NCLB, why won’t you leave me be…

February17

to teach?

Here is the long promised NCLB post. Okay, here is the background. I teach at a PI (program improvement) school in the Sacramento area. In the interest of disclosure, I am the union representative at my school site. I started teaching as California was introducing a plan for school improvement, and my first teaching job was at an II-USP school (immediate intervention for underperforming schools program) which was the state’s program. We started out in California with a program based on CAT-9 tests, which are normed referenced. For those of you who don’t know what that means, the grade/score is based on a norm or curve. Hmm, quick logic question, can all students be above 50% when the score is on a bell-curve? We are now on a standards based test, CST (California Standards Test).  Okay, enough about me, lets talk about it…

Goal:We need accountability for children’s achievement with measurable goals

Unintended Consequence: Welcome to testing land and all the distortions that come with it, including but not limited to:

  • teaching to the test
  • cheating by teachers
  • conversion to an exam based system

Only in Lake Wobegon are all children above average.  The funniest thing I found was an article by Charles Murray (yep, that one) on WSJ that was basically about lies, darn lies, and test scores. Let me share some of the distortions that the testing system has created where I work.

The AYP (Average Yearly Progress) goals do not start at 100%, but ratchet up every few years. Currently they are at about 25% for the elementary where I teach. This means that ~25% of the students need to be at or above grade level. There are five levels of proficiency in California (Far Below Basic, Below Basic, Basic–almost grade level, Proficient, and Advanced). We have a distribution of scores across all the levels, with most students in the Basic range. This has led to a fierce effort to move students from Basic to Proficient. We do some work with the Far Below Basic, and Below Basic students, but we have been told explicitly the focus is getting the Basic students up to grade-level. In other words, students are being left behind.

California wants to have higher level thinking (analysis, etc.), and testing together. This leads to some rather perverse questions, that ask for shades of understanding and lots of student interpretation, but have one right answer. Look at question 35 from the release questions on the fifth grade test. Students are asked to compare Matthew Henson, and Robert Perry to various people on quests. The correct answer is that they are like knights going to a foreign land, but what if the student thinks they are more like astronauts (a valid comparison, no). They are asked to infer with one right answer questions that may have a myriad of correct responses. This seems a perversion of the traditional strength of American teaching which taught flexibility and different points of view.

Goal:Poor families need more options for their children’s education

Unintended Consequence:Welcome to Supplemental Education Services (SES), school choice, both within a public school district and vouchers for private education.

All these are based on the assumption that all or even most parents at failing schools want to leave their neighborhood schools. First, they want their local schools to work. My own experience is that they are also not always the best education consumers, and whatever they might say, their child’s education (for good or ill reasons) is not always their first priority.  Here are my concerns:

  • If choice is the only solution offered, or the primary solution, then those with ability and inclination to leave (most of them the smartest, and best of these schools) will leave. This will leave behind students who are at the lowest level, have the lowest amount of parental support, in an even more segregated education.  We will be leaving children behind.  I’ve heard some folks (including a local school board member) ecstatic about a local charter high school, and wishing all the high schools could be like that, when the reality is even with open enrollment, most of these school populations are self-selecting, and if they truly had the same population that a local public school takes in, they would have some of the same problems.
    I think we need to improve schools where they are, or someone will get left behind.
  • School choice, where’s the accountability for some of these schools? I won’t go into the uneven performance of charter schools that DOE found, but I’ll share what I’m afraid of if things go all the way to vouchers. You can ignore it, saying I’m just wearing my union cap, but this is a real fear based on experience. When I taught in Oakland, I (and others believe me) would run across students who had attended schools run in local store-front churches. They were illiterate in upper grades, or could not do simple math. They knew Bible verses, but it was pretty obvious that no teaching or learning had taken place. I don’t think all private schools are like this, but this would NOT have happened at the public schools I taught at, even at the poor level of “performance” they were at.
  • Here is a link to an earlier post I made about SES.

Solutions?

First, do we need to be fixed? Is testing the solution? How do you have assessment and accountability and not make it a witch hunt?

  1. First, look at the second article in the Stanford University magazine article. It makes a very strong case for things not being so bad, and also questions the movement in the U.S. towards a testing based system. This is a big change in our K-12 system, which is traditionally based on seat time (as oppposed to the British and French exam based systems).  Now there is talk of extending the testing systems up to colleges and universities. I for one think this has never been a strength of the U.S. system, and we are looked up to for teaching our students to think for themselves. I just don’t think you can do that in a testing based system.
  2. Next, there are pleas for alternative assessment. I will admit that having come into teaching when I did, I don’t have much experience in “portfolio” based education, except what I’ve done inadvertently, so I am not the best person to discuss this. I’d like to see teachers who do this talk about what it would look like. Here are some concerns that I have, but I view them as problems that can be solved, not impediments to implementing alternative/portfolio based assessment .What standards will you have for the work? Who will set the standards (local, state, federal)?Who will “grade” the work? How do you stop grade inflation/deflation from creeping in? Will there be auditing? Part of the reason that exams are so popular is that bubble-tests are cheap to have outsiders grade (as opposed to having outsiders review a portfolio) and are uniform.
by posted under onions, orchids | 9 Comments »    
9 Comments to

“NCLB, why won’t you leave me be…”

  1. February 18th, 2007 at 6:11 pm      Reply Doug Noon Says:

    You’ve noticed that I’m on my own little NCLB jag lately…It must be February. I really liked this:

    “Only in Lake Wobegon are all children above average….This seems a perversion of the traditional strength of American teaching which taught flexibility and different points of view….How do you have assessment and accountability and not make it a witch hunt?”

    Good points. Well said. Thanks for the link, but more importantly – thanks for taking up this difficult topic.


  2. February 18th, 2007 at 6:25 pm      Reply alicemercer Says:

    This is a real compliment coming from you because I have to say, to me you have one of the most interesting, and beautiful “voices” in your writing. I was just thinking I wanted to put up a post with a link to your site, and talk about how it has influenced me. I notice you don’t post as much as others, but they are really gems. This post was intended to be a longer, more cited post similar to the ones you do.
    Thank you, thank you, thank you!
    Before I forget, your site is: http://borderland.northernattitude.org/


  3. February 20th, 2007 at 10:07 am      Reply Michele Futch Says:

    I feel like I have to be the children’s advocate, on this one. I work with Special Ed students and regular students that score the lowest level on our Florida State-Based Assessment. Speaking out for my Special Ed students, I feel like NCLB is an insane plan for them. I have students that have IQ’s anywhere from 48-89. These students will never read on grade level. Can we make gains? Absolutely! But, grade level is almost an impossibility. These children are working their very hardest only to be repeatedly told, “You need to be able to read and perform on grade level.” If they legally qualify for SSI based on their disability, shouldn’t that say something!

    NCLB is supposed to be revisited by the “Powers that Be” this year. Hopefully, they will use some common sense and make some needed changes. But, most of our politicians children go to private schools, anyway. NCLB does not apply to them or schools that are not Title I. If NCLB personally effected their child’s school, you can bet there would be some changes made or it would even be tossed aside!


  4. February 20th, 2007 at 7:08 pm      Reply alicemercer Says:

    Michele, thank you so much for the perspective from special education. The NCLB mandates for these students are ridiculous, and it’s creating some real perversions. If you get a chance, look in the NCLB links to the right, and there are petitions, etc. from NCTE, AFT, and NEA to share your stories so that we can get some voice in reauthorization.

    NCLB implementation is going along with implementation of the California High School Exit Exam here. I’m hearing complaints from High School special education teachers in my district that provisions for transition to job training in IEPs are being ignored so that students can be placed in algebra classes repeatedly that they fail repeatedly, in the hope that they “might” pass the class at some point. This is very disturbing because this will leave these student less employable, but still unable to do algebra.


  5. March 2nd, 2007 at 9:49 pm      Reply Nancy Bosch Says:

    I teach gifted kids in a special education program mandated by the state. Who do you think learns the least new material everyday in school? At first you would think it’s the LD kiddo or the ELL kiddo, no in fact gifted kids learn the least new material everyday. We all fight for all kids.


  6. March 2nd, 2007 at 9:53 pm      Reply alicemercer Says:

    Nancy, please explain, are they taught the least, or do they already know most of what they are being taught? I want to make sure I’m not making assumption about what you are saying, because I think I may have some thoughts myself on this.


  7. June 11th, 2007 at 7:37 pm      Reply nancy bosch Says:

    The research indicates that an elementary gifted kid probably knows 50-80% of what is being taught before entering the grade. That’s pretty astounding. Here’s another interesting thing–a kid with an IQ of 130 + needs only one to two repetitions to “get it”, an “average” child needs 17 repetitions–that’s the big problem. It’s not that the gifted kids know it all–they just get it fast and need to move on.

    I was searching for something and happened upon this blog response, that’s why it took me so long to comment. Have a good summer, N


  8. June 11th, 2007 at 8:03 pm      Reply alicemercer Says:

    Nancy, better late than never on your response. I get what you are saying, and I hear about treating the high IQ students differently. We tried having all high level students together at my school to address this, and it’s led to tracking problems, and is therefore being abandon. I think we’re all (teachers in my school) going to have to think creatively about how to teach our highest students, because having entire classes of students well below grade level didn’t cut it.

    I’d love it if you could peruse the recent post on alternative education since a number of those students are gifted/high IQ but performing at a low level.


  9. June 11th, 2007 at 8:38 pm      Reply nancy bosch Says:

    I certainly, even after 20 years of teaching gifted kids, don’t have all the answers but I have lots of opinions!!! The bottom line is this–good differentiation is VERY hard to do. I’ve had 2 week-long inservices on how to do it and I don’t know if I could do it well and I understand it “philosophically”. The trials of the classroom and NCLB have made it even worse.

    Here’s what would make a big difference to gifted kids in today’s classroom–get to know the kid and what he/she already knows and validate to him/her that you understand that. So many times it’s easier just to let the kiddo sit or read (what an escape that becomes)–I’ve got a lot of fairly simple intervention ideas, if you want them. I’ll read the other post–N


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