The following item was sent to me via FYI email from Betsy Prior, OCTE, Friday, November 24, 1999 with no source given. I have placed it here because the 4th grade test is perhaps the most insidious of all the OPT grade-level intrusions in terms of its abuse of Ohio's children. (rlh)

4th Grade Test May Be Too Tough

      Some educators are beginning to say that the fourth-grade reading proficiency test should not be used as a test for promotion to fifth grade because it is too difficult a test and because the score required to pass is too high.
      In the spring of 1999, 40 percent of the state's 129,200 fourth graders failed the reading exam. The test results, which are not yet tied to promotion to fifth grade, would have resulted in 51,000 pupils repeating fourth grade this year. According to Paul Marshall, executive assistant to the state superintendent of education, the standard was set in 1994 to warn fifth-grade teachers about students who might need more help. Using it is a test for promotion to fifth grade was never its purpose. "We don't want to hold kids back based on the standard we have set. We don't think that's fair," Marshall said.
      In 1997 the Ohio General Assembly passed a law called the Fourth Grade Reading Guarantee which stated that beginning in the 2001-02 school year, any child who fails the fourth-grade reading test will be held back unless the teacher and the principal attest that the child can do fifth-grade work. According to an article in the Monday issue of The Toledo Blade, fourth-grade teachers are beginning to make their fears known about using the reading test as a prerequisite for fifth grade.
      The paper quotes Sharon Dendinger, a fourth-grade teacher at Mount Vernon Elementary School in South Toledo, who calls the test, "very sophisticated. The proficiency test doesn't ask you for a simple answer. It asks you to analyze what you've read. It's really, really tough." Until now there has been little public opposition to the tests from teachers, but that may be because teachers can lose their licenses for talking openly about the contents of tests. The fact that they are now starting to speak up may be a measure of their frustration.
      Another teacher, Joyce Oyer, a fourth-grade teacher in Wauseon, pointed to another problem with the fourth-grade test. She said that she was surprised to learn that 81 percent is the score required for a passing grade on the test, while in most schools a score of 81 percent is a B- or C+. "I believe that children who need intervention should get it. A child who scores 80 percent is not failing and they don't need intervention," said Oyer. "What are we doing telling these kids they're a failure at fourth grade and they're not?"
      State education officials agree that the standards are high but say they are deliberately so to pressure schools and parents to emphasize the importance of reading. E. Roger Trent, director of assessment and evaluation for the Department of Education, said the fourth-grade exam does not use any text with a reading level higher than third grade. He told the Blade, "The reading test is actually, as tests go, relatively not very difficult."
      Trent did not agree with those who wish to use the reading test as a test of readiness for fifth grade however. In the future the Department of Education may set two passing scores on the fourth-grade exam: one score to identify children who need remediation and a lower score to identify children who should repeat fourth grade.
      Sally Clapp, director of testing for Toledo Public Schools, said that the test had been carefully field-tested and it was not too difficult for fourth graders. She said that she is aware of the concerns many people are raising about the increasingly high score needed to pass the exam.
      The state Department of Education is currently doing a "validation study" in 150 Ohio schools to test the progress of fifth graders who failed the fourth-grade reading exam. They will present their findings to the state board of education in February. Rep. Randall Gardner (R-Bowling Green) a member of the House education committee and a supporter of the 1997 Fourth Grade Reading Guarantee, welcomes the work of the validation study. He thinks it is time to evaluate the score required to pass the test and the age-appropriateness of it. "In 1997, I think the basic issue was we wanted a standard instead of social promotion, that we wanted something not punitive but that would help them learn to read," Gardner said.