That is, bias (a highly controversial issue covered in the research literature and also on this blog; see recent posts about bias here, here, and here), does also appear to
exist in this
state and particularly at the school - level for (1) subject areas less traditionally
tested and, hence, not often consecutively
tested (e.g., from one consecutive grade level to the next), and given (2) the
state is combining growth measures with
proficiency (i.e., «snapshot») measures to evaluate schools, the latter being significantly negatively correlated with the populations of the students in the schools being evaluated.