Yesterday Brad Moulton, a NASD resident, forwarded to me quite an analysis of the PSSA test results. Below is a summary of how he did it, what he found, and then a summary of our email conversation discussing what could have resulted in some of the results (read on to learn more;-)
Brad took quite a look at the PSSA test scores. He examined 21 school districts (those used by the Morning Call in the Sunday Real Estate section), which is basically all schools in Northampton and Lehigh counties, plus Quakertown, Palisades, Pennridge & Upper Perkiomen. Then he went back to compare the various school districts and look at the progression of the different grades for the NASD.
Brad noted that PSSA data before 2001, however, did not show the percentages only raw scores and participation rates, the review was restricted to the period of 2001 to 2006. Must also consider there have been a few changes over the past couple years. Until 2005, the PSSA was only given to students in 5, 8 and 11th grades. In 2005, 3rd graders and in 2006 3rd through 8, and 11th grades were tested.
The data and analysis is available here (PDF, 10 pages).
The first four pages are analysis:
- Page 1: Has all the data scores and rankings for both math and reading over the years 2001 to 2006 for each of the 21 schools.
- Page 2: Shows the progression of several “classes” of Nazareth students.
- Pages 3 & 4: Show composite rankings of each district with a graph of the data (for these pages, lower numbers; e.g. rankings #1, #2 are better).
- Pages 5 - 10: The 2001 through 2006 raw PSSA data.
From the data, it can be seen that the NASD is somewhat better than average with the composite rankings ranging around 7th – 9th amongst the 21.
The “class” progression intends to show how a particular class progressed over 3 years. For example the 5th graders that took the PSSA in 2001 were 8th graders in 2004. These can then be directly compared to see how the class faired over three years. Unfortunately, I (Brad) couldn’t use the 2000 data so I couldn’t take the class that was in 5th grade in 2000, 8th grade in 2003 and 11th grade in 2006. I could only compare six classes.
For the most part every class increased their scores between 5th and 8th grade, which speaks well for our middle school education. What was not so encouraging is the progression between 8th and 11th grade. In all but one example, the scores dropped for both math and reading.
A little while back there was an article in the Morning Call regarding 11th Grade scores (read the post here) and how Bethlehem was considering addressing students scoring in the less than proficient range. One statement that stuck out and resulted in my (Ross) making the post was that students did not approach the PSSA tests in the same way they did the SAT. It seemed to make sense, however, Brad pointed out that a closer look at the data shows that there was quite a difference between math and reading for the 11th graders.
Specifically, the reading scores were virtually unchanged from 8th to 11th. While two sets of data did show a decrease it was not much for both (one class went from 72.5% to 69.5% and the other class went from 80.9% to 78.4%). Math scores, on the other hand, showed a rather large drop off for two out of the three classes:
- Class 2005: 67.4% to 63.6%
- Class 2006: 62.8% to 54.9%
- Class 2007: 73.5% to 60.1%
This begs the question - why math and not English?
Ross pointed out (and its been a while since I've been a student or employee so some of this may have changed since then) that two aspects come to mind that exist and impact these subjects differently within the high school. Block scheduling and required courses.
First, to graduate (and again, please correct me if this has changed), students are not required to complete four years of math from ninth through twelfth grade, but they are required to do so for English.
Second, teaching math in block scheduling is a challenge. With a roughly 50 minute class schedule (more traditional 8 or 9 periods instead of 4 in block), you review homework from night before, do a new lesson, get homework for next night, do it at night, repeat the process. Learning in managable chunks, reinforced with homework, reviewed to identify misunderstanding, and the teaching of another new chunk. Quizes could be held weekly and then a test to confirm understanding before a new unit was begun.
With block scheduling you have a class for one semester at roughly twice the length and in order to cover the same amount of material in the altered format teachers are required to run the process twice in one day, without students going home to do the homework, but instead oftentimes having to do some problems in class.
Further, because of the system you don't have math every semester, but could have it first semester of one year and not until the second semester of the following year.
It'd be interesting to see how math SAT scores or some other testing group, as the SAT is not taken by all students, have faired since the school switched to block scheduling.
Parkland, who is often cited as the "place to be" does not use block scheduling and they consistently ranked higher than Nazareth in the PSSA. It would also be interesting to see which schools of the 21 use block vs. traditional scheduling and if there was any correlation to the rankings.
My hats off to Brad for the work he did on assembling this information. The comparison between the districts and then tracking of graduating classes is invaluable when discussing this issue.
So what do you think? Can the PSSA give a fair assessment of performance by a district? Do we have an issue related to the math program that needs to be addressed? Anything that surprised you in the finding that weren't mentioned here? We'd love to hear from you!
7 comments:
We certainly do have an issue with math as we encourage our kids to take full year math. Interestingly, we found depending who you talk will support or not support such. As far as honors math, there are only 4 honors classes and there seems to be concern with some as to what the student will do if they complete all 4 by the end of 10 th grade. There are college and online courses. The idea is not to finish math early but to keep taking math full year every year. While there are some students taking full year math while others are adviced against it. I am glad someone brought attention to this "math"matter. I too have ask about the differences in scores with students in math block vs full year math. I hear oh they do fine. But can they do even better if exposed to math all year? I would think a student who completed 4 courses of math all 9th and 10th and beginning of 11th grade before SAT,ACT, or PSSA testing would be better equipped to do well vs those with only two classes with much longer breaks from math than the summer months.
The current trend for block schedule schools to now to unblock math. Math understanding and retention is at its best ideally as studies have shown to be taught for 50-60 minutes a day all school year. Constant practice as one class builds onto the next make is necessary. Practice... Especially if you want to pursue a math/science career. One can also go a whole year without math for the SAT or ACT. Crazy reasons are given as to why blocking math is such; example not to worry: students will only forget as much math as they did over the summer. Funny 6-12 months is not like the summer break. I am sure if block schedule math continues, the scores will continue to remain lower than what they would be if students had math all year everyday for 50 minutes. Some students expressed concerned about finishing math class this Jan and having to wait until Jan the following year or Sept for the next math class.
Best results>>>math full year!
With young children just beginning their schooling, I undertook the PSSA analysis to show where NASD stood with respect to the other districts. I had heard so much about how great NASD was (in comparison to the rest of the LHV) and this was a way of benchmarking the different school districts.
While the relative rankings suprised me somewhat, I think I might have stumbled onto something even more important. Maybe I'm biased a bit as a Professional Engineer, but it would appear to me that there is a problem with the way math (and possibly science) is taught at the HS levels.
I really had no idea about the block scheduling concept until Ross pointed it out in one of our email exchanges. Since then, I have done a little more digging and found that there is quite a bit of data (I'll get that together later) that shows math scores suffer with block scheduling. I believe my PSSA analysis also supports this for our district.
What's the benefit of block scheduling? I cannot see any. In a 4x4 block, they double the time spent in one subject. But do they actually double the work? My guess is no (they probably have enough trouble getting kids to concentrate for 50 minutes, let alone 80+). This inevitably leads to a "dumbing down" of block(ed) subjects. I cannot see how it couldn't.
I used to hate it when my parents would say "back when I was your age...." but I'm going to say it anyways: When I was in HS (approx 20 years ago) we had 55 minute classes and you took math every year all year. At least 2 years of science was mandatory (I took science all 4 years). What exactly (and how is it) taught now?
I feel this is extremely important and is something I will not drop.
I too have done much research and reading up on blocks. There are benefits with labs(when I was in school chem lab was scheduled into the week) but overall seems to be more group work, more projects,more co op learning, test on units like every 5-6 days, more homework,more computer time and videos. Maybe sometime to do homework in school but a teacher is not teaching for the 85 mins. Too bad if you are out sick, a real joy making up all the work. As one teacher put it, they were not supportive of blocks. A jump on the bandwagon trends for nasd. You cannot assign and expect a student to read 1/2 to 1/3 a book one night from homework since teacher mention the novel might be covered in three classes of 85 mins. Although the English homework is excessive. Some teachers back then really opposed this way of teaching and scheduling. I heard a few students do like blocks only for the reason they have less subjects to focus on. The school will tell you this better prepares for the students for college but not many colleges have classes that long. They can adapt 11 and 12 grade towards that not grade 9-10. Although college is a whole seperate experience compared to the transitions from grade level to grade level and building to buildings in public schools. As far as prepare, nothing prepares these 8th grades for what they are up against as far as 4- 85 minutes classes, midterm exams and finals. Too long to sit for academic classes and the average normal focus time for a student that age is 45-50 minutes. I do not know of any student who likes it. Some teachers/counslers will support and allow for a student to double up in math, though I like to call it all year math. Oh surely, the reasons vary, even to the point that some students have a hard time believing them. With an engineer in the house, it is totally crazy not to provide a student with math all year, practice is essential as skills just keep build on past lessons. They claim they are getting a full year of math but in a half time frame. As said above all research is showing math is best a 50 to 60 minutes full year. Do you agree with the statements if you finish all your math by the end of 10 grade you may not do well on college boards, pssa, and will be without math for 2 years before college? You may feel uncomfortable with upper case man, okay,they are in gym, which too is only 1/2 year. Is calc 2 best to wait until senior so it is best right before college? But what if you finish calc 2 end of 11th grade and take a class at a local colleg or line, would you still be taking calc 2 right before the next year of a math class... However, you can take college math at the local colleges if your grades support it and you have a ride. Some say those credits cannot apply to future colleges but at least they are doing challenge math coursework and preparing for their career. Does trig terminology require a certain mental state for 10th grade instead of 9th If a student wants a challenge shouldn't they be encourage to go for it. Just seems crazy for those who want to major arts, there are plenty of art classes to take all year. Why can some "double up" and others are talked out of it? Math is extremely important. What math clubs are offered at nasd? We will now find a way to provide math all year. Call any university or college of engineering as we did and they will highly suggest your student take as much math course work as they can if they want a career in eng/sc. I truly see a strong need for nasd to see these scores reports and latest on the trend to unblock math. The students who are performing best in math(on pssa, act, sat) are having math all school year for 50-60 minute a day. Compare the data. Maybe nasd needs to see those in blocks at 11 grade can produce higher scores on all the math testing area if they are offer all year math.
Does anyone know how long NASD has been utilizing block scheduling at the HS level? I mentioned this at lunch the other day and a co-worker (who's wife is a teacher in the district) mentioned that they have had it for a "long" time. He said that both his kids had it and they are both recently out of college. (So presumably it would have to have been longer than 5 years).
I'm just wondering and hope that someone knew when NASD went to block scheduling.
Several schools in the LHV use block scheduling (from what I could determine). A few that DO NOT are: East Penn, Parkland, Salisbury.
Say what you want, but I have NOT seen any data-driven support for block scheduling. In fact, most data (and there isn't alot of "hard" data) show anywhere from a 7 to 15% decrease in math test scores.
Core subjects are cheated. Even English (which is supposed to be taken every year - or at least 4.0 credits) classes will cover less material with block scheduling. How could they not? You either have 2 semesters of 50 minute classes in a year or 1 semester of an 85 minute class in a year. It doesn't take math major to figure out that 2 x 50 >> 85.
Retention of subjects has to be a consideration too. Even if you take Math every year (4 credits worth), you will have extremely long periods between. For example, you could take algebra your first semester of your freshman year and then not take geometry/trig until the second semester of your sophomore year. That's up to a year(!) between math classes. How much subject matter is lost (and needs to be reviewed the next year)!
Also, studies show that kids (and even adults for that matter) attention spans cannot stay focuses for much longer than 30 minutes or so. As Ross pointed out, the standard review/drill/homework routine cannot be sustained with block scheduling so teachers invariably will bring in movies/videos and other things OR homework time is given during class. Of course this leads to less homework and "more fun" time in the class, but how is this helping kids learn?
I've heard all of the supposed benefits to block schedules but those are mostly anecdotal like less stress, "kids like school more", etc. etc. Where is the hard data showing it's better than traditional scheduling?
Maybe I'm old fashioned but I don't see the benefits. If anything, math scores and science scores show a decrease compared to traditional scheduling. Comments/discussion anyone?
I've just submitted the question about when block scheduling began in Nazareth to the administration email address. I also prefaced the reason for asking was to post it here, so hopefully they'll respond shortly.
Will let you know as soon as I get an answer.
Block scheduling has little hard fact data benefits. If scores have been showing a trend upward from the time it started then you might have some data to back it. However, seeing the scores, )(especially 11th grade math) and the long breaks of not having core subjects does a service to no one. Let us see the data if nasd would unblock math and students have math all year 50-60 minutes everyday. I bet you will see those scores improve.
Just received an email from Judy Swigart, Assistant Superintendent for Educational Support Services, and former HS principal, that block scheduling began at the high school in September of 1996.
Thanks to her for the response!
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