIPANTS - UP 9.6%       TESTS (2008)		(narrator track)
maryland received great news regarding advanced placement tests.	
		the number of students scoring a mastery level increased 4.6%.	
		and, the number of participants increased as well .. up 9.6% this year.	
CUBE WIPE GRAPHIC:ACT NATIONAL2008 - 22.02007 - 21.62006 - 21.4           TESTS		good news as well on a-c-t national tests.	
		the scores jumped again -- up four-tenths from 2007.	
		and that increase showed continual improvement from oh-six scores.	
		the a-c-t is becoming an increasingly popular alternative as a college placement exam.	
		this has been news from the board, with msde tv.	
BULLETIN/CREDITS/FADE		(music full & fade)