The science scores have been released and the Morning Call has two PDF's with information on a District-wide and School Level.
Elementary:
- Bushkill - 75% Advanced, 24.2% Proficient
- Lower Nazareth - 60% Advanced, 35% Proficient
- Shafer - 49% Advanced, 38% Proficient
These numbers are disappointing to those in Shafer by comparison to the other two buildings and it would seem if they are in the same district, learning the same curriculum they should be more consistent.
Having said that, in looking at scores, only three other elementary schools in Northampton County had scores of 60% or higher and none were higher than 75%. In Lehigh County, nine had scores of 60% or higher, and again, none were higher than 75%.
So the schools performed very well, but it seems that Shafer's science is a bit behind the other two buildings.
Secondary:
- MS - 19% Advanced, 45% Proficient, 25% Basic, and 12% Below
- HS - 9% Advanced, 30% Proficient, 52% Basic, and 9% Below
For the High School, the 19 schools in the Northampton and Lehigh Counties that I saw scored, Nazareth was 8/9 (even with Saucon Valley) comparing number in Advanced and Proficient. Nazareth scored lower than Northampton, Pen Argyl, Emmaus, Northwestern, Parkland, Salisbury, Southern Lehigh. They were equal to Saucon Valley. They scored ahead of Wilson, Easton, Liberty Freedom, Bangor, Dieruff, Allen, Catasaqua, Whitehall, and Northern Lehigh.
Didn't have time to dig through MS or look deeper, but I'm sure some of you will.
16 comments:
When you consider basic statistics...the high school and middle school score distributions make sense. The elementary scores do not. For any normal population, MOST of the population will fall in the center and a few will fall to the extremes. It's called a bell curve. How can most of our population be advanced? Conversely, how can most of our population be academically deficient? They can't. As much as we would all like each and every one of our children to be a genius-- they are not-- except but a few.
The entire school population cannot and should not be on honor roll...yet look at how many there are!
Stop wasting so much energy and time looking at reported scores and how we stack up against our neighboring schools. It's a waste of time.
As parents, we should care not just what the grade our children are given is...but that there is actual substance behind the grade.
WHAT ARE THEY LEARNING? CAN THEY WRITE A COHERENT PAPER? DO THEY UNDERSTAND AND CAN THEY SPEAK TO THE TOPICS IN THEIR TEXTBOOKS OR DO THEY ONLY KNOW DATES AND DEFINITIONS?
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR CHILD IS LEARNING OR ARE YOU JUST SATISFIED TO SEE THEIR NAME IN 'THE KEY' UNDER HONOR ROLL?
Afterall, once they are out in the world trying to make a living and support their own families...their name in 'The Key' under 'high honor roll' won't mean a thing if they can't think their way out of a box.
I have to disagree. We are not talking about a bell curve. We are talking about meeting the accepted level of what a student should know by a certain grade level. I don't expect every kid to be Advanced, but in a good school most should at least be Proficient. There will always be some below, and that is understandable.
It is not a waste of time to see how our district compares to other districts. It is the only way we can tell if we really are a good district or not.
To your point, if we only judge based on our children's grades it is a great district, but if all these A students are at Basic or Below on PSSA's there is a disconnect.
The fact is, I think we can do better. And I've said this ad nauseum, we need a good, solid curriculum, not diagnostic tests to see which parts of test we need to teach more to.
The test isn't flawed, it is the administration and board's approach to education based on their being one, which I think is flawed.
Ross:
I think we are in some agreement over not just looking at the grades.
But I don't believe the PSSA scores are a good indicator of school curriculum quality either.
My teen is in high school, so I don't believe you see what I do. My child does make honor roll, takes honors level courses, and does score Advanced or Proficient on the PSSA's. Sounds great!
HOWEVER, when I have looked at various reports and projects which have been give 'A's, I scratch my head and wonder how!
I am looking for outside writing opportunities because whether or not my child attends Yale or takes a position in a department store after graduation...writing and analytical skills are always a requirement in our society.
The test is only going to tell you that your child knows that a farmer farms. But, isn't there more to what a farmer does??
I am suggesting everyone take a good look at WHAT your children are learning, not just what their grades are or what percentage of Bushkill students scored Advanced or Proficient over Shafer or LNES or Hanover for that matter.
This is a public school problem, not an NASD problem. So, comparing scores to Parkland or Saucon Valley is a waste of time. Who said those schools are great? Do you know what THEY are teaching?
The test is flawed. The kids are given a questions and a choice of A, B, C, D or E to fill in the little bubble.
What the test doesn't do is really find out if they are learning.
Simple question, what does a farmer do? The simple answer would be that he farms. But, the reality is that the farmer does a heck of a lot more once you really peel back the onion and take a look. This is the type of critical thinking kids will need to get through college and/or once they get in the workplace.
Kids are not being taught to think, only know a specific answer to a specific question.
Now let’s talk about grades. As a little exercise, I pulled out the last Key and took at look at the 8th grade High Honor and Honor rolls. To achieve this “honor” a student must have a certain number of A’s and B’s. There were 87 names in High Honor Roll and 89 names on Honor Roll. That is 176 kids without a C or below. With roughly 400 kids in the class (+/-), that is around 45% of the class on these lists.
How can that be? Statistically, it is one heck of an anomaly. I pulled my honor roll list from when I was in HS 20+ years ago, and across the board, it was typically in the 20% range making that list. So is this for the kid’s benefit, or the parents who want to see little Johnny’s name in the paper?
Or, have the public schools improved that much in the past 20+ years that so many more kids make honor roll? If so, why are people complaining about standardized tests?
As a parent of a high school student, I could care less about the PSSA scores (and even less about those of surrounding districts) and more about what my kids are learning including how to think.
NOC, you said “The fact is, I think we can do better. And I've said this ad nauseum, we need a good, solid curriculum, not diagnostic tests to see which parts of test we need to teach more to”.
You are right, we need the solid curriculum, but as long as parents continue to show up and ask “what about our PSSA scores/how can we improve our test scores”, this will never happen
Ross
Amused is correct in both her posts. What I cannot understand is that the teachers and administrators are constantly complaining how they are always preparing for the PSSA and teaching to it. Yet these scores continue to show up year after year.
What the schools are not doing is their primary mission--educating our children. Spelling is no longer important due to texting and spell check. Handwriting does not need to be legible. Critical thinking is no longer necessary when you are a zombie in front of a TV or computer screen. And least we forget in all of this, history and civis are not part of any PSSA test. History has become "social studies" and our children are ignorant when it comes to our nation. That has caused a completed disconnect with older generations and thus our politicians have gained another victory in dividing us.
unfortunately the disparity among the elementary PSSA statisical findings reflects the economic breakdowns as is usually the case and the reasoning for the NCLB act
ie % who receive lunch assistance
12% at Shafer
6% at Bushkill
6% at Lower Nazareth
justmyopinion
Explain to me why a kid who gets a free lunch is dumber then one who doesn't? I taught lot of kids over 32 years and never believed that poor kids could not learn. However if we continue to give them that lame excuse and publish it on a regular basis I am sure it will come true.
My grandfather had a 6th grade education. His speech, while intermingled from time to time with his Pennsylvania Dutch, was impeccable. He could spell. He read. He was excellent at math. He owned a general store and a farm equipment business that he ran successfully for 59 years. He was probably smarter then a lot of PhD's we have today. We, however, continue to make excuses for a kid's poor performance. Combine that with lousy teachers, most of them carrying some type of ed. degree, and a belief that schools exist to train the worker bees, and you can begin to get a handle on what has happened to our schools. And let me be the first to tell you, more money is not the answer. Content oriented teachers, they have a BA in the topic they are teaching, and DISCIPLINE, are the keys to the successful EDUCATION of our students. Kids want to learn but we do our best to see to it that they don't.
Chris says:"I taught lot of kids over 32 years and never believed that poor kids could not learn. However if we continue to give them that lame excuse and publish it on a regular basis I am sure it will come true."
I never stated that poor kids can't learn but all too often they aren't learning...check out school stats...more $, higher PSSA scores...higher % of EDE (economic disadvantaged enrollment) lower % of PSSA proficiency...goes hand in hand most of the time, of course there are some exceptions...
it isn't an excuse just our reality...I imagine there are a plethora of reasons (or excuses you could say) for as to why it is this way but since I am not an educational expert I'll refrain from specualting
as the old cop show used to say "just stating the facts maam, just stating the facts"
Chris Miller, you could not be more on the money.
If we want to talk about income versus test scores, then we need to stop comparing our district with say, Parkland.
Justmyopinion, you have a point to some degree, but kids will make the most of school that want to, regardless of their socio-economic background. Quite often, it is those kids that do better because they want better things in their lives and see a good education as the only way to it.
But, one thing that nobody has yet to mention is the parents.
If the parent is involved in the child's education, and takes an active role in it, the child will tend to do better.
In the quest for ever better test scores, I don't care what programs the district puts in place or how much pressure they put on the kids. If the parents aren't actively involved and pushing from their side, then things will not change.
I think that so much emphasis and pressure has been put on these kids around test scores, that the fact that they are there for an education is lost. Everything that comes out of the district revolves around test scores.
Good test scores do NOT equal a good education.
To those parents that are constantly bringing test scores up with teachers and administrator, you need to just stop. Talk about cirriculum, and only that, and maybe, just maybe, they will start to be able to teach again and let the scores come up naturally because of it, not in spite of it.
justmyopinion
Just a quick question. Is it their economic positon or is it the fact that many of the poor kids are Hispanic and do not speak the language. My understanding is that the Washington DC school district is spending $25 thousand dollars a year per student. It is one of the worst school districts in the nation. How about school choice?
NazoRanter
You are correct. Kids will pick and choose what they want from school. Some tend to lean toward the arts, English, history, and others toward the sciences and math. We need to have solid courses for the kids, teach them how to study and encourage them to acquire knowledge. Once a child has knowledge he will exhibit a pride in his knowledge thus he will have confidence in himself and what he knows. If we plop him in front of a computer screen and teach him to be a worker bee we will have a very unhappy person who is a worker bee.
Parents play a vital role in their child's education. Sit with them, help them, get them to read and think about what they are reading ask them questions about what they have read. We took our son to the library and take our grandchildren to Barnes and Noble. They must learn to read and to continue in that pattern.
The PSSA should be tossed in the toilet. The teachers should teach their subject, cover the topics, give and correct homework and test on the subject matter after a unit has been covered. The teacher who does not to this should be asked to find another job.
Just to restate two important points in Chris' last post:
"Parents play a vital role in their child's education."
"The PSSA should be tossed in the toilet."
Two important points from a very good teacher (I should know, I had him in high school).
Today, parents exert their role in demanding better standardized test scores. THIS is not taking an active part in your child's education, it is putting an undue burden on top of what they really need to learn.
We can continue to compare scores against surrounding districts, but unless they have the exact same demographic and socio-economic breakdown as us, it is meaningless.
His last statement is one we should all adopt, and one we should carry with us every single time with meet with a teacher, administrator and politician.
The only success of NCLB has been to create a bunch of drones that are extremely adept at filling in little bubbles.
Although I fully agree with Mr Miller's comments that being poor does not automatically connote with lower ability, I have to point out one important aspect.
If you check out inner city schools, where the free lunch count can exceed 75% of the students, you are going to see much lower test scores. This is a proven point. And, the reason, as I see it, is the lsrge portion of parents(or single parent as the case usually is) are drug abusers and alcoholics. Many of the birth mothers gave birth in their early teens, often neglecting or not following proper prenatal care. It is a documented fact that the most important time of fetal development occurs during the first two months of pregnancy. Many of these mothers smoked and drank drank during this time, often becuase they didn't even know they were pregnant.Once this plethora of birth defects, some observable physically, others in the emotional and pschological growth of these children, occur they cannot be reversed. And yes, I fully realize addicition has no social boundaries, children born in the inner city are at a far geater risk. But there is no denying the fact that the city schools have to deal with a lot more problem children then the suburubs. Many mothers today who plan on having a child practice what is known as the 12 month pregnancy. If the pregnancy is planned they abstain from any drugs, alcohol, caffeine, so their body is in supreme shape to nurture a child. Yes, even a mother who does every thing correct can still have child with a borth defect. But the majority of inner city youth practice no planning, drink, use drugs, have unprotected sex which means increased incidence of STD's....all of which can have a tememndous bearing on the creation of a healthy child.
Until someone can prove to me that PSSA scores mean something about learning, I throw them in the garbage when they arrive. I have 2 children who have been in the district for 10 and 12 years respectively. One did just fine and the other has some learning issues. The one who did fine is attending a college that was a challenge for him to get into. He is amazed at how much "easier" college is than high school from an academic standpoint. This is just my son's opinion...however, I've heard this from other students who are now in college. This tells me our district does prepare our students for college quite well. Of course nothing is perfect. My other child requires some assistance from the high school in order to be successful in mastering the material and maintaining the grades. The tools that are available to our kids in that regard are phenomenal compared with most other school districts in the area. This is not hearsay, rather I learned this from a behavioral psychologist who practices in the valley. But... parents have to be involved. Get to know the teachers, the guidance counselors. Get involved in your student's school work. Know what is going on. Know who your kids are hanging out with. These are the important things, not PSSA scores and what they mean. PSSA scores are merely a litmus test of sorts. One reason people care about them relates to real estate. Families seeking out school districts to relocate to will use this and other info found on www.greatschools.net to determine where to live. Sadly, things always seem to come back to money. Anyway...just my opinion for what it is worth
What really surprises me is the lack of input from the rest of the viewing audience around this subject.
There are a few people that have joined in this conversation, but it seems that unless the post has to do with dollars being spent (new facilities, contracts, etc.), there doesn't seem to be a ground swell of concern as long as little Johnny or Jane are getting A's and B's on their report cards and having their name printed in the newspaper.
We have seen a fundamental shift in how kids are being taught that moves away from one of pure education to one of satisfying scores on a standardized test.
I encourage everyone reading to take a long hard look at the work your kids are doing in school, not just the grade at the top of the page. You might be surprised by what you see.
We need to let teachers teach, pure and simple, and it needs to be around core cirriculum, not standardized test. And, in that core cirriculum, it needs to be in the shades of gray, not just the black and white.
anonymous 11:48PM
I do agree with you and the comments you made. Kids have a ton of problems and they do start, sometimes, before they are born. I think that what irritates me the most is that we continue to do the same thing over and over with education and get the same results. That is called insanity.
We need a wholesale overhaul of the education system in this nation. Our schools have gotten to big. We have a ton of liberal administraters who belive they must constantly be changing things in order to justify their salaries. One program no sooner goes into place then it gets changed. On top of that the teachers are called on the carpet, many deserve it, while the administraters are safe as safe can be.
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