Educational Reform

If you haven't done so already, the NY Times article, "Building a Better Teacher" by Elizabeth Green is a must read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?em

Green wrote, "William Sanders, a statistician studying Tennessee teachers a colleague, found that a student with a weak teacher for three straight years would score, on average, 50 percentile points behind a similar student with a strong teacher for those years." A Stanford economist named Eric Hanushek "found that while the top 5 percent of teachers were able to impart a year and a half's worth of learning to students in on school year, as judged by standardized tests, the weakest 5 percent advanced their students only half a year of material each year."

Doug Lemov (once a teacher, principal, charter-school founder, and now an educational consultant) is often cited in the article. He believes that better training is needed for teachers. Michelle Rhee (schools chancellor in DC) a strong proponent of school reform is also discussed.

Finally, the mention of Diane Ravitch caught my attention because I will be hearing her speak at the NYSSBA Conference in NYS in October. She was a former assistant secretary of education under the first President Bush and has written, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education.

Great article for anyone interested in improving education.

Education Week Article on ACT's

There is a good article in Education Week about the ACT. www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/08/18/01act.h30.html?tkn

The article contains one chart showing five year trends on "Students Meeting College-Readiness Standards." The other chart shows 5-year trends on ACT "Scores Nationwide."

Approximately, 1.5 million student were tested in 2010 and in each of the areas assessed by the ACT (English, math, reading, science) the average scores were 20.5, 21, 21.3, 20.0 respectively. The composite average score was 21. Over 5 years, there has been little change in this composite score.

What is troubling is that only 24% of students met the benchmarks in all four subjects for college-preparedness. In English, 66% met the benchmark; in math, 43%; in reading, 52%; and in science, 29%.

Don Mesibov and St. Lawrence University

How fortunate I was, at Potsdam's Summer Festival, to have come across Don Mesibov (adjunct professor at St. Lawrence University and the founder of the Institute for Learning-Centered Education). He graciously invited me to see portions of the Constructivist Conference held annually at St. Lawrence University. Teachers from many school districts generally attend this conference. This year, Potsdam Central BOE member Mary Ashley Carroll and I went over to SLU on two different days and were lucky enough to be in attendance at a discussion with Regent James Dawson. He took many questions from those in attendance - the most significant of which came from a superintendent who had many questions about the new requirements surrounding teacher and principal evaluations. All in all, it was a very worthwhile experience. AAK Middle School principal, Jamie Cruikshank, had also mentioned to me that I was welcomed to drop by and see the work being done by the Middle School team.

State Board Conference

Three members of the PCS Board of Education (Mary Ashley Carroll, Mark Frascatore, and I), along with Supt. of Schools Pat Brady, will be attending the New York State Schools Boards Association (NYSSBA) Annual Convention in October. Jeb Bush and Diane Ravitch will be speakers at the event and there will be over 100 sessions to choose from. This convention is attended primarily by Board members, superintendents of schools, and attorneys (who specialize in education law).

This year, for the first time, Supt. Brady will be a presenter. It is an honor to be selected and Mr. Brady deserves credit for being willing to pass on his knowledge to other school districts. Despite the fact that preparing for this task will be time-consuming, Mr. Brady was more than willing to embrace the increased work load. I look forward to attending his seminar and writing about it in late October.

For Mary Ashley Carroll, this is her 6th consecutive year attending the convention. She and I have always found the convention to be extremely useful in providing us with important professional development experiences needed to be a well-informed Board member.

More on 3-8 Testing

"The Testing Mess" by Sol Stern is worth reading. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/243605/testing-mess-sol-stern

One thing I learned is that a member of the NYS Board of Regents told Stern that David Abrams, the Assistant Commissioner: Office of Standards, Assessment, and Testing at State Ed., "has no qualifications for the job, and he's responsible for many of our blunders on the tests." Apparently, in 2008, Abrams was warned about the validity of the NYS Tests by Daniel Loretz and Howard Everson (testing experts and members of the State's Technical Advisory Group who are working with Commissioner Steiner). They asked Abrams to move ahead and deal with problems of suspected score inflation and other related problems with the 3-8 tests. Nothing was done until the new Commissioner and Chancellor decided to address the validity of the tests. What is shocking is that a man considered unqualified for this important job still has the job. Doesn't NYS deserve a highly-qualified assessment expert at the helm? If we expect our teachers to be "highly qualified" shouldn't the same be expected of bureaucrats who impact the instructional lives of teachers and students?

NYS Tests: Grades 3-8

Worth Noting: The NYS Board of Regents approved raising the bar on what constitutes proficiency on the Grades 3-8 Mathematics Tests and the ELA (English Language Arts) tests. This is something that will surely be noted by parents. Whereas, in the past, many students were assessed as proficient on these tests, many students will now be deemed deficient.

Why did the Regents raise the cut scores? In a 7.19.10 NYSED press release (http://www.oms.nysed.gov/press/Regents_Approve_Scoring_Changes.html), it was reported that that the Regents believed that it was too easy to achieve proficiency on these tests. The Chancellor of the Regents, Merryl Tisch said, "For the past several years, we have seen more and more student scoring 'proficient' or better on our state tests. At the same time, their performance on the NAEP exam - the gold standard - has remained essentially flat. We haven't been testing the right things in the right ways. 'Proficiency on our exam has to mean something real; no good purpose is served when we say that a child is proficient when that child is not.'" The Chancellor also noted that the Board of Regents, in addition to making the 3 - 8 tests more rigorous, wants to see "more challenging curriculum, better training for teachers/principals, and a world-class data system."

Among other facts included in the release:

• Nearly a quarter of student in all NYS two and four-year institutions of high education take remedial coursework;
• Students at the current Level 3 proficiency standard in their 8th grade math exam have less than a 1 in 3 chance of earning an 80 on their math Regents.

In a NY Times article (7.29.10) "Standards Raised, More Students Fail Tests, it was written that past scores on the 3-8 tests, which were impressive, were "misleading because those scores were inflated by tests that had become easier to pass." The Regents are looking for a more accurate measure to students' abilities.

"This year, 61% of state students were deemed passing, or at grade level, in math, compared with with 86% last year." In English, 53% were deemed passing compared to 77% from last year.

Because we are now being told that the information we have received in the past about our children's proficiency (or lack thereof) on NYS Tests is not valid, it begs the question of whether or not we can believe the new results. Are the tests valid?

The raising of the bar on these state tests has implications for many: Board of Education, Superintendents, principals, teachers, students, and parents. Teaching strategies may have to change to help student achieve proficiency on more rigorous tests, more remediation will have to be done, parents will be concerned about the performance of their children, schools may not meet AYP (annual yearly progress), etc. All in all, we are facing a changing attitude in Albany about the needed rigor in the state's schools.

As a former English teacher and as as someone in my 13th year on the Potsdam Central School Board of Education, I find my commitment to education has only grown with each passing year. I have decided to blog about education because I am hoping that like-minded individuals will glean some useful information from my observations about education and from my thoughts on issues facing the board.

NYS Budget: The good news is that yesterday both houses of the state legislature approved a budget. Significant cuts to education ($1.4 billion) are now official. With the federal stimulus monies ending this academic year, planning for the next school year's budget will be a great challenge. Another financial problem has to do with federal funding for Medicaid. As noted in a NYSSBA (New York State School Boards Association) alert, "If federal funds are not forthcoming, the state legislature will cut up to an additional $300 million from school aid..."

The legislators also approved changes to teacher and principal evaluations. Student performance on state mandated tests will be tied to these evaluations. According to NYSSBA, "With the potential loss of an additional $300 million in aid hanging over our heads, continued political pressure for a tax cap, ongoing major reform efforts by the State Education Department, and the scandal over student testing, normalcy will prove an illusive goal for the foreseeable future."