This from the Herald-Leader:
Kentucky's school accountability system is in such a state of change it's hard to know what to make of the latest avalanche of test scores. A couple of things do stand out:
■ Kentucky needs to figure out how to teach math and science more effectively, especially at the high-school level.
As usual, the elementary and middle schools outperformed the high schools.
In reading, students performing at proficient or higher statewide dropped 10 points from elementary (76 percent) to high school (66 percent). In math, the drop from elementary to high school was a whopping 27 points (from 73 percent to 46 percent proficient or higher) and in science 30 points (71 percent to 41 percent).
There may be a reasonable explanation, but it appears that students are losing a lot of ground in math and science once they reach high school — even though they will graduate into an economy that demands ever more proficiency in the subjects.
■ The state also must do a better job of educating minorities.
Statewide, just 50 percent of black students scored proficient or higher in reading and math compared with 72 percent of white students.
Poverty is assuredly a factor in the achievement gap. But it's not the whole story. Students who receive free or reduced-price school meals, the common measure of poverty, are performing better than black students. Sixty percent of students receiving free or reduced price meals scored at proficient or higher.
Sixty-three percent of Hispanic students, 80 percent of Asian students and 44 percent of students who have a disability scored proficient or higher in reading and math.
Kentucky can't afford to waste any of its citizens' potential, and education achievement gaps ripple through the economy and society.
A recent study commissioned by the Council on Postsecondary Education found that the gap between white and non-white working-age Kentuckians who have college educations has increased over the past decade, although college graduation rates in both groups rose.
In 2000, 26.3 percent of white Kentuckians, ages 25 to 44, had attained a college degree compared to 16.8 percent of minorities.
By 2009, 34.3 percent of white Kentuckians in that age group had attained college degrees compared to 21.8 percent of minorities.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act succeeded in focusing attention on achievement gaps — and also revealed that developing effective strategies for closing the gaps will take a lot more work.
The test scores released this week are the last ever CATS results. The state tests were given for the final time last spring, to be replaced next spring with different tests based on higher standards.
Also, this seems to be the last year that schools will be declared failures under No Child Left Behind, which was on track to label just about all schools failures by 2014.
Kentucky is one of many states that's expected to receive a waiver from NCLB in exchange for adopting those new, improved standards designed to ensure students leave high school ready for college or a career and that teachers and principals are evaluated by measuring their effectiveness.
9 comments:
One thing has not changed in FCPS. We are losing precious teaching team teaching to the test. I'm a teacher at a local school here where we spent one whole morning teaching to the test. We were told how to tell the kids to write the test!!!!! This is not EDUCATION. This is blatant coaching for the test. Where is Erik Myrup and Fayette ABC ? I don't work for Fayette County Schools, I work for Stanley Kaplan! Stu's legacy continues....Will you defend these practices, Dr. Day? And do you really think I would not be punished if I expressed my views to the Board of Education, Dr. Tom Shelton, or my board member. Fayette County Teachers are expected to obey, not debate policy.
Thanks for the comment.
Fact is...I don't know. Not being in FCPS classrooms regularly, hearing the messages from principals and curriculum folks or knowing the approach, or how much time goes into these efforts, I'm not in a good position to say what I would think. Sorry. I don't mean to dodge the question. But I'd prefer not to act like I know something I don't. There's enough of that already.
But I hear complaints about MAP testing. I always liked interim assessments that were directly related to summative tests and lamented that we didn't have a good one at Cassidy in 2004. I probably would have used MAP. But I would not have made any teacher judgments based on that testing, as I hear happens in other places. I would have had to follow the regulations, however, and use some kind of universal screener in order to satisfy RtI requirements in special education. If not the MAP, it would have been something else just like it. A lot of times, it's not "the thing" but how the thing is used that makes the difference.
I never minded teaching to a performance-based test. After all, if the curriculum requires students to demonstrate the ability to do some important skill, I say teach it directly. But today's tests are increasingly multiple-choice, less criterion-based, and teaching to that kind of test is not so hot. It tends to narrow the curriculum.
Some of my EKU students tell me horror stories from their high school days that left them with the impression that their teachers cared more about looking good themselves than they were concerned for the educational well-being of the students - and these were the successful students, among the top third of HS graduates.
As for Shelton, I think he said very clearly that folks should expect him to continue much of the approach Silberman implemented. I am not expecting a radical change of course.
I do understand that saying unpopular things out loud can carry consequences, but my experience has been that if one does their homework and clearly articulates ideas that are focused on improving conditions for students, that most folks will appreciate it, even if they don't agree. You won't always get what you want, but you might earn some respect. But it does require some amount of courage.
I have reason to believe that Silberman did not care much for dissent and tended to stomp on it.
By contrast,I will say that Shelton does not impress me as thin-skinned or vindictive. But I suppose time will tell.
As for board members...I think it varies with the member.
I rarely meet a parent or teacher who does not feel that test preparation and focus consumes a disproportionate and educationally unsound portion of the curriculum. In private, many acknowledge that increases in test scores do not necessarily signal increases in the quality of education. I’ve even heard teachers say that, overall, students in their school were better prepared a decade ago than they are now. Yet test scores in their schools have increased as a result of intense test preparation and a lockstep approach to teaching the standards…
Some of our education leaders know that test scores should not be used as the single indicator of learning, but you would not know it from reading the recent media reports. I was disappointed at the narrow discussion of test results from all quarters. It directly fuels the endless cycle of data disaggregation and focus on specific test formats that is continuing in the schools.
It may be unrealistic to expect principals and teachers to speak out publicly against current misuse of tests when they feel that their jobs and their salaries could be linked any minute with scores. Some already are.
I don’t think that the current climate will change until parents and the broader community let leaders know that things have gone a little too far. There are brave principals and teachers who are focusing on high quality instruction at the expense of time for test preparation. These educators should be supported.
I'm a teacher at Beaumont Middle School here in Lexington. Kate McAnnally encourages us teahers to teach to the test. This is an unsound practice. I secretly try to undermine her efforts and simply teach the Kentucky Core Content. I will not teach to the test. Let her fire me....
To me, it would seem that the myth lies in the idea that standardization (be it instruction, curriculum or assessment) will somehow result in a common intellectual conscieousness of all students. Did we really need to make sure that our great scientists were proficient in literature or that our gifted artists scored at least a 25 on their ACT in order for them to have created those elements which have so dramatically advanced or enriched our culture? We are too worried about making sure all the barns are painted red instead of ensuring they can hold straw, implements, animals....
I am at Bryan Station. My principal also says "Teach to the test" or you could have someone in your room come in and put you on a "Corrective Action Plan." What the hell is a corrective action plan?
Richard, at our school, I was herded into the office with my principal and the other teacher on the other team who taught the same subject. We then received our test data. I was directly compared to my colleage, whose scores were higher. It was humiliating. It was as if my principal said "You are not as good as your colleage, Mr. X" I thought things would change with Dr. Shelton. Man, was I wrong.
October 2, 2011 6:43 PM: A Corrective Action Plan is typically the second step in an adverse action. Something verbal is usually first, like telling someone that they must improve or face a corrective action plan. That is to say, adverse action is an administrative process one would follow to get rid of an employee.
I almost feel bad having to admit that this Glendover teacher feels very uncomfortable with "awards days" for elementary school students who do well on the CATS test. I second Dr. Erik Myrup's concern, but wonder why we are hearing so little from Fayette ABC.
Post a Comment