Schools

Are Maryland Schools Gaming National Reading Test?

The state's schools exclude a higher percentage of special-education students than any other state, says the federal government.

Maryland's scores on a national reading test may have been inflated because the state's schools excluded a higher percentage of special-education students than any other state, reports theBaltimore Sun.

The National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the test, estimates that Maryland's scores were 7 points higher for fourth-grade reading and 5 points higher for eighth-grade reading because of the exclusion, the newspaper said.

Maryland has always earned high scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and its steady increases in test scores over the years has helped earn it the ranking of No. 1 in the nation by Education Week, the Sun said.

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Maryland excluded 66 percent of fourth-graders with disabilities for the reading test, far higher than the national rate of 16 percent, according to the newspaper.

Clayton Best, the state's NAEP coordinator, told the Sun that Maryland is "absolutely not" gaming the test. He said there is no benefit for a school to hold back testing a student because individual student and school scores on NAEP are never reported to the public.

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