“The more research I do, the more I realize it’s problematic,” Kelley said. “The assessment itself is faulty. And my son’s story is proof of that.”
(Kelley requested that her son not be identified so she could candidly discuss his academic performance and medical history while maintaining his privacy.)
For six years, Kelley has been fighting to get her son, now 13, a proper education in how to read. And she has tried to convince the district to drop the test that missed his reading difficulties.
This spring, after years of defending the BAS, San Francisco Unified finally conceded the test is too frequently inaccurate. It’s joining other schools around the country, including Fort Worth (Texas), Baltimore County (Maryland) and Nashua (New Hampshire) in dropping the BAS as their district-wide assessment.
At a March school board meeting, San Francisco’s top administrators presented internal data showing the test did a poor job predicting how kindergarteners and first graders eventually scored on the state’s standardized test. Superintendent Matt Wayne said he’s looking for a replacement — one that “ensures that children are literate.”