When Peter Gorman resigned as superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools last year to take a job with Rupert Murdoch's education technology company, some people wondered how long before he'd be back as a contractor.
On Wednesday, an announcement came out that his company has been hired to track student results from new exams being developed for North Carolina and several other states.
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After Gorman left, CMS backed away from that testing program, letting the N.C. Department of Public Instruction take the lead. North Carolina is part of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a state-led coalition working on new exams that will be linked to the national Common Core academic standards. The state is also working on its own exams for subjects other than English and math (see the Ready program).
On Wednesday, the consortium announced it has awarded a contract to Wireless Generation to track results from the new exams. "The reporting system will provide student-level results from the Smarter Balanced interim and summative assessments, as well as growth data showing whether students are on track to be college- and career-ready. Reports summarizing student achievement and growth at the classroom, school, district, and state levels will also be available to authorized users," the news release says. (The grammar cop in me wants to whack the consortium with a billy club for shortening its name to "Smarter Balanced." Folks, you need a noun.)
Murdoch's News Corp. (best known as the parent company of the Fox network and the source of England's phone-hacking scandals) acquired Wireless Generation shortly after hiring Joel Klein, former chancellor of New York City schools, Gorman and others to launch a new education division. Wireless is part of what is now known as Amplify, with Klein as CEO and Gorman as senior vice president for education services.
Meanwhile, Gorman's successor, Heath Morrison, is rolling out his plan for CMS, which includes better use of data, intense focus on individual student results and better recognition of the most effective teachers. He'll be relying on the state for much of the testing and data he needs to move forward. Stay tuned.
Posts
73 comments:
CMS has not backed away from Gormons plans as his plans are still being used by downtown... Formatives, district exams etc... Get it right once and a while.
I agree on the first post. Elementary students have already taken 3 and in some cases 4 "formatives" while high schools were required to give formatives at the beginning of the year. The state allowed districts to choose whether or not to give Common Exams or MSL exams CMS choose to give them in January, although rumor has it the district has not gotten its act together so no one officially knows if teachers are still going to be required to administer district common exams in January. It is disheartening to read your blog that affirms the district has back away from Gormons testing plans when the reality is that NO CHANGE AT ALL has been made.
Anyone remember the Terminator's punchline...I'll be back...
The Gormanator's back!
What good does testing do and the programs designed to capture data when educrats allow students to retake tests?
As usual, this is just another distraction to take away from the fact Little Johnny can't read, no matter what kind of whiz-bang- sooper-dooper data gathering program we have.
Wiley,
The Gormanator wasn't a fan of kids retaking tests.
...but they did anyway.
6:52 and 7:16, I was referring to the year-end tests that created so much stir (especially the one-on-one exams for K-2) and were designed to rate teacher effectiveness. They did drop those and are waiting for new year-end exams from the state, right?
You guys are certainly right that CMS has not backed away from formative testing -- or even the concept of extending the scope of year-end testing and using it for "value-added" ratings. They probably couldn't even if Morrison and the board wanted to, since it's now a statewide push.
Ann, you're so right on the need for nouns. If the consortium chose them thoughtfully, they could claim the appealingly "balanced" acronym of SBBS.
SBBS...An acronym with all sorts of possibilities, especially with BS at the end.
Smarter Balanced?
I Can't Believe that's Better than Butter...
Where's the side view?
It is hard to clean your system of the Broad virus. Takes vigilance and grassroots work by teachers and parents!
RETESTING….SOMETHING SURPRISING…AND THEN AGAIN NOT.
Dr. Gorman was so much not a fan of retest that he attempted to get the other large districts to report GAP scores sans retest. Gorman zero. Districts 100. He didn’t get a retest opportunity either.
Fast forward to this past Monday evening.
I caught-up with the new Accountability Officer, Frank Barnes, manning one of the Task Force sign-up tables. I asked, “How do you feel about retest?”
His answer went like this: there are many reasons for retest. It could be the teacher didn’t cover the material correctly, the kid was distracted, wasn’t feeling well or maybe a case of anxiety(I would add that could include the teacher). There were a couple of minutes of more reasons.
My conclusion. Thanks to Dr. Gorman’s position on re-test and his want to show the real GAP, Dr. Morrison will be able to emphasize them and thus show quite a reduction. 2012-13 growth will be “amazing.”
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
Bolyn, I predict that 2012-13 growth will be confusing, but not because of the retest issue. Gorman did oppose that vigorously, but the state stuck with it and CMS started reporting results that way. 2012 results included retests, and so do any retroactive numbers CMS uses (thus the large number of schools that can report impressive gains since 2008, which was the last year before retests).
This year's results will include retests, but they'll be all new tests. I think it's going to be a couple of years before we have any kind of meaningful year-to-year comparison data.
For broad statistical purposes, re-testing only those students who failed is problematic because it does skew the overall data. However, when the futures of individual students or teachers are at stake (passing a grade, evaluation based on value-add, etc.) then retests are in order because factors such as illness or distraction can have major effects on the micro level. The experts who initially devised the standardized testing system have made it quite clear that even the best tests can only be reliably used at a macro scale, and are highly unreliable at a micro scale. If school systems choose to hang the fate of students and teachers on an unreliable measure, they should at least provide them with every possible opportunity to succeed.
EOGs should only be one part of a child's overall "grade".
I've said before that my son made As and the Honor Roll many times but didn't do well on his EOGs. The next year, we would have to go to the school and get his classes changed to more challenging ones than what the school district felt like he should be in.
If you leave your child's education up to educrats, you're a fool.
Ann,
I agree with all your points.
I will add that I got a sense from the Barnes conversation that the time between the first test and the retest will be used more aggressively. That means the retest results will be greater.
Barnes was very enthusiastic as he spoke of the reasons for retest. I got a feeling that he saw those as opportunities to challenge students. If have it wrong about the opportunity and I know I have it correct about the enthusiasm.
Bolyn
Pineville
Can they not distance themselves from Pete Gorman? For a guy who based them in TN this year after leaving why on earth would they want that vendor? Typical CMS issue guys lets wonder why nobody trusts us. Then you go do that again with foot in mouth. Poor , Poor judgement. Keith W. Hurley
Wiley, I recommend you pass your thoughts on to state legislators, who voted last year that passage from second to third grade should rest on a single test score.
PAM
Subject: Retest.
It appears you are saying every student except those that ace a test should be allowed a retest.
Do I have that correct?
I can't believe that physical conditions that hinder testing only affect low performers.
Bolyn
Pineville
Bolyn,
If a test determines whether a student graduates from one grade to another, then a student who doesn't pass the test the first time should get a second chance. It's not a matter of maximizing every student's score, which would be pointless, but in being as fair as possible to students who face being significantly penalized by a stupid system.
As you know, if I were in charge I'd do away with high-stakes testing altogether, but since we seem to be stuck with it for now, the least the system can do is try to minimize the damage.
Bolyn,
My son has no physical condition yet is one of those kids who just doesn't test well.
Perfect example.
After going through the process for a year with the military, my son was finally able to take the DLAB to qualify for jobs within the military that require language skills.
The DLAB is a made up language. They give you the parameters and 30 minutes to study for it. He needed a 95 and made a 90. He will be able to retest in 6 months after he gets his MOS. HE said it was the hardest test he's ever taken.
As I have said before, he speaks Spanish and Japanese fluently and I have no doubt that after taking the DLAB one time, the next time he'll get the score he needs.
One test at the end of the year should not be the sole deciding factor as to whether a child moves on or not.
My son will be sworn in next Tuesday and be heading to 12 Bravo at Ft. Wood as a Combat Engineer.
There are times in life where you only get one chance.
Taking a test and having it soley dictate whether you advance or not in elementary school is not one of them - looking for and diffusing IEDs as a Combat Engineer is where you get once chance to get it right.
My "gifted" son took ONE test in 6th grade that placed him in an advanced Algebra 1 class in 7th grade. When it became clear he wasn't retaining the material and struggling to make a low C, I requested to have him moved into an "average" Algebra 1 class. CMS wouldn't grant permission for my son to be placed in an average class because of some state law designed to prevent schools from manipulating EOC scores. I had to hire a $90 a week tutor and take my son out of school to see his pediatrician who wrote a terse letter stating she was prepared to send my son to a child psychologist for stress if CMS didn't move him into an appropriate level class. At this point, our regional school superintendent had to get involved and eventually agreed to move my "gifted" son into an "average" Algebra 1 class with the blessings of my son's math teacher, my son's math tutor, our school principal and our school assistant principal. My son scored in the top 20% on the math section of the ACT and is attending his first college choice.
Alicia
...and look at all of the time, money and resources put towards programs like LIFT while other students like you child and mine, receive nothing anywhere close to that kind of scrutiny regarding their education progress.
You had to spend all of YOUR time, money and resources to force the powers that be to do THEIR job(s)for your child.
It's madness.
One thing we need is more counselors. Every student and their parents should be required to meet with one each year to review their progress, discuss issues and look forward to what the child would like to do after high school.
SUMMARY OF BLOG COMMENTS AND ACTION.
There are 22 Task Forces included in Morrison's "The Way Forward" plan.
I believe one is on Accountability. I have no experience in that area but many others seem to. Who is going to enlist?
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
First order of accountability would be to fire Morrison for plagiarism.
The Way Forward
Ford Motor Company's restructuring plan, made public in 2006, is known as The Way Forward.
Ford is attempting to reduce fixed capital costs while maintaining a special focus on cars and car-based crossover vehicles. Over time, it hopes to make more of its product line profitable instead of relying on a limited portion of the products for profit. Making good profits across the product line requires that the company reduce the costs of development and production, while introducing new products that connect with consumers.
Maybe it's just a coincidence....
Pam, as to 4:44 entry. As in the medical profession, the education profession must take a new oath, "Do no harm first."
I believe most kids with responsible parents could pass a grade, even using the state tests, in 45 days. And be better off not in the public school insanity environment any more than necessary.
Also, seems to be too that, not having looked Pam's reference at 4:23 entry, it was state law that the EOG nor EOC could be used as the sole determination to advance a child to the next grade.
I remember asking that question to the principal of the high school a child of mine was entering. I asked them for a straight up answer, how many or what percentage of students were entering 9th grade who did not pass the 8th grade EOG. They tried to dodge the question and some other parents realized the point I was trying to make and pressed them. They turned to me and said, "none your child will be exposed to." which I found disingenuous because high school is not only classes but the transitions, lunch times, etc. Needless to say some other parents started to raise some ire and they cut the meeting off.
Lastly, Boyln, I'd be happy to served on the Accountability Task Force. I design these systems as a career. However, I get the sense these Task Forces are well plugged with deliberate appointees. I can give you my email address if desire. Christine Mast already has it.
How about you and I doing it Bill?
They would love that, wouldn't they?
Boleyn and Ann your both wasting data space....... There is no more retesting on EOCs
Wiley, they'd never recover!
Again Ann and Bolynn for being such "experts" on the district.......that is sarcasm because both of you never actually scratch the surface to find out how things actually work.
1. Retesting NEVER increased school scores or pass rates because the first score was always the score the school was stuck with....regardless of retest.
2. Resetting is a thing of the past..... State does not allow or require it anymore..
You guys need to speak with teachers not educates.
Wiley,
Your tome on counselors meeting on a yearly basis is hopeless when they are responsible for monitoring parking lots, required social engineering(PBIS, Rachel's Challenge, PEP's, testing, drama calming, homeless kids, etc.) Back in the day CTE had middle school Career counselors for just that reason. High School is too late, way too late.
Accountability Task Force
CMS reality
A Task to Force Accountability
First comment - I'm impressed with the level of discourse in this set of comments, nicely done.
Second comment - Why does CMS need to effectively outsource test result tracking to the company that lacks a noun in their name? (Smarter Balanced sounds like a riff on the new Colbert book: "Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't".)
Ah, I clicked over to Wireless Generation's website and read the Press Release on the reporting system. Wireless G is developing in collaboration with ETS to have this for multiple states pushing Common Core.
This quote is interesting: "In the summer of 2014, Wireless Generation will provide Smarter Balanced with a fully functional, open source reporting system for integration with the other assessment system
technology components."
So we won't see anything tangible until 2014 and it's touted with those keen buzzwords: open source.
Ann - any idea how much CMS will have to end up paying to use this system?
I'd like to get more information too, like who will be considered "authorized users"? And will this system be connected to the digital portfolio that Morrison talked about last Monday? Meaning how easy will it be for me as a parent to find all related data about my child's progress?
All that said, an overarching point not to forget is none of the data being discussed here will be valid for showing which teachers are effective and which aren't.
Bill,
This summer the state legislature passed a requirement that second graders pass the reading test in order to advance to third grade.
Bill, why give Bolyn your email? He has absolutely nothing to do with the task force. He is not on the school board.
The Way Forward? Is CMS recycling It's Reaching Further initiatives?
Good Discussion. I agree with Pam - Yes I said that - on the notion that because a high stakes test is only a snapshot, not the whole movie - that individual students should be given second chances to pass those tests. People can have a bad day, get answers out of order on the answer sheet, etc. And because high stakes tests have the most value at the macro level, I supported Dr. Gorman's efforts to report year over year testing trends without retests - that is what we looked at at the Board level, regardless of what the state reported.
Jeff Wise - reasons for using an outside firm for tracking include objectivity/reliability - like an auditing firm counting the ballots at the Oscars, proprietary software that districts and states essentially rent rather than bear the burden of implementation (and upgrading, R&D, etc), service from SMEs that again are rented rather than bought - which makes sense for this application.
I wish we were doing more with SLOs (student learning objectives) or similar teacher-driven metrics. We were the lead dog on that at one point, and it had the potential to be part of a viable system of measuring teacher effectiveness, but it got lost in all the noise about high stakes testing. And it wasn't being implemented with great fidelity in places. Ironically, many other states are adopting SLOs now.
WANT TO SERVE ON A TASK FORCE?
CMS' Denise Cavoly is the project manager on the task force initiative.
I don't have her email address.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
Bill and Wiley,
You KNOW that the task forces will be filled with only those people that CMS WANTS on them... just like the new CHEC group up in Huntersville. I applied for that and was summarily denied.
http://www.huntersville.org/TownGovernment/BoardsCommissions/CommunityofHuntersvilleEducationCollaborative.aspx
http://huntersville.org/Portals/0/PropertyAgent/769/Files/360/091712Official%20-%20Approved%20100112.pdf
Start on page 12 of the minutes and read all about the fiasco of the Huntersville Board and Mayor trying to vote on the new members of CHEC.
Nothing will ever change with the same group of people doing the same things over and over again... insanity, right?
Is anyone else bothered that all 22 task forces will be chock full of people working for FREE? And if the task forces will meet from January - June, how will they actually make it into the 2013-2014 budget? CMS Staff prepares that budget in late February/early March and then kills all those trees by printing the budget book! All we're doing here is wasting another year's budget.
And I want to know (Ann, can you find out) whose signature/written approval is on the purchase order with Wireless Generation. Talk about a huge conflict of interest.
That's another area we need to audit -- the purchasing area... let's review all the vendors and dig into who knows who and how long they've been paid by CMS. I bet we could find all sorts of good stuff there.
Finally, I find it disturbing that we've never heard a word (publicly) from our new Chief of Technology. For instance, how are all the pilot schools doing with BYOT? How is this contract with Wireless Generation going to affect all the other software/systems that are used?
CMS is just filling those task force with chosen people from SLT network and PTA's around the county. Nothing new another zero accountability product of CMS. Keith W. Hurley
Wiley , I have a thought on Project LIFT. Would it not be cheaper/easier for the state, county & corporate donors to just cut checks direct to LIFT zone students for say $250,000. Since the supposed "disadvantaged" students are behind they could use that for private tutors and a "catch up" of funds. That should bring them equal to the rest of society would it not? Or what would be Ms. Watts next excuse? Keith W. Hurley
Keith, that would keep the "inner circle" from receiving their cut. Anyway if you do the math and assume equal distribtuion of funds, it came to be a little over $1,000 per student per year. Assuminig you use the same ration of schoolhouse funding like CMS does, then about $750 actually goes to the schoolhouse level.
Remember a large part of LIFT money was to go to pay groups that were LIFT chosen to do the audits for example. Therein, it is easy to assume these are cohorts of the group running Project LIFT. You know like keeping it all in the family.
I'm sure the extra tutoring, pay for those running programs that are outside of what the teachers do and on and on are also included in this strategy.
Also as others have mentioned, I fully understood these 22 task forces would be handpicked for the results they want.
Lastly, as for retests, if I recall right, Dr. Gorman had some numbers that indicated that those who relied on retests to get to the next grade, were also ones who had the higher likelihood of dropping out.
Agreed that this has been a high-quality and intriguing comment thread -- thanks, all.
For the folks saying there will be no retesting starting this year: I've sent a query to the state folks to check that. Haven't heard that, but it wouldn't be the first time I've learned something from comments.
On the cost to CMS: The Wireless contract is with SB, which I believe would funnel data through NC to CMS. On the broader point, I wish we had a full-time reporter to assign just to the business of educational technology, because it's incredibly complex, important and expensive.
A lot of these comments point to one of the big challenges of today's testing: The way you'd use the tests to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of individual students sometimes clashes with the way you'd use them to evaluate teachers, schools and districts.
Bill,
With Project LIFT, I just don't see a future. I don't see how the project can be replicated districtwide even if it is truly successful (define "successful").
In the scheme of things, $55 million over 5 years is not that much money.
Look at where the money goes; lobbying, signing bonuses, funding outside of the classroom to educate parents, etc. and if LIFT has to pay for longer school days, there goes the budget.
Broken out by school per year, each school's share of LIFT dollars is $1,222,222.
There are 159 schools in CMS. How many schools would be targeted to follow the LIFT program? 75%? 60%? 25%?...
At 60% of schools (81), it would cost $99,500,000 PER YEAR to replicate LIFT.
At 25% of schools (40), the cost would be $48,890,000 PER YEAR.
At 25%, that would increase the $1.3 Billion dollar budget by 3.8% per year - JUST for LIFT schools.
I just don't see it happening.
"there goes the budget" is correct.
Define "successful" for LIFT. I can guarantee that their defintion of successfull is far from our definition.
We are already seeing increasing graduation rates. We are already seeing graduation rates skewed by administrators changing grades.
As for which schools would get additional "LIFT" type funds, be assured it would be some formula based upon the fraudulent FRL numbers.
I have one idea in mind but I will not post it on a public board.
Interesting that this idea of Project LIFT came out of the talk a couple of years ago by Dr. Canada (Harlem Achievement Zone). Yet they refused to look at his lessons learned and decided to go the route he initially failed with, working with the public schools. Now agreed, LIFT has changed this model a bit to where essentially LIFT is running these schools with the CMS pocketbook and little to no oversight by CMS. Also like a no cost charter school with nearly all expenses paid by someone else.
Like I said before, LIFT is a little over $1,000 per student whereas CMS already pays out a little over $8,700 per student in these schools.
It will interesting to see how the 3 charter schools approved for this area of town next year get kicked off and if they survive a few years.
Trent - good comments. I understand now that Smarter Balanced is using Wireless Generation to handle reporting for a number of districts nationwide.
Ideally the open source comment SB made will afford CMS the ability to use the reported data for additional uses - this would give CMS a nice window into Big Data and potentially start finding some correlations that so far have gone unnoticed.
To that end I would like to see CMS invest in the resources to handle this kind of data and reporting (if they don't already have the capacity).
There's lots of nice talk about data-driven this and evidence-based that, but if the data infrastructure and resources aren't there, then it's just talk.
Pam, Wiley, Bill, Bolyn, Jeff,
Research suggests that kids who are held back a grade are significantly less likely to graduate from high school than kids who are academically struggling but are allowed to continue to the next grade. If this is true, than what's the purpose of holding a 2nd grader back who can't pass the EOG even after a second try?
Thoughts on this? I'm in a post-baccalaureate K-6 teaching licensure program. I want to teach 4th or 5th grade which means subjecting myself to standardized testing requirements from every angle - assuming I decide to work for a public school system and not a private school system. I'm in classes with some remarkable people who are having serious seconds thoughts about becoming teachers because of all the testing madness.
Alicia
Christine Mast: Seriously? Are you actually complaining about CMS not paying the volunteers on the task forces?
Remind me to pay CMS for the privilege of never-ever serving on another task-force.
Today's smile:
Eric C. Davis's Letter to the Editor. Somedays, I miss the 2005 school board.
Alicia
Alicia, "research" is an interesting word these days as I have been deep into studying how "educrats" come up with many of their reform ideas. Once your read of some of this research, it pays to go back to see why it started, who initiated it, and who funded it. Sometimes, actually the majority I think in public education, research is done to support an agenda.
Common sense would say your retention and dropout conclusion is probably right. But the severe test which the previous 2 principals of West Charlotte High School pointed out was they could get a handle on and remediate their existing students but they alaways had this HUGE block of students coming in every year with the same deficiencies and it simply wore them and their teachers out.
Dr. Gorman said he believed those students that passed a retest were just as likely to dropout as if they were retained. I beleive that is more opinion than fact because that kind of research is really tough to pull off and verify.
With all that said, I believe testing is here to stay. Social promotion has got us here and what most other educators say is they attempted to use a more common sense approach to judging if a student was ready to go to the next grade or not. But usually they got shot down when confronted by the parent and the principal usually did not side with the teacher without some concrete evidence.
Until 2 years ago, I believed a school system could get out of this testing (NCLB). They just had to give up getting federal money. And that was not going to happen if you had any minorities in the school system. The school system would have to come up with some additional funding to handle FRL but at least then they could do a 100% audit of the applicants. They also would have to do something that somewhat resembled Title 1.
But back to your question at hand. If you assume those that are at highest risk of dropout are also those that would qualify for Bright Beginnings from a skill deficiency assessment, you could easily create a 2 year kindergarten program for them. This then brings in a one year older child who had a better chance of retaining the BB purpose into higher grades. We know the evidence currently says that "advantage" is gone by 3rd grade. And what it also does is hold back a child before there is any awareness of retention and that label. I have talked to a few teachers, not in this LIFT zone, and they say the 3rd graders thay have had and retained seemed to be sucessful after a second time at 3rd grade and have moved along to where that can pass the 5th grade EOG just fine.
And I want to make a distinction here. You can find like demographics in many schools in CSM as you do in this west Charlotte area. However strategies put in place at those schools seem to not work in west Charlotte schools. You wonder sometimes if it is not more a case of the self fulling prophecy effect becuase so many politicans, community organizers, elitists, newspaper editorial boards, etc. continue to bring up how bad off these kids are, how it takes so so so much more resources and effort to get these kids to an "expected" level in soiety that it simply puts an additional boat anchor around the necks of these kids.
Diversity in Education
I'm still smiling over Eric Davis's LTE today. I suppose it should have come as no surprise that he didn't attend Hampshire, Wesleyan or Brown.
Alicia
Bill,
Interesting points.
I "red shirted" both of my children in accredited TK programs prior to kindergarten in an effort to give them an academic edge over their classmates. I don't know if this approach made a difference but when kids are being labeled "gifted" and so forth by 2nd grade, which puts them on a track that can affect the rest of their schooling, waiting an extra year posed little risk.
Is there a correlation between starting kindergarten later and student achievement?
Alicia
Alicia, et al.
One radical idea I think has a bit of merit is to open elementary school in a more Montessori style. Let the child progress at their own rate through the 5th grade.
I don't like the idea of testing being the dominant determinant of student advancement at anything below 5th grade. So yeah, I concur with Pam and Trent that allowing retests on such a high-stakes test is valid.
Ideally, if Superintendent Morrison's PEP for everyone idea goes to the extent I hope it does, then we'll see more opportunities for lagging students to catch up, and quickly.
Lastly, I'm one of those who believes that in about 5 years we'll see this wave of testing diminish and replaced with some new fad - maybe a fad like having students create and do projects instead of testing.
Alicia - sorry one other thing to your red shirting comment.
For every study that shows correlation between achievement and red shirting, there's an offsetting study that shows nothing.
Our son turned r the week school started this year and we thought very briefly about waiting a year, but he had such a great Pre-K experience that we didn't. He's doing fine, but I'll absolutely say that a solid Pre-K experience is essential for K-12 preparedness.
There are a number of studies that are proving this true.
I remember when the argument was for state wide kindergarten that it would close the achievement gap.
My son did great in his pre-K setting so we started him early.
He graduated at 17.
If I had to do it again, I would have waited a year based on maturity and not academically.
To Jeff's point, all kids are different.
Jeff,
My kids are in high school and college so I'm not on the front line of this issue. However, didn't CMS change it's criteria for acceptance into it's gifted program a few years ago? I think it's based on a portfolio now instead of a standardized IQ score which ties into your theory about creative projects becoming the next big fad when high-stakes testing fails to solve the achievement gap. I grew up in the 1960's and 1970's when many liberal arts colleges started the practice of projects instead of grades, offered pass/fail courses, and design your own majors. I believe one of the reasons CMS changed it's criteria for admission into it's gifted program was because minorities were underrepresented. I'm not sure, but I remember Vilma Leake getting all bent out of shape because there weren't enough minority students in CMS' gifted program. I don't know if CMS' current standards for admission into the gifted program solved this problem. EC services require a battery of standardized tests that don't include a creative portfolio. EC testing is fairly cut and dry although I believe early identification practices are changing.
- Alicia
et. y'all,
I'm not sure I would have red shirted if I had girls. My oldest son needed an extra year to learn how to sit in a chair. He's taking calculus now and doing well. Gender comes into play in the areas of student achievement, graduation rates, and college preparedness. Girls outnumber boys by a 60% to 40% margin at most colleges. My oldest son is happy as a clam with this co-ed composition working in his favor. If I were to do it all over again, I still would have waited an extra year before enrolling my kids in kindergarten.
Alicia
Anon @ 12:22pm,
Seriously, that's all you got out of my comments?
Let me clarify my reason behind the "free" comment... WHY, with SO many employees that are PAID by CMS, including Dr. Morrison, does he need 22 task forces filled up with a dozen people each, working for free? They don't listen to anyone now! I feel for the people that get on these task forces.
It all boils down to the Delphi Technique. Google it.
It already happened with the Community Meetings held by Dr. Morrison. I attended the Hopewell HS meeting, and in our small group, we filled up three boards with our comments. If you look at the minutes published from that meeting, NONE of our comments/issues appear in those minutes.
Christine,
While I'm sure there are a fair number of people who get on these task forces to serve/volunteer just for volunteerism sake, I suspect there are just as many who do it to stick it on a resume or use it as a stepping stone for something else.
I do agree with you regarding the number of groups. Too many cooks in the kitchen.
How many free volunteers are doing work staff should be doing?
I rather poke myself in the eye with a salad fork than serve on another CMS task force. They are a way of appeasing the public before the CMS school board goes ahead and does whatever it wants.
Forgot my name. Alicia Durand. Yep, I'd rather get stung by a killer bee before poking myself in the eye with a salad fork in preference of serving on another CMS task-force committee. Bless my heart.
Jeff, an interesting idea about elementary open Montessori but I wonder then that these kids fall even further behind faster. Are the teachers then essentially leaving the rest of the students alone and focus almost one on one with these kids who have never seen motivation, initiative, etc.?
Bill, My point was Project LIFT is a hand out program for excuse makers. Its not going to boost grades. Its not going to keep a large number of kids from dropping out. It is intended for a select few (Ms. Watts) and her pals to go on a power trip. It gives them jobs for a few years. They pay themselves well. They have also appointed a few folks in local government to their board. So of whom Mayor Foxx have tried to get future city/county funds for the program. It certainly looks like a educational welfare program with no measurements. I am not a fan of "excuse programs or hand outs" so you know what side of the fence I sit on. Keith W. Hurley
Keith, yes I understand your point completely and agree with it. To know they are creating and interpreting their own success measures with their audit group being "in the family" does not bode well. However I am sure they are already looking at how to extend their gravy train past this first 5 years. You may be partly right with the Mayor Foxx reference but I think they are looking higher like getting on the Gates Foundation or some speaker tour.
Bill - in an ideal world elementary students would be able to move classrooms depending on their progress. Instead of sticking with the same teacher and classmates for a half or full year, let the teachers assess progress quarterly and change students. The 2nd grade teachers would meet for example and discuss their students and they could, in effect, trade students to better match teaching styles with learning strengths of the students.
It seems like there's all sorts of opportunities for mixing and matching students to teaching styles so why try to match at the beginning of the year and leave it when schools could continuously improve by reassessing class rosters and adjusting throughout the year? Now, there could be glaring holes in that idea that I'm missing, I understand that but I'd rather discuss ideas like that before relying so heavily on standardized tests.
America did not become the greatest country on the planet by relying on standardized testing.
Since the great social experiment in education started in the 60's, graduation rates have declined nationally.
Go back to basics, eliminate excuses and let's move on.
10:30 Jeff,
Ah, the concept of real team teaching!
Interestingly, "the research" suggests that teachers AND students perform better when teachers are able to share their best ideas with each other and are given some flexibility and autonomy in the classroom. A pay-for-performance model discourages teamwork since teachers are, in effect, put in a position of competing against each other instead of competing together as a 3rd grade team. A good team of teachers WANT their co-horts to perform well and will put pressure on those who might have a tendency to slack off. Also, I very much believe that what motivates the average man in a corporate high pressure-cooker setting does not translate to what motivates the average female teacher in an educational setting. Most teachers are women. I think gender differences often get lost in the argument.
Alicia
also,
A good team of teachers are able to recognize individual strengths within a group and utilize these strengths in ways the benefit everyone.
For example, it's rare to find a good dance teacher who doesn't have a specialty in one area - ballet, modern, jazz, tap - even though most can effectively teach each technique to an acceptable beginning-intermediate level of proficiency. A successful dance company or dance school will hire highly competitive and highly trained people who are able to complement each other. Most dance companies have "principals" who are paid and featured more than "corps" members but, even so, there can be vast differences in styles among the principal group which makes paying one prima dance diva more than another strictly based on some objective standardized measure ridiculous. How do you measure, rate and rank George Balanchine and Martha Graham on a uniform standardized test? When I was growing up, Russian dancers were risking their lives to defect to the United States in an effort to break away from ridged and uniform ways of dancing. Russian dance defectors were all about finding balance - a balance between ridged and strict technique which made them the best dancers in the world but, conversely, paralyzed them from being innovated and creating anything new. Despite being the best trained dancers in the world, the best Russian dancers wanted to dance here.
Alica
With apologies to those who hate veering off topic:
Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux - the artistic director of NCDT - has a great story about meeting Rudolph Nureyev who even the KGB couldn't keep from defecting from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1961.
I'll refrain from my tirade about CMS' attempt at standardized testing band and dance teachers.
Alicia
Alicia
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