Tag Archives: MCAS

InCity Voices

Worcester’s MCAS scores are published …

By Edith Morgan

Worcester’s MCAS scores are published, and once again the public is treated to a bunch of truly meaningless, worthless numbers, designed, not to enlighten or help improve our public schools, but to denigrate the performance of those most abused by this money-mad society and to hold them down longer and most surely.

Many years ago our public schools undertook the unique task of educating EVERY child – no matter what that child brought to school.

This was a most remarkable goal, and well beyond what most nations did: they selected the cream of the crop, and funneled them through their systems, tested them, and supported and encouraged them to go as high as they could (Thus were created the Olympic stars, etc of many nations.) But America chose another path, at least on paper. (Things tend to get watered down or even perverted when left to the states). For several decades, with impetus from the Federal Government, we tried very hard to give every child in America an even chance – regardless of poverty, minority status, mental or physical handicaps, or abusive home environment, – to become a full-fledged citizen, neighbor,  family member and worker.

I was teaching at the time, and it was demanding work, but very fulfilling.

But then, gradually, almost unperceived, there was a change: several things occurred (not in this order, but equally important):

We elected a President who convinced too many people that “Greed is Good”, with the obvious deadly results.

We started to believe in the “wisdom of the Market”, and despite all the data to the contrary, began to import the philosophy and methods of industry into our schools, making them more like factories (of late we have also imported the business model into medicine with disastrous results)

In a well-funded and orchestrated campaign, we were told: that our schools were mediocre, our teachers overpaid, and our goals of creating lifelong learners and good citizens should subverted  and instead we should produce workers for business.

In a real slap in the face to parents and citizens, a major move to “privatize” (i.e. take over the public schools from the public) was instituted, under the thinly disguised excuse that these “model” schools would try new and better things, from which the local public schools could then learn and adapt their methods and  curricula. (I was at that time involved with several years of Federal programs funding experiments in the public schools, designing better ways to teach reading, literature, etc.. and these programs, since they were federally funded, were available to all. Imagine my surprise when one major supplier of charter programs turned out to be using these ideas, not creating their own, new ones.)

We were told that we needed these alternatives, because the public schools lacked innovation and creativity and flexibility. So, instead of giving our public schools the flexibility they needed, we created this spurious alternative, siphoned funds away from the neediest, and enthroned the profit motive in one more place where it has no business being.

Not everything in a decent society can turn a profit: I strongly believe that education and health care should not be privately held by for-profit, enterprises (and maybe we should add public transportation and parkland to the list).
 

InCity Voices

For our students: just a moment in time

 

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The Worcester Public Schools administration building on Irving Street: testing … 1,2,3!    (Photo R.T.)

By Edith Morgan

More and more we seem to be living in the moment, unaware of, or uncaring about, what went before, and often, what is to come.

It’s the difference between the old clocks, with their dials, hands, twelve numbers – sometimes in Roman numerals or even just dots or pictures – and the new digital clocks: you see only the moment, the present numbers, and you can not adjust them backwards, only forward, by going through the whole gamut till you get to the desired setting. … And increasingly it is that way with so much of our lives: as though nothing important or relevant came before, and facts are isolated from their contexts.

For example: have you noticed that the blood pressure reading in the doctor’s office is always higher than it is at home? And how many times have you come up with answers, maybe to a quiz show on TV, or in a meeting AFTER it is over?  And how often do you say, “I can not explain it to you, but I know what it means, or what it is, or I can do it, but I just can not do it at this speed, in this medium, in this format, or without thinking it over and doing a bit of research”?

Yet we draw conclusions of importance all the time now, based on one-shot data, in a medium (usually paper and pencil and timed, or “computerized”) and think we have something correct.

Our latest and most damaging exercise in the one-shot field is the way we rank students and our schools by using paper-and-pencil tests, often largely made up of multiple choice questions, designed for the convenience of machines and “quick and dirty” results.

Decades of research have already shown what any sensible person should know from experience: that  there is only one, accurate, reliable measure of a student upon which we can base opinions about their future performance.

It is NOT S.A.T.’s, which were designed only to predict success in the first year of college, or MCAS’S , or PAARC’s, or even the NAEP or any of the other alphabet soup of lucrative test devices giving children a number that has little relationship to the real world.

The only data set that presents any sort of true picture of reality and has true predictive value is: The student’s transcript – the sum of his/her grades, his attendance , conduct, activities (i.e. involvement in school and community), interests, talents pursued, classes taken ( hard or easy, advanced or just required, etc.), and teacher comments, etc. That document gives a total picture of a human being in school – and is the best indicator of what habits and knowledge he/she will bring to life: family, neighborhood, community, and work.

All else is just a shot in the dark, a useless number, a lazy way to try to predict anything.  Just as it is bad medicine to treat patients based on a single x-ray or blood test, or to judge a whole career by one exaggeration, or any human venture by the one error, so it is bad and unfair to judge any organism as complex as a student, or his/her school, based on one number, one occurrence, one event or one piece of a puzzle.

InCity Feature, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

Testing, testing, testing …

By Edith Morgan

School has started – parents heave a sigh of relief, and the Damocles sword of mandated testing programs hangs heavy over teachers and students. And the purveyors of the tests are laughing all the way to the bank at the prospect of yet another very profitable year of ripping off the taxpayers, gaining control of what and how we teach our children, and generally playing into the hands of the privatizers and dehumanizers who are increasingly getting control over us in so many ways.

“No Child Left Behind” – left so many behind! –  and its illegitimate offspring,  “Race to the Top” (or more correctly, “Race to the Bottom”) both require standardized testing . How do you suppose mandatory standardized testing was included? How many palms of elected officials in Washington, D.C. were crossed with silver to make sure the testing companies made out like bandits every year in every school?

I was in education at all levels for more than 40 years and have kept up since then. I have never yet met or heard of a teacher who does not test students regularly. Weekly, or sometimes even daily, students have to prove that they have learned or mastered what is being taught.

Remember the spelling tests, the math tests, the essays, the many ways teachers check to see what is being learned, what needs to be re-taught, what has to be taught a different way if too many in the class did not “get it”? The tests reflected accurately what had been taught and enabled the classroom teacher to assess what students had “gotten”  and what they still needed to know. So, if there was a clear understanding of what the curriculum required, it was always up to the teacher to make certain that those things were taught and learned. Good teachers also applied a variety of ways to learn, adapting their methods to the learning styles of their students.

Standardized tests pretty much throw all that out the window.

Their form does not take into consideration the most important things that American schools traditionally valued: Their job was not simply to make kids “marketable” but to grow a new generation of good citizens, informed enough to participate ALL THEIR LIVES in their families, communities and nation – and to make intelligent and thoughtful choices all along. There is NO standardized test which even considers these goals, as they are not amenable to multiple choice bubbles.

We are fortunate in Massachusetts to have in Cambridge an organization called “FairTest,” which has for many years monitored and reported on testing throughout the nation. Every administrator, teacher, parent and citizen interested in securing the best education for ALL our children should at the very least read their report, “How Standardized Testing Damages Education” – updated July 2012. It details how this testing does NOT provide accountability, measures very little and is not accountable to our parents, teachers, students and community.

To learn more google FairTest. They are also on Facebook and Twitter.

InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

Advocates call on lawmakers to ensure public schools put performance first with teacher assignment, layoffs

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Secretary Galvin delivers teacher effectiveness initiative petition to lawmakers today

Boston – Stand for Children yesterday called on Massachusetts lawmakers to change state law to give teacher effectiveness a more prominent role in decisions regarding teacher assignments and layoffs as Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin is expected to transmit the state legislature An Act to Promote Excellence in Public Schools.

The proposed initiative is supported by 85% of Massachusetts voters, according to a recent UMASS Amherst poll.

“Every child in Massachusetts deserves a great education, regardless of their background or zip code,” said Jason Williams, executive director of Stand for Children in Massachusetts. “As a former classroom teacher in one of our nation’s toughest school districts, I’ve seen firsthand the impact the achievement gap is having on so many of our children.

“Having been born and raised in Fall River, I find it alarming that the achievement gap remains wide in Massachusetts. One of the best things we can do to make sure no child is short-changed is to ensure there is a teacher who gets results in every classroom. This initiative does precisely that by putting performance first when deciding which teachers to retain.

“Lawmakers now have an opportunity to do what an overwhelming majority of Massachusetts voters support – ensure our schools promote and recognize teachers based on performance, not just seniority. Massachusetts is a state that values education; we encourage our elected officials to answer the call of the voters and live up to that value for all of our students so no child spends another minute in a classroom where they are not learning.”

The proposed initiative is the centerpiece of Stand for Children’s Great Teachers Great Schools campaign, a statewide effort to ensure every child in Massachusetts has access to an effective teacher.

If enacted, the initiative would ensure public schools put performance first when deciding which teachers to retain during layoffs and create clear, consistent and fair guidelines for public schools across the Commonwealth for assigning and retaining teachers.

Galvin’s office recently verified that 81,117 valid signatures were collected from voters, qualifying the initiative to advance to the legislature for consideration.

Lawmakers have until May to act on the proposed initiative, which must first be heard in committee in March. If the legislature and governor fail to act, voters will have an opportunity to approve the initiative on the November 2012 ballot after supporters gather an additional set of signatures from voters.

InCity Voices

To Tracy Novick and Company: Let the Goddard School move on

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By John Monfredo, Worcester School Committee

Goddard Elementary School has been in the news for several months due to their MCAS scores. Following a four month joint investigation conducted by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Worcester Public Schools a press release from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education was released. It stated, ”State officials have invalidated the 2010 MCAS results for the Goddard School in Worcester following a joint investigation conducted by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Worcester Public Schools that found educators provided students with inappropriate coaching during testing.”

As stated in their press release and reiterated by Dr. Boone the department found through investigatory interviews with school personnel that staff who administered the 2010 MCAS tests reviewed students work on the test, coached students to add to their responses and scribed answers or portions of answers that were not worded by students. According to the guidelines no test administrator or other school personnel may coach a student during testing or alter or interfere with a student’s response in any way.

In essence, according to the State, the school broke the protocol guidelines, but keep in mind that this was not a case of someone cheating to inflate the MCAS scores of the children. As Commissioner Chester stated in a letter to Dr. Boone …”irregularities occurred at the Goddard Science and Technology School and those guidelines were not adhered to in this instance.”
As part of the remedy, Superintendent Boone was asked to prepare a report to outline how the district will train staff in proper testing procedures and how it will oversee the proper administration of the spring of 2011 MCAS tests. Dr. Boone has already completed the plan and has submitted it to the Department of Education. In addition, Dr. Boone went beyond what the State had asked for in her plan.

Dr. Boone stated, “I have pledged to the Commissioner that the district will continue to work cooperatively with the Department to ensure that all educators in Worcester are trained in proper MCAS testing procedures and will follow those procedures explicitly at all times. Despite the irregularities during the last year’s testing, I am confident that the instructional practices at Goddard are sound and represent the best practices nationally to raise student achievement.”

The school and the principal have been penalized by the state and now it’s time to move on while learning from mistakes that were made. The School Committee in a 4-3 vote did just that and voted for administration to move on and accept the findings of the State. However, there are many in this community who are still not willing to allow Goddard to “move on.” We live in such time where individuals want to be punitive and want “heads” to roll. Just listen to the talk shows or read the blogs and you’ll know what I mean. Even after all this disclosure talk show hosts are still complaining about the lack of transparency.

Many of these people making such outlandish accusations know nothing about this school. I have visited this school many times and have been impressed with Principal Marion Guerra who brings passion and a sense of purpose to the job and in addition surrounds herself with a very competent staff. There is a warm and caring environment in the building and everywhere you go you see data walls telling of where the children are in their Measurement of Academic Progress, you see students goals being written and you see lots of evidence of good teaching practices. The school believes that it takes a “village to raise a child” and therefore there are many neighborhood partnerships with church groups and social agencies. All the groups speak very highly about the school!

At last week’s school committee meeting over 100 parents, community members and student came to support Goddard! Many walked up to the microphone at City Hall and spoke about the school and the respect that they have for their principal.

You could hear statements such as ..”Mrs. Guerra loves the children for she is out in the morning greeting parents and students with a smile.”… “She encourages us all to read together as a family.”… “We see her working with students in the summer time developing a neighborhood garden.”… “I attribute my child’s success to the leadership of Mrs. Guerra.” Parent Khedeja Al-Iman spoke to me about how her son was in a charter school but after talking to other parents enrolled her son at Goddard. She stated that it was a great move for she is very satisfied with the caring and education that goes on in the school.

School Nurse, Catherine Robotis perhaps said it best, “Mrs. Guerra is deeply committed to the education of the children at Goddard. She works with children, their families, and the teachers to remove barriers to learning and promote achievement.  I can think of countless instances where her input and assistance directly helped children in need.  She is truly loved and respected by the children and their families for all she does throughout the year for them.  Several have voiced to me a wish for this process to end so they can get on with the business of learning without further distraction.”

Let’s look at some facts about this school. It is located in the main south area of our city. Goddard School is home to over 600 students and 98% of the families qualify for free and reduced lunch. The families at the school originate from all over the globe with 85% of students and families non-native speakers. There are more than 22 languages spoken at the school and these students are supported by English Learning labs. The school houses Special Education programs for Spanish speaking students and has a number of support programs for students with behavioral disabilities. The poverty level in the last nine years has increased from 65% to 98%.

Despite these odds the school has shown academic growth but not enough to close the achievement gap and to support all students to be college ready. Thus, they have taken the initiative and have applied to become an Innovation School. The Innovation School concept is a component of the educational reform agenda and has the potential to dramatically increase opportunities to improve student achievement.

Goddard School has an exciting future. In their innovation application the introductory page stated, “Research tells us that highly effective schools that beat the odds are effective because the staff has a strong culture of shared expectations for student achievement and a shared belief system built around commitment, responsibilities, and expectations…Decisions around curriculum, instruction, scheduling and resources both human and material are made collaboratively based upon data.”
Their idea is to move the culture of the school to the next level of commitment and responsibility where everyone is involved the complex issues around student achievement.

I believe it is time to move on and concentrate on ensuring that students at Goddard continue to receive an excellent education. Mistakes that were made are being addressed and now it’s time to support their efforts as they focus on meeting the needs of their students.

InCity Feature

It’s simple math: quality teaching = student achievement

By John Monfredo, Worcester School Committee

During the past two decades there has been much discussion on the importance of quality teaching and student achievement. Teacher quality stands out in the research for its potential to close the gap in academic achievement between students in the inner city and students in suburbia. This past summer, President Obama’s administration in its educational (Race to the Top) initiative stated that one of the goals was to “Attract, develop, and retain an effective, academically capable, diverse and culturally proficient educator workforce to ensure every student is taught by a great teacher and every school and district is led by a great leader.”

Using data from a 50-state survey of policies, state case studies and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), studies from author Linda Darling- Hammond suggests that policies adopted by states regarding teacher education, licensing, hiring, and professional development may make an important difference in the qualifications and capacities that teachers bring to their work. Continue reading It’s simple math: quality teaching = student achievement →

InCity Voices

Things that money can’t buy

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By Richard Schmitt

In his recent remarks about education President Barack Obama offered support for the idea of paying teachers more if their students had higher scores on standardized tests like the MCAS. Education reformers have recommended merit pay as a method for improving American education for a while now. It seems common-sensical. If you pay your cleaners minimum wage, they will do a minimal cleaning job. Pay them a bit more and they will have some incentive for working harder. Get a cheap yard clean up service and they may cut your grass but not trim the edges carefully. Pay a little more and you may find that your yard looks better.

So why would this idea not work with teachers? Because mowing lawns, cleaning offices or houses is not a job you do because you love mowing lawns or cleaning. You do it for the money. If that is what you do it for, you may well work harder to get more money. But we don’t do everything “for the money.” Other things matter. Few people get married for money; we don’t have kids for money. We don’t have friends for money, or knit or sew or cook good meals for family and friends for money. Some people are fortunate to have work that they love. Yes, they get paid and often would like to get paid more, but since they love their job, they do it as well as they can – even if they do not get paid as much money as they would like. Continue reading Things that money can’t buy →