"A Cautionary Tale about Forsaking Educational Basics for Castles in the Sky.'
Yes, I have seen this essay by Sandeep Kaushik, The Decade of Decline in Seattle Public Schools.
Yes, my work was acknowledged twice and I am very grateful for that. (Full disclosure, I have spoken to Sandeep on educational issues several times but I would call him a colleague and not a friend.)
Yes, I do plan to write about it here but my day is busy. I'll try to get to it later but you are welcome to read it and comment.
Comments
hatred of highly capable programs. Academic standards got kicked to the curb and parents bailed for private schools. Should be required reading for all educators, the Seattle Times and our city leaders.
I do think there is a flaw in Sandeep’s piece. The article indicated that test scores increased under MGJ.. The claim needs further clarification and scrutiny. As I recall, MGJ and a staffer manipulated numbers used to assess college readiness. I think a different entity was responsible for setting the number, but MGJ and staffer decided to change the metric.
The ZDW, Hampson, Rankin, and Hersey boards drove the district into the ground . I am just glad Rankin is there to take responsibility for the mess.
- Disgusted
- Disgusted
It’s another thing the teachers had to deal with.
A district staff had a presentation about test scores and said outright that the only purpose of testing was to close the achievement gap. It meant that more resources would be poured into schools with lower test scores.
The young students then reasoned that if they deliberately click on the wrong answers on those standardized exams by the district, they could bring more fundings to their school.
Been there
The district also had so much money that it sold a piece of land to a minority-owned entity for about eight millions less than selling it to the Bush private school.
What budget crisis?
Been there
An expert from the central office gave a presentation to a group of parents about the test results and their usage. There were opposition to forcing the students to take the exam of no benefits to the students. And the students and parents were not allowed access to the results of the exams. When asked how the students could improve their deficiencies from the exam results, the district staff advised the parents to talk to the teacher.
Then the district staff emphasized that the only purpose of the exam is to close the achievement gaps. There were obvious achievement gaps between some schools, and more resources would be directed to the schools with low test scores.
I told the students what the district staff said. The students figured out that if they do badly on the exam, then their school would look bad, and the school could get more money.
Believe it or not, there was a time when kindergarteners were not required to take standardized exams. And students used to be able to opt out of taking those useless standardized exams whose only purpose was to close the achievement gap.
Been there
High-school students were being tested so SPS and/or NWEA could establish or validate normative reference numbers: the average score distribution and percentile cut points needed to interpret an individual student’s RIT score against comparable students.
In other words, a student’s result could contribute to building the answer to questions such as:
• What RIT score is typical for an 11th grader?
• What score marks the 50th, 75th, or 90th percentile?
• How much growth is usual from one grade or season to another?
• Are SPS students performing differently from a national reference group?
Some parents did not want there student being used to generate data for testing companies. One particular principal began offering tacos to any student taking the test because parents were opting their child out of hours of useless testing..
- Not All Peaches and Cream
Meanwhile, the test itself is just an adaptive math exercise. Actually a special sort of exercise -- a comprehensive review rather than just a worksheet from the current unit. But math practice is math practice. It's what students are supposed to do in school. From the student perspective, it's hardly different from doing a worksheet on paper (except for the computer skills part).
At the time the MAP test was developed, it was the only computerized diagnostic available to teachers. It seems a little bit quaint in retrospect, now that teachers have i-Ready available for diagnostic use any time. Not to mention platforms like Desmos for computerized exercises.
OK, maybe some teachers would rather not have any diagnostic tool available, so they can play dumb about the current competence of their students. That justifies a one-size-fits-all classroom approach, and furthers a certain ideological perspective. But it's not good for students. Hooray for the test. As a parent, I was always glad to hear my kids were taking the test.
I think there are many reasons to opt-out. I was able to opt my kids out of the state test when they were in school. But then the district got hip to the fact that many parents of high-achieving students were doing that and they made it mandatory to take the test to be in HC. Not good.