%0 Journal Article
%T Testing the Testing: Validity of a State Growth Model
%A KIM TRASK BROWN
%J International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership
%D 2008
%I Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Simon Fraser University, George Mason University
%X Possible threats to the validity of North Carolina¡¯s accountability model used to predict academic growth were investigated in two ways: the state¡¯s regression equations were replicated but updated to utilize current testing data and not that from years past as in the state¡¯s current model; and the updated equations were expanded to include additional socioeconomic, financial, and demographic variables. The updated equations were found to explain a very low proportion of the variance in growth statewide, with R2 values ranging from .054 to .135. This suggests that the state¡¯s model is extremely unpredictive of academic growth. The expanded equations were found to offer almost twice as much predictive power as the updated equations and, hence, the state¡¯s model.
%U http://journals.sfu.ca/ijepl/index.php/ijepl/article/view/106/51