Colorado released scores on its new tests in science and social studies, and the proportion of students labeled “college-reeady ” was disastrous. That is, if you expect most students to graduate from high school and perhaps go to college.
Either the curriculum has been narrowed so much that students aren’t learning much science or math, or the tests were so hard that few students could pass it.
Officials said, as they always did, that they expected low scores. Any teacher whose class got such low scores would be rated “ineffective.”
Colorado has been in the firm grip of the corporate reform movement for a decade. Look at the results. Sad for the kids.
Colorado students scored dismally in new science and social studies test results released Monday, a sobering development as the state enters a new era of standards and tests meant to be more demanding.
Just 17 percent of Colorado fourth- and seventh-graders scored “strong” or “distinguished” in the state’s first social studies tests. That means those students are on track to be ready for college and career.
In science, 34 percent of fifth-graders and 32 percent of eighth-graders hit those marks in assessments given last spring.
The results are a test run for advocates of tougher standards and tests. Those supporters will face a similar situation — and possible backlash — after a larger round of tests this spring based on the politically divisive Common Core standards in math and language arts.
In portraying the social studies and science results, state officials were careful to emphasize two points — that the standards and tests are unique to Colorado, and low scores were anticipated.
And more:
To measure students’ mastery, the education department, educators and publishing giant Pearson Inc. developed new online tests, the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, or CMAS.
The racial achievement gaps were stark in the results released Monday. In fifth-grade science, 13 percent of black and 15 percent of Latino students were strong or distinguished, compared to 46 percent of white students.
High-performing charter schools and district-run schools in affluent areas scored highly.
Districts in poor rural areas and close-in Denver suburbs posted the lowest scores. On average, just 6 percent of students in Commerce City-based Adams County School District 14 scored strong or distinguished on the tests.
In Denver Public Schools, 11 percent of fourth-graders and 12 percent of seventh-graders scored strong or distinguished in social studies. Twenty percent of fifth-graders and 22 percent of eight-graders did so in science.
“The results are not where we want them to be long-term,” said Alyssa Whitehead-Bust, DPS’ chief academic and innovation officer, adding they were not a surprise. “We obviously feel we have the opportunity to really grow and ensure deeper levels of command for students.”
Look at the bright side: There is lots of opportunity to grow when you are down so far. Rigor, rigor, rigor!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It was set up to fail Colorado’s students. We already knew we would fail because the cut scores were set so high. We need to fight back by refusing the CMAS for seniors which starts the first week of November. I can assure you that it is not by accident that they waited to share the results until today – when many districts are on fall break – and less parents now likely to find about the results..and get mad…and fight back. Spread the word. #choosetorefuse #NovCMAS for seniors. More information at our website at www (dot) unitedoptout (dot) com
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“High-performing charter schools and district-run schools in affluent areas scored highly.”
It doesn’t say strong or distinguished.
High performing means? are their low performing charter schools?
District-run schools in affluent areas? So poverty isn’t a factor?
Sorry, just had to restate the obvious.
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Low scores were “anticipated”? And they did nothing? When exactly is it they “anticipate” high scores?
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They intentionally set the cut scores high so that students would fail. Now they can usher in more curriculum and continue to create corporate profit via our children, teachers and schools. Manufactured crisis just escalated in Colorado.
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Welcome to the Club!
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One of our sons is now taking high school math as a seventh grader because he scored so high on some non-CCSS test that they really had to put him in there (and he made a 100 the first quarter in 9th grade math as a 7th grader). And he said he was relieved because in seventh grade math he was getting graded down for not “showing his work” the “right” CCSS way.
So, a kid who can look at a problem and go from point A to point F without drawing little arrows and boxes and “counting on” will be shown to not be good at something he can do better than anyone who might be trying to teach him.
Who wins in this game? How does hindering white middle class students help less fortunate minority students? (thank goodness his school realized he needed to be bumped up—-but what for kids whose schools don’t?)
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Just curious–does your son travel. Ack and forth to and from the high school, or is it physically connected to the middle school?
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They have enough 8th graders taking 9th grade Math that he joins them. Next year, he will walk across the street to the high school for math. Proximity in his favor (K-4,5-6,7-8,9-12 all in a clump geographically).
We have six high schools, all with the middle school right beside the high school).
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In one NJ town I know of, advanced 8th graders take 1st period math at HS, then district bus takes them to MS. Town is small enough that students can walk to HS.
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The goal is to hinder everybody without prejudice.
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Like beating all the horses just the same.
Shameful.
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Joanna,
It sounds like you should be thinking about finding access to math classes once your son runs out of math classes in high school. I have found college and university mathematics departments very accommodating, but depending on the state these classes might not count towards high school graduation and might require tuition as a special student.
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Utah’s just came out today, too. These are Common Core based tests this year, and the scores, of course, were expected to be low. Only 29 percent of 8th graders passed the math portion. And look at the gap between races and ethnic groups. Horrifying.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/1743116-155/students-percent-scores-utah-science-sage
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What do the 8th graders who passed last year’s test say when they fail this one? Does it make any sense to them?
I took standardized tests once a year in public schools and I always scored about the same, in the same range. It wasn’t nearly the obsession it is now, but I don’t know what I would have thought if I suddenly started failing. Do they have a good sense of what this is about?
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Kids haven’t gotten their individual scores yet, so it’s hard to say just yet. They HATED the testing last year, particularly the ridiculous length, so I think they may see their scores in that context.
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“Do they have a good sense of what this is about?”
If you are talking about the students, YES!
If you are talking about the test makers, test givers, etc. . . ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!
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New York encountered this two years ago. Search the archives of Diane’s blog to see her analysis and others’ analysis of how the cut scores were set. They are likely tied to the percentage of students who would score a above 560 verbal and 700 math on the SAT, or in the case of science and social studies, a score on an SATII exam.
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So what happens now? Mass firings and punishing economic sanctions?
Grim, grim, grim. There’s no joy in it.
Thank goodness children are fairly resilient. These experiments they’re subjected to just go on and on and on.
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Good point. I had a similar experience and I guarantee it would have hit me very hard to see a drastic drop.
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Grim indeed.
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“These new expectations and these scores are not an indication our students know less than they used to know,” said Joyce Zurkowski, executive director of assessment for the Colorado Department of Education. “It is instead a reflection of the increased expectations of our students.”
Baloney. I would bet a mortgage payment that every single privatization advocate in the country will be trumpeting these scores to bash public schools by 2015-16, latest. All the disclaimers will disappear into the mists of distant memory, and it’ll be one more ed reform political campaign tactic, one more hammer.
I can all but guarantee it will happen in Ohio. I am dreading it, because once the thing gets rolling, facts won’t matter at all.
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I agree that Ohio will be in the same boat. Massive firings with 50% of the teachers evaluations tied to test scores. There will also be some hand-ringing that teachers not in the orbit of the tests are getting off easy–sowing discontent, teachers not supporting each other. Perfect storm.
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There will be no “mass firings” anywhere. Trust me on this. Not one teacher in the entire state of NY has lost their job or been denied tenure as a direct result of test scores. Do you really think that the majority of building principals want to lose their veteran teachers? Do you really think that principals want to start a school year with waves of untested rookies? Most principals will act to protect their teachers by balancing the ridiculous VAM and SLO (growth) formulas with more than reasonable observation scores. Some principals may seem unreasonable, few would be so foolish as to unleash the uncertainty of “mass firings ” upon themselves.
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Principals may not have a lot of say in this. Notice a post of Diane’s earlier today that documents firings of teachers in Tennessee due to VAM scores.
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Most of the evaluation plans I have read about describe test score measures accounting for 59% of the overall evaluation. Here in NY its 40% test scores, 60% observation. I’m just not buying into the idea that hundreds of thousands of teachers will be dismissed over test scores. A Florida court upheld one case but I think that will prove to be an outlier as more and more teachers challenge this nonsense.
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50% (not 59%)
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From the article:
“Teacher evaluations in Tennessee, known as the Tennessee Education Acceleration model, have faced criticism particularly for their use of student gains on tests measured through value-added data. This compares student scores to projections and comprises 35 percent of an overall evaluation score. Qualitative in-class observations by principals account for an additional 50 percent. The remaining 15 percent is based on other student achievement metrics.”
Also:
“The board, in four separate 5-3 votes that overcame sharp resistance from some board members, certified termination charges against four Nashville teachers for producing bottom “Level 1″ scores on a 1-5 scoring evaluation scoring rubric in consecutive years. Each vote simply sends the charges before an independent reviewer, who will decide the teachers’ fate. Teachers can present their cases at that time. If the firings are approved then, the group of teachers will become the first to lose their jobs under Metro’s new system that relies on state teacher evaluation to dismiss teachers deemed low-performing.”
IF the firings are approved . . .
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Tennessee MAY fire 4 out of 5,685 teachers based on their new evaluation system. This hardly constitutes “mass firings”. And it hardly required a multi-million dollar overhaul and upheaval of the Tennessee public schools to find out that hey have just four really bad teachers who may or may not be dismissed.
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Some school districts around the nation are preparing for great losses of teachers by augmenting their alternative teacher programs (with financial assistance of course from the business community). I am guessing that good “businesspeople” that they are… they anticipate that ither good veteran teachers will be leaving in droves due to the horror of the job or they will asked to leave due to the SLO/Testing nonsense.
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NY Teacher,
There will be mass firings in Newark. Principals are targeting veteran teachers for poor evaluations. Seventy two teachers are currently up on tenure charges. More are expected in June when the new tenure law takes effect. Principals are hiring TFA and other novices.
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How did tenure law change? How many of the 72 will actually lose their tenured teaching positions? What percent of the teaching force? Newark is a complete mess. How’s that state take over working for you? As a former NJ Teacher (Paterson) you have my sympathy. Despite the situation in Newark I still don’t anticipate “mass firings, on a national scale. Time will tell. As far as late career veteran teachers bailing out, that would be too bad as we are in the best position to fight this.
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I agree principals are trying to neutralize the flawed VAM system, at least those with an interest in keeping teachers. One of the asst. principals evaluating my advanced middle school math class was the basketball coach and phys ed. Nothing against phys ed, but I would not attempt to coach basketball with my limited knowledge, nor should he be trying to judge my math class.
But principals are losing control. In Ohio, the legislative education committee proposed any teacher ranked ineffective should lose their license as state law. It is naive to believe that anti-teacher crowd would not replace most professionals with cheap temps or H1b workers. Their ultimate goal is to cut costs by any means necessary.
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“In Ohio, the legislative education committee proposed any teacher ranked ineffective should lose their license as state law.”
If passed into law it would never survive a legal challenge. This isn’t the Soviet Union after all.
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NY,
I hate to disagree with you on so many points. Veteran teachers are being targeted. We are in no position to do anything. Forty of the seventy two reportedly resigned. One teacher prevailed in her arbitration. Arbitrators are not bound by precedents and are free to rule on a case by case basis.
The tenure law was changed by Christie with the strong support of Democrats Sweeney and Ruiz.
Four hundred teachers are on the Educators Without Placement Sites list. This is another group being targeted by the administration.
Am I to understand that the fact that there are mass firings in Newark, Philadelphia and Chicago is not sufficient evidence for you? The firings would have to come to you upstate before the situation would resonate for you.
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“. . . said Joyce Zurkowski. . . ”
Joyce don’t know jackshit!!
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First, judging whether or not someone is ready for a career or university in grade four is ludicrous. Second, students do not take these test seriously unless they mean moving on to the next grade or not. I guess the test-makers were never in grade four…
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ludicrous indeed
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They’re mandating “career options” education for 6th graders in Ohio now. I support vocational education, I went to a community college for a vo-tech 2 year degree before I went to get a bachelors, later, . but I knew ed reformers would go completely insane with vocational ed and start tracking 12 year olds into vo-tech programs.
I knew it. I read they were going into vocational ed in a big way in this state and I thought “oh, no. They’ll go nuts with this like they do with everything else”
They seem to lack…prudence. They go off the deep end.
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The CCSS meme of “college and career ready” is intended to be a revival of tracking students into college prep and voc ed, only earlier–like in KINDERGARTEN !!!!!!!!!
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But we DON’T, of course want students to be CITIZEN ready because that would lead to a educated citizenry, not an easily brainwashed one. And yet an educated citizenry was the impetus behind early 18th C. common schooling. Alas, there are many educators today who do not even know that.
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I don’t have a problem with tracking IF there is a lifetime option of getting the alternate diploma (either way) later in life for free at a community college.
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Are we sure the intent is to track lower-scoring students into voc ed? How would we recover the h.s. voc ed eqpt & teachers that have been disappearing since the late ’70’s, now found only in specialized regional schools at some distance from many high schools? …Or perhaps other states have retained more voc ed over the past 35 yrs than in my general area?
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Not just 4th graders, I watched 7th and 8th graders “finish” math and science MCA’s in 5 -10 minutes. They didn’t even want to put out the effort to read the questions. The students had no sense of the test scores affecting their lives. A remedial reading teacher at my school told me that she highly doubted the acuraccy of the achievement gap after watching non-proficient minority students from her class read way above their test level when they were motivated to by self interest.
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Sophie,
Would you say that these tests created a great deal of stress for the students? Many who post here criticize these exams because of the stress they create.
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I would say Sophie’s experience is typical. And the only stress I have seen is in students who do care about their achievement and are being removed from their normal courses for days at a time to do these tests. Some classes are 1 semester, 90 minutes per day, and if a student misses three classes, that’s 4.5 hours! Because while that student is testing, his/her normal classes are still going on, since many classes have mixed grade levels (for example, junior/senior but only the juniors are testing). Other than that, most grade 11 students are emphatically not stressed about a test that will not have much to do with their lives. Of course the scores do not reflect ability.
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Tell me what score you want, and I’ll design a test to generate that.
Such is the nature of testing, and that fact should give everyone pause.
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Also survey design, the one is Gates MET project was weighted to reward teachers who practice a variant of direct instruction with lots of homework.
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Bob Shepherd: I honestly can’t know whether or not all the viewers of your comment will realize it, but what you wrote—
“Tell me what score you want, and I’ll design a test to generate that.
Such is the nature of testing, and that fact should give everyone pause.”
—is simple fact.
Not tendentious, merely opinion, unfairly slanted one way or the other, lying by commission or omission or half-truths.
It is simple fact.
For the major providers of high-stakes standardized tests, the designers and producers that pretest and then deliver said tests—
Give their customers what they’ve asked and been paid for. Literally. Such is the nature of this particular eduproduct. Whatever one thinks of standardized tests, they are backed up by many decades of trial and error, and experience, and some pretty distinguished minds [at least as defined in psychometric terms] have created (and continue to tweak) them.
Could what I have written really be true?
Just look at an excerpt from the posting above:
[start excerpt]
“The results are not where we want them to be long-term,” said Alyssa Whitehead-Bust, DPS’ chief academic and innovation officer, adding they were not a surprise. “We obviously feel we have the opportunity to really grow and ensure deeper levels of command for students.”
[end excerpt]
The “adding they were not a surprise” is to be taken literally, not figuratively. The only surprise to me, at this point, is when people are surprised [as in the case of the NY results) at the carefully calibrated predetermined results.
If I may translate from Rheephormish into English, “adding they were not a surprise” in the former translates into “you been sucker punched, sucka!”
😡
Am I being opinionated! Am I objecting to educrats and edubullies acting in a rheeally immoral and Johnsonally sort of way…
Absolutely. Decency, compassion and honor are never out of style, even in this most cage busting achievement gap crushing 21st century with its “new civil rights movement of our time” and its leaders in mad dog pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$.
No, I am not ashamed to go with a 19th century American hero:
“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” [Frederick Douglass]
Let’s all get unfit together.
See you down at Pink Slip Bar & Grille. Drinks are on the Greek guy. Call him old fashioned, but Socrates doesn’t like standardized nothin’, it’s just all truth and beauty and knowledge…
Always time to toast that.
😎
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This site needs a “like” button…
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Krazy and others; while I don’t have a doctorate in statistics, I do have an M.A. in criminal psychology and was a profiler. I also have more of a background in testing than the average bear. Tests are built on assumptions. What assumptions you have, type 1 and 2 errors, are reflected in your test. Yes, you literally can manipulate the distribution of test scores. Here in Nevada for years the state developed Criterion Reference Test was rewritten every year. Questions answered correctly by too many students were thrown out. A mix of questions were developed by “depth of knowledge” to obscure and confuse kids was developed to ensure a distribution of scores. While this was happening teachers are to be rated on student growth percentiles, the “Nevada Growth Model,” which is just a plagiarized version of the Colorado Growth Model. It is truly a bad dream and a rigged game. The children will be kept in their percentile rank by an ever changing test. The teachers will be fired for not raising the child’s percentile ranking. Mathematical fraud is what this is.
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cyn3wulf: thank you.
Old Teacher: if I may, let me “under”-do [not out do] you re numbers and stats.
I am not exaggerating when I assert that I may be a founding member of the innumerati [numerical equivalent of illiterati] so trust me when I say that when I first started delving into the ‘wonderful world of standardized testing’ I was about as clueless as anyone could be.
After five years, not so clueless. Test designers and makers get very picky about minutiae. For example, DIF [Differential Item Functioning]. Put simply, let’s say that among the top-scoring boys and girls on a standardized test they find that, on average, more boys than girls (or vice versa) get a certain “item” [preferred term for something generating a response than “question” because they are not always framed as questions] right or wrong. Or it could be a difference between rural students and big-city students, or students of varying ethnic/racial backgrounds, etc. After due consideration, they may throw out the item, even if they aren’t sure why it is being answered differently by similar types of students taking the test.
Why? In part because the whole point of a standardized is to get a spread of scores that the test makers and givers can claim is consistent. Think about that for a moment.
If everyone gets 100% right, then the general public would usually respond that the test is “too easy”; if everyone gets 100% wrong, the test is “obviously” too hard. That’s the way we, outside of the standardized testing community, think of it. But what we think is pretty unimportant to them—except for blowback that embarrasses them and hurts the bottom line.
No, the idea is to get an acceptable [to producers and customers of standardized tests] continuum of scores that indicate different levels of “performance” or “achievement”—these are the preferred psychometric terms; they usually avoid using the term “learning” because they aren’t the hucksters selling the eduproduct. Spread out the scores, differentiate from “high” and “low” and “average” achievers/performers, often using a bell curve.
All fine and dandy, but since the items on a standardized test (most especially the high-stakes variety) are only a tiny sampling of vast “domains” of knowledge and skills, then the best you’re really getting is an indication of how good you are at taking tests. As for such unmeasurables as creativity and persistence, for example, you don’t get a clue from test scores, and as for getting them all right or all wrong—since you’re only measuring what you can do with a small sample, you can’t really be sure that the test-takers know all the other stuff.
Add to that the persistent problem with “best” answers that aren’t really the “best” and are even sometimes “wrong” answers, ad nauseum, turns out that test makers and designers don’t get excited about that stuff [except as pr blowback]. Remember, the actual test items are simply proxies for all the stuff the test takers are supposed to know, so there is an inherent ambiguity and vagueness in interpreting high or low or average test scores as meaningful indicators of something very large called “learning.”
Bottom line: when it comes to the general public, standardized test scores and the parasitic mathematical models they feed [most especially VAM] are misleading in great part because the precision of the numbers & stats for the measurement of very little masquerades as accuracy/trustworthiness in revealing vast domains of knowledge and skills.
Please excuse if I haven’t explained the above well.
😎
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The blowback that embarrasses them is what we need!
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TAGO and AMEN Brother KTA!!!
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KTA,
“. . . since you’re only measuring what you can do with a small sample. . . ”
If I may subtly correct your statement: “since you’re only SUPPOSEDLY/PURPORTEDLY measuring what you can do with a small sample,”
These assessing devices (standardized tests) do not “measure” anything. They count correct responses, numerizing the results but in no stretch of the imagination do they “measure” the learning of the students.
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KrazyTA– you said a mouthful here, & neatly defined things: “the precision of the numbers & stats for the measurement of very little masquerades as accuracy/trustworthiness in revealing vast domains of knowledge and skills”
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Thanks to all that have commented.
And Señor Swacker: I heartily concur with your suggested change. Adding “SUPPOSEDLY/PURPORTEDLY” sharpens the point I made—and in any case I agree with you.
For one and all, a round of drinks on me at Pink Slip Bar & Grille. No matter how many drachmas it takes; let the ouzo flow freely…
Insisted upon, I should admit, by Socrates. This is one discussion he heartily approved of. He reminded me:
“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.”
And the self-styled “education reformers”? They discuss their latest misleadingly accurate and trustworthy data points.
Beauty and truth and wisdom? Never gonna be on their standardized test—
And more’s the pity…
😎
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We should all be extremely concerned with tracking for vocational school which begins in very early grades when students are still learning to tie their shoes. The tracking is being decided by “someone else” and will be so early on as to deny a student the opportunity to flourish and develop. This is not choice! This is not the “tracking” in earlier times that allowed a student growth – the choice to choose a vocational career or not (based on their academic development over time and the desire to enable them to prepare themselves for a trade career with job prospects after high school graduation. Childhood development experts agree that children develop at different rates in the various content areas – it is by virtue of being human. So how is it these “ed reformers” get to deny students their humanity and AT SUCH AN EARLY STAGE??? And the in the ultimate irony they label it “Civil Righst”????
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A simple truth, succinctly stated…
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Grit, grit, grit . . .
“The results are not where we want them to be long-term,” said Alyssa Whitehead-Bust, DPS’ chief academic and innovation officer, adding they were not a surprise. “We obviously feel we have the opportunity to really grow and ensure deeper levels of command for students.”
She should know – as innovation officer, the scores did indeed go bust! (No double entendre intended.)
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Thought this was interesting. Duncan’s rhetoric on testing (allegedly!) comes from the White House:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2014/10/where_did_the_obama_adminstrat.html
I wonder if Democrats who are out running for office told the President his ed reform agenda is not very popular among many people who traditionally vote for Democrats 🙂
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The one around here has the good sense to distance himself from Obama’s Ed policies. Largely because I introduced him to this blog!!!
May he win next Tuesday.
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The first ripples of the testing tsunami that is about strike the entire nation are washing ashore in Colorado, Utah, and Florida. New York has been underwater for two turbulent years. These tests are designed to produce failure rates that support the false claim that all of America’s schools are “failure factories filled with incompetent lazy teachers. Parents have the power to stop the madness. We love our children too much to allow this corporate reform movement to last much longer.Political pressures have already made the Common Core the most toxic political brand in America. Do not relent. Stay fierce and fearless.
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(My apologies to Mr.Zimmerman)
“Must Be Bubbled-In”
How many tests must a child withstand
Before we can kill this scam?
How many years will we need to resist?
With so many heads in the sand?
Yes, how many tests must our children endure?
Before test-and-punish is banned?
Right answers my friend, must be bubbled-in
Right answers again and again.
Yes, how many years can Arne still test?
Before he ends up like Rhee?
Yes, how many years can he still insist?
Before even Bill disagrees?
Yes, how many times can Congress turn its head?
Pretending they just cannot see?
Right answers my friend, must be bubbled-in
Right answers again and again.
Yes, how many tests must a child still take?
Before we really know why?
Yes, how many doubts must one nation have?
Before we can hear children cry?
Yes, how many fails will it take till we know
That too many people have lied?
Right answers my friend, must be bubbled-in
Right answers again and again
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My high school is 30% white, 30% Jewish, and 30% Asian (Chinese, Indian, and Korean.) My white students are actually holding up the bottom of the class. I have colleagues who teach almost the same way, but they teach all Latino or black, and will most likely lose their jobs. My school is rated in the top of all public high schools, and my friends’ high schools are at the bottom. It all depends on whom you teach, doesn’t it? It actually has very little to do with the teaching (if you are competent), and a lot more to do with who your students are. It isn’t fair. I just hope the Chinese and Indian immigrants keep coming. I may win teacher of the year, and I can tour the country touting my own “success” as a teacher!
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Are your Jewish kids not considered white? Are they a mix of races with a common religion (Jewish)?
And yes, it’s all about the kids you get.
Wasn’t it the Onion with the headline To Improve Test Scores, School Replaces Student Body? Or something along those lines. Funny and true.
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Cupcake, Jewish students have a higher average IQ than “white” students so they are a subgroup.
My other comment was about tracking but is in the wrong place because I post too quickly.
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Are students now bubbling in their religious affiliation when taking standardized tests??
Ms Best, the wording of your reply to Cupcake has me reflecting. At Rutgers Grad S Ed, a prof explained that IQ tests were devised to predict school success (Binet in France); IQ is a score on a test not an innate quality (so”tend to score higher on IQ tests” seems more apt than “have …”). We won’t even get into socioeconomic, cultural, racial biases of tests. Duane S can jump in here re N Wilson.
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Except, like I said, if every student has the option to earn both diplomas at any time, even fifty years later. For free.
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Diane, they are already floating this baloney,”we expect scores to be lower” here in NJ in advance of the PARCC. What is the answer to this?
It is said to make the system and test seem ok, but it is not, of course.
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They’re lying. They KNOW scores will plummet. And it has everything to do with tests (and cut scores) designed to produce a desired failure rate. Read Bob S. and Krazy TA below. Using 8 to 14 year olds as pawns in political game disgusts me beyond words. What can you do? Educate parents. Promote student opt outs. Speak out publicly against this madness. Stay fierce and fearless. It especially behooves late career teachers, those in a position with nothing to lose, to really make their voices heard.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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Why do we just accept all this failure? It is just cruel. What is the purpose?
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No surprise. This happened in OK when they raised the cut scores for biology…AFTER kids had taken the tests and been told that they passed. THEN, the powers at be used these “failing” numbers to tell parents that their schools & teachers were failing and needed more “rigor”! I think rigor is a dirty-word here in OK!
Unfortunately, even though our tyrant State Super Barresi got booted in the primaries, the R candidate in the race is exactly like her, but nice. It’s been an uphill, grassroots movement here to try and get Dr. John Cox elected next week. He is a public school superintendent with 21 years of administrative experience in PUBLIC education & has openly opposed CC since the beginning. His R counterpart strongly supported CC.
7 more days! That is all! 🙂
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I hope DPS administrators are reading these comments. DPS kids need more opportunities to learn in small groups with experienced, knowledgeable, innovative, well equipped teachers that have time to collaborate with each other. More grants that bring in more money for “new” curriculum, more project managers, more science coaches for teachers, more directors and assistant directors of more district departments, more data meetings, more interim testing and more people to give the tests, score the tests, and write reports about the results just isn’t going to help. Teachers are drowning in tests, data, new curriculum, and “help.” They have too many kids, too little time and a dizzying amount of quick fixes coming from a dizzying number of new administrators to keep track of. Kids are losing…their teachers!
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We must tell our Colorado friends to #choosetorefuse #NovCMAS. We must get the word out. This test is the first week of November. No data = no profit. Info on how to refuse this test is at our website at www (dot) unitedoptout (dot) com.
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I would think that a clever person on the side of public schools would use this moment to point out that school reform has failed badly. I mean, 20 years of charter schools which were supposed to increase competition and unleash market forces on urban areas doesn’t seem to have helped. Achievement gaps are shown to be worse from these “results.”
A dozen years of NCLB and its testing mandates has proven to be a failure.
Teaching to tests has proven to be a failure.
I mean, as teachers, all we’ve done is follow the forced policy provisions thrown before us. And to what end? Massive failure apparently.
And when Duncan trots out his list of employer desired skills (five of them), 40% of those skills can’t be measured by these tests. One, collaboration, is not found on any test unless students are suddenly allowed to work on them in groups. (Though teachers and administrators in some areas have proven quite adept at collaboration, yes Atlanta and DC, I’m looking at you). Another, creativity, cannot possible be quantified.
So, yes, we should be able to use these results to show that reform hasn’t worked at all.
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” Another, creativity, cannot possible be quantified.”
Not much about assessing the teaching and learning process can be “quantified”, other than the things that can be seen and counted. And that doesn’t mean that those counted things have been “measured”.
Seems like a simple concept but so many don’t understand that fact.
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PARCC testing is a corporate reform disabled vehicle and lane blockage on a previously functioning public highway. Not much innovation there.
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