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Cut Score Setting: June 2002 Physics Exam -
What Went Wrong

by William C. Cala, Ed.D.     (Dec. 23, 2002)
Superintendent of Schools, Fairport Central School System, NY
It has now been nearly six months since the June administration of the Regents Physics exam in New York State. Statewide, the failing rate rose from 11% to 33%. In spite of a flood of cries from nearly all schools in the field, Commissioner Richard Mills and his staff have steadfastly maintained that the exam was a good one and that the scoring process was scientifically confirmed.
What really happened in schools throughout the state? How did SED respond to the field and the media? What did the cut-score process, which was developed and implemented by the state for Regents Physics June 2002, look like?

 
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The Ubiquitous Lie: Manipulation of Cut Scores at the Expense of Students - June 2002 Physics Exam

by William C. Cala, Ed.D.     (Dec. 20, 2002)
Superintendent of Schools, Fairport Central School System, NY
 

[Publisher's Note:   this is an activist-oriented version of the more scholarly representation of the same research as presented in the facing document. It is repleat with editorial commentary set into the text and spoken from the voice of an activist-participant in the NYS high-stakes testing protocols...it is the working draft that was presented to the ARN community via their Assessment Reform Network discussion list across the month of Dec, 2002]
 
 

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Links & Resources on cut scores & their processes

Many, if not all of the high-stakes tests being adminsitered by 49 of the 50 states (all except Iowa at this writing) are scored, graded, and assessed according to cut scores.

Dr. Bill Cala's work cited here is a critique on a particular cut score-setting protocol and proceedure as it was conducted for the June 2002 NYS Regents Exam in Physics.

Here are some links that are intended to contextualize this process and the quite fine research that Dr. Cala offers the community in the form of these research representations:

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Web Author: Rick Parkany; Prometheus Educational Services, 2003