The Morning Call has a major story on the PSSA with sub-stories on students, teachers, and admin related to the tests (read it here).
Since this test is used to compare and benchmark schools, schools have gone to tremendous lengths to prepare students to meet proficiency levels. Curricula has been re-written, services have been hired to identify weak areas, and teaching to the test is now commonplace.
Nazareth has now determined it is a "standards" based school. Everything is based on meeting the minimum required standard in each grade.
My concern with this is primarily that I get the distinct impression that we've abandoned what once made our schools good (a solid curriculum) and our school's focus is on having as many students as possible meet minimum standards with no interest in actually having each child live up to his or her potential.
Compounding this problem is the fact that meeting a standard, what I think would have been a "C" in the past is now the equivalent of an "A", and most people are happy when their children get "A's" so there is little concern about what their children are actually learning and to what extent they are actually achieving.
So what do you think? Are the Nazareth schools getting better or worse as a result of the shift to a standard based district and its emphasis on PSSAs?
8 comments:
All schools should be following the standards, this is nothing new. I applaud their piloting of a standards based report card. The first grade report card I viewed last year was completed well and is comprehensive. I know because my child received it and I offered commentary on it. I also have experience completing a standards based report card- as an educator. The standards based reports cards (when done well) are far more comprehensive than a traditional report card. Think of it this way... In the past, for example, students traditionally received 1 grade in reading and 1 grade in math. Looking at just reading alone- When report cards are formulated well to reflect the various standards you can see how your child performs in the variety of sub-skills: there is a grade for phonemic awareness (the individual sound knowledge of skills), a grade for the knowledge & application of phonics -lay-term ie: "sounding out" words/word parts, another grade for sight word recognition, another grade for comprehension (understanding what one reads) and another grade for fluency (how fast one can read with expression). With math each subskill is represented-addition/ subtraction facts, problem solving in addition/subtraction/multiplication/division. geometry-identification of flat shapes, identification of solid shapes, application of analysis skills (ie: graph reading and interpretation) etc. etc. These are just a few. Earlier, I stated I supported the report card in first grade, but I notice that in second only one grade is given for each standard-this is not following a standards based school ideal. While I support the pilot program of last year -in my opinion this year another grade (or more should have followed suit). Many districts already have it implemented through all elementary grades and are working on middle school implementation. In my experience I found I needed to explain the report cards to my parents, once done, many understood the comprehensive aspects of it. For exapmple in comparing standard to traditional report cards- in the past where children were only "B" or "C" readers it may have only been to their lack of fluency or slower rate of reading they may very well be able to understand phonics and comprehension aspects. Students with an "A" may have scored very high on multiple choice reading comprehension tasks, had a slower to almost average rate of reading and perhaps poor to average phonics scores and thus earned an average of an "A". Yes I have seen it happen! Standards based report cards are also informative in other areas. They can be important when targeting at risk readers with the proper intervention. Interventions are not all alike, we need to assess what children's specific needs are and provide intensive direct instruction to those needs. Some children respond well to phonics interventions, others needs sight word and fluency practice, still others may need comprehension strategy practice. Sorry if I sound like a soap box. I have been teaching for many years and there have been many changes-some are better, some may not be. I had difficulty with the new report cards (my district is standard based full implementation K-4) because it seemed like so much assessment, but most of it is good teaching and constant awareness of students progress. I feel like I know my students more than ever in so many areas. I also don't feel standards make us "average" because we are constantly addressing students needs at many levels-whether below, meeting the expectation, or above the expectation and beyond grade level. Differentiating instruction is necessary and common in the classrooms of today. Thanks for letting me air my thoughts.
I can't say I got anything extra out of the standards based report card.
We still got one grade per subject area. Maybe I'll feel different after tomorrow's conference.
That's because they aren't being implemented properly as I stated in my previous post. There should be a grade for each standard. The first grade report card does that, other grades do not, but I understand it's because they are "In pilot" stage.
My experience has been that a pilot program is a test program - like last year when you had to volunteer and be approved to get one.
Now that they've rolled the program out across the entire school it isn't a pilot program - it is the way we do things.
If we aren't doing it right, then it would seem to me we are getting even less value than we did before.
completely agree with K---
As a parent felt I received much more info with the 1st grade report card last year but was miffed this year when my 2nd graders report card only had 1 grade per subject
to make it even more complicated my kindergartner has a completely different report card not even using the same letter grades---
can we hope they will iron the kinks out?
I find the blind acceptance of the "standards based" anything in this district unbelievable.
In the MS and HS, they are teaching the test. Kids have workbooks that are based on the test, and they are receiving grades on them.
I will say it again.
THEY ARE NOW TEACHING THE TEST.
If you want your kids completely unprepared for college, keep cheering on the district and board for putting these things in place.
When your child is held back or put in remedial classes because the "test prep" homework and quizes brought their grades down, you will only be able to blame yourself.
These "standardized tests" are the report cards for TEACHERS and ADMINISTRATORS, not students. But, they are now putting pressure on the kids, and many parents are willing accomplaces in it to make themselves look better.
Let the teachers teach the regular stuff. If they do their jobs right (and I think the vast majority of them can) then the test scores will follow.
If we allow the test to become that important, soon that will be the only thing that is taugh in our schools and there will be nobody to blame except all the sheep that let it happen.
This is not a pilot program! The standard base report card is fully accepted in the k-5 grades. I am not surprised to hear to that it is not being used correctly! Beginning next year the standard base report card moves to 6th grade and then the following year standard base report cards will be used for k-8, with each additional year pushing the standard base report card pushing through high school.
My concern is not that you receive a grade per standard; my concern is that all students will be pushed into a system of “grading” that is a 1, 2, 3, or 4. As I have mentioned at several meeting, this may work at the lower grades, but I cannot understand how it will work at the high school level. For any student or parents of students that have looked into colleges, your acceptance into colleges is based on several factor, two that will be directly affected by the standard base report card are GPA and class rank. How will they properly evaluated class rank if they are not using percentages on report cards, a 3 looks a lot different than an 88%. My understanding of the standard base report card is that a 4 will equal a 100%-90%, a 3 equals a 89%-75% and so on.
How will the school “weight” honor and AP courses for GPA’s and class rank? How will colleges accept this grading and ranking? When these questions are asked to administrators, they do not have an answer; they repeat: “We are looking into it.” and “We are currently working on it.” For 3 years, that has been their response, they do not know and I honestly think that they do not care. Nazareth just wants to be the first district in the state of Pennsylvania to push the standard base report card through to the middle and high school levels.
Standards are not a bad thing. They are not really a minimum either. They are proficiency. Teaching to the test is not bad if that's what kids should know. Think of it like a driver's test. The state says, "This is the what you have know to drive a car." The worst part about the standards is the way they are assessed. Schools and students are judged on one test. With any new initiatives there will be problems that need to be worked out. A standards-based report card requires teachers to know their students A LOT better than with letter grades, and these report cards give parents much more information. Scores like 1, 2, 3, 4 don't really equate to percentages. People have to change their way of thinking. Education has changed a lot since we were in school, mostly for the better. Just because something is different than we are used to does not mean it is wrong. These growing pain will be worked out.
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