Student's view: Don't grade me on teacher tests

Leave it to a teenager to put a fresh spin on a topic.  At a school board meeting earlier this month Celia Collias, a junior at Myers Park High,  joined a group urging Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to resist adding more state exams that are being created to rate teachers.

Her argument:  It's not fair to count those exams toward student grades.  After all,  if they really measure teacher effectiveness,  a low score just means we had a bad teacher,  right?

She's far from the first person to question the tests,  known as Measures of Student Learning. Local parents,  teachers and advocates have aired doubts about the value of the exams and the time they take away from other classroom work.  So have board members and Superintendent Heath Morrison.  State and federal education officials are still mulling whether to delay the plan to add more MSLs this year.

Still,  Celia's analysis made me smile.  She highlighted a kind of Catch 22:  The tests are supposed to measure teacher effectiveness.  But of course student effort  (not to mention intelligence,  preparation and mood that day)  shapes the scores.  Officials say the exams should count toward final grades to motivate students to give it their best shot.  So if students try hard and still get a lousy score their grade drops,  even if it's the teacher's fault.

The folks who support value-added ratings for teachers  --  and there are many who do, all across the country  --  would say that's oversimplified.  They say they can create formulas that tease out the teacher's contribution to student success or failure.  But it's not clear whether regular people  --  not to mention teachers whose careers are at stake  --  believe them.

Two years ago,  CMS officials made a valiant effort to create a value-added formula and explain it to employees and the public.  I think it's fair to say they failed.  Backlash was strong,  including parents threatening to keep their kids home on testing days.  Key players,  including Superintendent Peter Gorman and performance pay director Andy Baxter,  left CMS and the new crew quickly dropped the effort.

Dr. William Sanders and the Cary-based SAS Institute say they have a formula that works.  It's well regarded in national education circles,  and N.C. education officials have hired them to crunch state test scores for teacher evaluations.  But the rest of us can't examine that formula because it's how SAS earns its income.  Morrison has raised doubts about pinning his teachers'  evaluations to a formula that can't be fact-checked.

So stay tuned.  The quest to create better teacher evaluations is an important one.  We'll be hearing plenty more about this.  And Celia and her classmates will be waiting to learn whether new state exams will shape their grades this year.

$94 million worth of success

The 8,000-plus members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Class of 2013 brought in more than 2,600 scholarships worth almost $94 million, the district reports.

The scholarship report always makes me twitch a bit. Years ago, I treated these tallies like hard data, trying to figure out why some schools were so much more effective than others in getting their graduates college money and why numbers fluctuated so wildly from year to year.

What I learned was that these totals rely on self-reporting by seniors and guidance counselors, both of whom have a lot of distractions at the end of the year.  So now I don't put a lot of energy into the specifics.

But the big point is worth recognizing: A whole lot of students leave CMS with a great education and bright prospects.

And let's face it,  lists are fun.  So in the spirit of celebration, let's take a look at the report and tip our hats to ...

Providence High topped the tally,  with 361 scholarships worth just over $16 million.  Next were Myers Park (302,  $13.7 million)  and Ardrey Kell (245,  $9 million).  Those were also the top three schools based on academic scholarships only.

Vance topped the list for athletic scholarships,  with almost $4 million,  followed by Mallard Creek ($2.6 million) and West Charlotte ($2 million).

Ardrey Kell logged $840,000 in military scholarships,  followed by Providence ($677,606) and Independence ($188,500).

South Meck topped the fine arts list with $537,290,  followed by Providence ($253,100) and Northwest School of the Arts ($184,500).  It's probably worth noting that the arts magnet is much smaller than the two traditional high schools.

And for band scholarships, South Meck was way above all other schools with $279,300.

All in all,  that comes to a lot of students and parents with good cause to celebrate.

Smart student journalism

Normally I'm not keen on admitting that another journalist has gotten ahead of me, but I'll make an exception when the reporter is a high-school student.

For several months, I've been chipping away at making sense of CMS' moves toward teacher performance pay. A blog reader suggested I find out how much the district is spending to create new tests that will be used to gauge teacher effectiveness. I put in that query, along with a lot of others, and awaited an answer.

In the meantime, Myers Park High journalism teacher James Scott called to raise some questions about the cost of performance pay, including the new tests. Feeling smug, I told him I was expecting that information any day.

"One of my students has already gotten it," he said.

Susanna Booth

Back in mid-January, Susanna Booth, a junior in Myers Park's International Baccalaureate program, had gotten wind that new end-of-course tests were coming for electives such as journalism. She e-mailed a series of smart questions to Chief Academic Officer Ann Clark, who forwarded them to Chris Cobitz in the testing office. Among her questions: Are these tests coming from CMS or the state? Why? How much will they cost? How will they affect teaching?

I love that a young reporter is running hard at such significant news. She's definitely onto something: CMS folks told me they're spending just over $1.9 million to design tests for every course that doesn't have a state End of Grade or End of Course exam (see the story in today's paper).

I am impressed that Cobitz gave Susanna prompt and detailed answers. She e-mailed nine questions on a Thursday; he answered her on Sunday night and urged her to contact him with any follow-ups.

And I positively beamed to see that Susanna responded just the way I would have: "Thank you so much! And yes, I actually do have a couple more questions ..."

She sent him 10 more.

I'm honored to count Susanna as a colleague. Her reporting helped me get better answers faster.

Here at the Observer, we've talked about how to make better connections with student journalists. If you have any thoughts, pass them along. I suspect the best of our high-school reporters could keep us all better informed.