The storied Boston Latin School has long been recognized as one of the very best public schools in the state dropped a notch in its state ranking because 13 students opted out.
The problem is not the school or its students, but an absurd, misleading, pointless ranking system. Just like A-F grades for schools. Only the sheep create and believe such grades.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The problem is not the school or its students, but an absurd, misleading, pointless ranking system. Just like A-F grades for schools. Only the sheep create and believe such grades.”
YEP!
And just as it is absurd, misleading and pointless to give “grades” to schools, it is just as absurd, misleading and pointless to “grade” students. Actually is is worse than that as many students internalize those “grades” and “become those grades” at least in their own mind.
Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
It’s increasingly obvious to even a casual observer that the ranking of Massachusetts public schools is fatally flawed. Boston Latin was one of the highest scores statewide and had 100% of its tenth grade students score either Advanced or Proficient on the MCAS (and that’s some 400 kids), but it has been cast out from the Garden of Delights of Level 1 because some few parents opted their children out of testing. Worse still, schools which administered the “next gen” PARCC instead of the MCAS were to be held harmless if scores dropped (Mitchell Chester still pushing PARCC, his own special interest), but apparently not if parents opted to have their child skip the test entirely. Conform or be banished says DESE.
The following is an excerpt from a letter sent to the Boston Latin School community from the interim Headmaster, Michael Contompasis:
“Also today, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released a report that identified Boston Latin School – for all populations – had met or exceeded targets in every category in every subject area and was among the highest scorers in the state on the PARCC (Partnerships for Assessment and Readiness for College and Careers) test.
At the same time, Boston Latin School was designated a Level 2 school because the PARCC participation rate for white middle school students was just slightly lower than the 95% target set by the DESE. The 94% white student participation rate in the English Language Arts section and the 93% white student participation rate in Math was due to 13 middle school students (out of 562) whose parents requested that their children be excused from PARCC testing and two students who were absent due to serious long-term medical issues.
Parents who chose not to have their 7th and 8th graders take the PARCC last spring relied on a January 29, 2016 letter from Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester that states:
Boston Latin School was encouraged that close to 100% of its students participated in the MCAS – the exam that the Boston Public Schools, with state approval, has determined to be its official assessment tool. 100% of BLS students scored Advanced or Proficient on the tenth grade MCAS; 97% scored Advanced on the Math MCAS; and 84% scored Advanced on the English Language Arts MCAS. When the PARCC was introduced, school districts were given the option of administering this exam as well as the MCAS, with the understanding that the additional PARCC testing would be voluntary. Boston Public Schools has formally appealed to DESE to reconsider the lower classification of Boston Latin School.”
Jack Schneider, Assistant Professor of Education at Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, gives some much needed perspective on the whole hot mess at Commonwealth Magazine:
http://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/what-makes-a-level-1-school/#.V-qeDNNvxu8.twitter
Test scores this, test scores that
pull a dead rabbit out of the hat.
Test score is road kill dead rabbit
Useless except as vulture diet.
low test scores and poor school rankings mean one very important thing in deregulated days of vulture school”reform” — continued money to those creating the tests and pushing the computers
Altogether 15 MA schools lost ratings due to participation.
http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/accountability.aspx
I hope that the BLS story will raise awareness of the absurdity and utter meaningless nature of the 1-5 rating system. This has been happening for years and because a subgroup that has at least 10 members cuts, that means in a small subgroup, 1-3 students not taking the exam can lower the rankings.
The Globe posted the MCAS (statewide proficiency exam) at BLS 97% of students scored advanced in math and 3% proficient and in ELA advanced 84% advances and 16% proficient making it #1 in math and #2 in the state in ELA making this rating even more absurd.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/09/26/mcas-math-scores-for-graders/LPZmfXswRFICD98S1Rp62J/story.html
http://massteacher.org/news/archive/2016/lowering_of_school_ratings_due_to_opt_outs_exposes_absurd_accountability_system
I’m surprised that so few students opted out at Latin. Maybe the reduced ranking will mean that fewer people will apply. (Ha, Ha, Ha!)
“Only the sheep create and believe such grades.”
I have noticed a welcome change in your language, Diane: stronger, more direct pronouncements.
I hope parents at this school won’t back down after this blackmailing.