Posted on 08/01/2010 7:04:51 PM PDT by neverdem
LINDA L. SINGER, the principal of Public School 255 in Gravesend, Brooklyn, has some phone calls she is dreading to make.
Among them: informing 10 families that their children, scheduled to enroll in gifted programs, will no longer qualify, because of new, tougher grading on state English and math exams. And letting the rest of the teachers know that their A-graded school, which had shown consistent progress for years, plunged to a 65 percent passing rate in English, from 85 percent, according to standardized scores released last week.
“When I got these scores I thought I would die,” Ms. Singer said, echoing the feeling in many principals’ offices throughout the city. “Everything is changed.”
There were large drops in passing rates across New York, reflecting new requirements intended to correct for years of inflated results. The exams, state education officials said, had become too easy to pass, their definition of proficiency no longer meaningful. Citywide, the proficiency rate in English fell to 42 percent, from 69 percent last year; 54 percent reached grade level in math, down from 82 percent.
As the plummeting scores sunk in, principals planned strategy and contemplated the unraveling of other achievements, which they were suddenly informed were illusory. In New York City, where test scores are the cornerstone of school accountability, the new numbers, principals feared, could mean the end of their A grades from the Department of Education; a rise in negative teacher performance reviews, which are based partly on state tests; and substandard principal performance reviews.
But some of the principals’...
--snip--
At some schools, the drop was breathtaking. At Public School 85 in the Bronx, known as the Great Expectations School, there was a literal reversal in fortune, with proficiency on the third-grade math test flipping from 81 percent to 18 percent....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It’s easy to do well when you fudge the numbers.
Maybe they should have tried naming the school the Objective Results School.
You mean that theory wherein nobody loses and everyone gets a trophy didn’t work out so well?
It’s easy to do well when you fudge the numbers.
**********
Just ask Senator Franken.
Single payer schools work so well, I can hardly wait for single payer health care.
The only kids now getting a “fair to good” education are the Asian kids with driven parents, or the kids that go to top private schools that take high achievers.
Anyone over age of 40 probably got in at the tail end of good public education. Everyone else, it is pure luck if you can get a good or even fair education.
81 to 18!!!
Just....... wow.
I have to disagree with most of your post.
For every horrible school there are great ones. I’ve been lucky enough to only experience great ones. But I’ve sure had family in horrible ones.
The state tests are useless anyway - they’re not “graded” like you may think they are. Scores are “scaled” and whatever political result is desired is achieved. For instance, 51% correct answers on a recent Georgia state test was “scaled” to 82. How can someone who shows mastery of 51% of material get an 82? ===> politics.
“Education is dropping” as you say because fewer parents [and kids] value education. It’s that simple.
jmho
Surprised the dickens out of me! "It was the best of schools, it was the worst of schools".
Unfortunately, about all it means when we hear of improvements on standardized test scores is that either the tests have been greatly dumbed down, or the administrators and teachers have been involved in widespread cheating to up their students’ scores.
For every “Great” school there are dozens that are total terrible ones. I’m familiar with actual educators here in the local area as my Sis ter-in-Law is a Doctor in Education and works for a huge school district. I’ve seen the cirriculum, it sucks. Every book I see for classes is crap.
State tests are crap too. I agree with that. But what did I say that you don’t agree with? You have been lucky, that is all I said about schools. It is by luck that people can get there. If you aren’t luck then what?
As for politics, that is all schools are about now. Political results.
Being a liberal means not having to worry about reality, emotions are all that matters. Doing badly? Here, take an easier test.
Schools and so-called educators have managed to water down the term ‘gifted.’
Mozart was gifted, not little Timmy who passed a few exams.
When there is a ‘gifted’ program in every school or system and they manage to find students to fill it every year, then nobody is ‘gifted.’
Ironically, having a ‘gifted’ program for students working slightly ahead of grade level simply provides a contrast to the bog-standard lowest-common-denominator quality of everyday public education.
This seems to be a state testing, so Bloomberg isn’t that involved. It’s probably residual from the Pataki days, just taking effect.
It’s not that the kids did any worse this year, but that the standards were so much higher and scoring tougher. If scored as they were in the past they’d be the same. Ignorant, but happy about it, with tons of self-esteem !
This is a good thing, long term. Over the years, the standards were lowered to a kid’s having literacy if s/he could spell his/her name. If they could spell the teacher’s name they were ‘gifted.’ Now they have stricter standards that are going to have to be met, at the sacrifice of some social engineering programs.
What's particularly disturbing to me is that the teachers and administrators can't tell the difference between a population of students in which one in five is achieving from a population in which four in five is achieving.
Obviously, the teachers don't know what it is that the students must know at any given grade level.
In the last 8 years I've prepped these exams, proctored them, corrected them and they were and are bogus.They test skills that are only tangential to real life and learning. The exams are graded by teachers either relieved from teaching duties or paid per session after school. The only quality control usually results in a score being raised. The state sets a numerical standard each year for the magical 4 3 2 1 grades and that score is not rigorous, and neither has been the exam. This year's exam was nomore difficult than past years but the state raised the scoring guideline. Next year the exam is to be more challenging. Bloomie and Klein will have a year to create new explanations for their failure.
Great example of the destructiveness of Govt intervention. No child left behind was supposed to be the answer. It had possibility but after a few years now the good is circumventable and the bad becomes the standard.
Thanks a lot. Now I’m going to have flashbacks and nightmares for a week. At least it wasn’t called the Sense and Sensibility School.
>>Schools and so-called educators have managed to water down the term ‘gifted.’<<
I know... for pete’s sake, they were about to place ten kids in “gifted” classes who couldn’t even achieve “proficiency” under the new standards. Proficiency is like getting a C. Gifted my arse.
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