Spinning the EXPLORE and PLAN results

I posted the new test results from the eighth grade EXPLORE and tenth grade PLAN testing in Kentucky several days ago.

These are found in a Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) news release titled, “EXPLORE AND PLAN RESULTS SHOW IMPROVEMENT,” which released on February 24, 2011.

At the time, I was most interested in the scores.

I missed the fact that the title of the news release and the first paragraph’s comment that “school scores moved up slightly in nearly all subject areas tested” were inaccurate spins of the rather mixed trends from 2009 to 2010.

FACT: On EXPLORE, between 2009 and 2010 scores only moved up in the individual academic subjects of math and science. The EXPLORE scores stayed flat in reading and went down in English.


FACT: On PLAN, scores also declined in English between 2009 and 2010. Science stayed flat. PLAN scores only increased in math and reading.


Overall, the PLAN Composite also stayed flat, which certainly conflicts with the KDE’s headline, as well.

I suspect that if questioned, the KDE would claim that they were talking about the whole period trends from 2006 to 2010, but I think most people reading the headline and the first sentence comment would think the comments refer to changes from last year.

Besides, if we are talking about the whole period from 2006 to 2010, the scores did improve somewhat in all areas, not just in “nearly all subject areas tested.”

KDE can’t have this both ways, and a correction would be appropriate, especially as the rather stagnant PLAN data indicates our schools are not getting the message – we want our kids better prepared for college and careers, not whatever nebulous things the soon to be defunct Kentucky Core Content Test looks for.