From the Inquirer.
PSSAs put kids, schools on hot seat
By Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Write. Posted on Sun, Mar. 15, 2009
Fourth grader Maurice Daniels knows why tomorrow is a big, big day.
"It's the PSSAs," said Maurice, 9, a fourth grader at John Welsh Elementary in North Philadelphia. "It's really important. We've practiced for a long time, and it shows how many skills you know, how good your school is."
Around the state, thousands of third through eighth graders, plus 11th graders, will spend the next several days taking their Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams in math and reading. Beginning next month, fourth, eighth, and 11th graders will take state science exams.
The state has given the PSSAs since the 1990s, but the federal No Child Left Behind law of 2002 raised the stakes: Results determine whether a school is deemed passing or failing. Failure means intense oversight and sanctions that could include total staff replacement.
Critics say the law puts too much pressure on schools to drill students and teach only to the state tests. Supporters say it keeps standards high for all children.
In ways large and small, Pennsylvania students have been preparing for the exams for months.
At James Buchanan Elementary School in Levittown, an all-school pep rally last week revved up students for the test. And on the last school day before the exam, Welsh devoted classes to analyzing PSSA reading passages, reviewing math facts, and playing PSSA bingo.
"In math, these types of lines run side by side and never cross or intersect," Welsh teacher Denise McCaig prompted her fourth graders, who held markers poised above bingo sheets.
"Parallel lines!" Maurice shouted, waving his hand excitedly.
Welsh - a school of 620 kindergartners through eighth graders, about 90 percent of whom live in poverty - has passed state tests seven years running. To extend the streak, the staff began exam prep early, said Mike Reardon, the school's testing coordinator.
"We start preparing in September," he said, "but it becomes more intense as the year goes on."
There is teacher training, with videos of veteran teachers modeling effective PSSA prep methods for newer teachers. Struggling students are given extra support in small groups.
"And parents know what the test means," said Jeanette Fernandez, Welsh's principal. "We stress attendance, getting enough sleep . . . the night before the test," and a good breakfast.
Evy Clark, principal of Buchanan, a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school in the Bristol Township School District, stood on the sideline as the school staged its massive PSSA pep rally. There were cheerleaders, an original PSSA song and dance, karate and gymnastics demonstrations, video testimonials, and younger students waving signs rooting for older ones.
Over the top? You bet. But Buchanan has never failed the state exam, and students know the pressure is on to keep standards up.
"Everyone's working so hard all year toward this goal of achieving proficiency," said Clark, using the state's term for hitting grade level. "Let's have some fun. Let's cheer each other on."
Keeping kids' attention focused on the test in a positive way is important, and the pep rally goes a long way, she said.
Other Buchanan PSSA strategies include extra reading and writing practice, a longer recess on test day, and permission for students to keep typically forbidden water bottles on their desks during the exam.
"We do a lot of positive reinforcement, telling them that they can do this, that they've got lots of strategies to solve problems," Clark said.
It's necessary, she said, because "for the most part, students are stressed out over the test. They take it seriously, and they know it's the same test everyone all over the state is taking."
At Samuel Fels High in Philadelphia, just juniors will take the exam. But PSSA-themed posters line the hallways, and everyone knows the test is looming.
Principal Greg Hailey uses incentives such as discounted prom tickets and Class of 2010 T-shirts to make sure students attend on test days.
"We do snacks for students throughout the day," he said. "We make sure they have water. We want them to be confident and comfortable."
At Welsh, fourth grader Shyann Martinez said she was ready to go. She flipped through a stack of well-worn photocopied test prep papers and nodded gravely.
"I feel a little bit nervous," Shyann said. "There could be something on the test that I need to work on. What if I do bad on the PSSA?"
Showing posts with label PSSA scores. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PSSA scores. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Stalemate broken on school tests
From the Inquirer.
Stalemate broken on school tests
By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
A Pennsylvania stalemate over adopting mandatory high school tests as a graduation requirement was broken yesterday when state education officials backed down and agreed to voluntary tests.
To graduate under current regulations, students must pass the PSSAs or, if they fail, they must pass an assessment given by their local districts. Those include standardized local tests, passing core courses, or showing proficiency from an examination of students' course work.
Last year, state education officials proposed a set of mandatory state subject tests that students who failed the PSSAs could take and had proposed limiting the use of local assessments to standardized tests. School boards and teachers' unions blocked that plan; yesterday's proposal was an effort to break the logjam.
Under the new plan, a third option would be added: a battery of new state tests to be developed in various subject areas, including English, math, sciences, and social studies. Passing those tests would show that a student had met the standards in that area. Good scores on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests would also meet the graduation requirement.
The plan is to be formally proposed by the state Board of Education this summer. If it goes through the regulatory process intact, it will apply to seniors graduating in June 2015.
Students who failed the state tests, which would be called "Keystone Exams," would get remedial help and retake them; the state is developing a model curriculum and diagnostic tools to help teachers find out what material students don't understand.
Also, the proposal said that school district assessments must be examined by an independent organization to confirm that they meet state academic standards. The state and local districts would share the cost of making sure the local assessments meet state benchmarks. Special education students can graduate if they meet the requirements of their individualized education plans.
A study released last week said that only a handful of Pennsylvania's school districts could show that their local reading and math assessments met state standards and were being used in a way that ensured that all high school graduates had mastered all required material. In 2007, about 56,000 11th-grade students who had failed at least one PSSA test the year before graduated after passing passed a local assessment.
At a news conference, the new plan was announced yesterday by Thomas Gentzel, the executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association; Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak and Board of Education Chairman Joseph Torsella. The association had opposed mandatory testing. Gentzel said he supports the the new plan because the state tests are voluntary and the local assessments can still be used.
"We believe this new language recognizes the need to ensure that all students in the commonwealth graduate from high school with essential skills, yet balances that with the need to provide local school boards with significant and meaningful flexibility in achieving that goal," he said in a statement.
Zahorchak said the proposal would ensure that for students taking a course "across the hall or across the state," the subject matter would be equally rigorous.
Eventually, the state would like to see the Keystone Exams replace the 11th-grade PSSA - the state's No Child Left Behind Accountability tests, Zahorchak said.
In January 2008, the state Board of Education proposed that all districts must use state subject tests. That plan was met with a storm of opposition from the school boards association, teachers' unions and education-reform groups. In July, the state legislature placed a one-year hold on the proposal.
This year, Sen. Jane Orie (R, Allegheny) introduced a bill that would block the Board of Education from imposing any new state graduation requirement without legislative approval. In a statement yesterday, Orie said the new proposal did not change her mind. "The truth is, we already know what schools are struggling and what students are failing," she said.
State Sen. Andrew E. Dinniman (D., Chester), was even more emphatic in his opposition. The 10 new proposed state tests and the process of making sure local tests meet state standards would cost "tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars," he said, adding, "We have struggling taxpayers, not just struggling students - how would he [Zahorchak] pay those bills?"
Education Department spokesman Michael Race said that the tests would cost about $30 million to develop and that the state is asking for $9.8 million to develop them this year. No cost estimate of the expense for validating the local tests has been arrived at.
State Rep. James R. Roebuck Jr. (D., Phila.), the chairman of the House Education Committee, was more positive. "I think this is a substantial step forward - this begins to move them into the necessary dialogue that will ultimately resolve much of the opposition," he said.
But James Testerman the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, while saying that the union had not made a final decision about the new proposal, said: "On the surface, it looks like they are still trying to put in place a series of high-stakes exit exams for high school, and we're opposed to that."
Stalemate broken on school tests
By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
A Pennsylvania stalemate over adopting mandatory high school tests as a graduation requirement was broken yesterday when state education officials backed down and agreed to voluntary tests.
To graduate under current regulations, students must pass the PSSAs or, if they fail, they must pass an assessment given by their local districts. Those include standardized local tests, passing core courses, or showing proficiency from an examination of students' course work.
Last year, state education officials proposed a set of mandatory state subject tests that students who failed the PSSAs could take and had proposed limiting the use of local assessments to standardized tests. School boards and teachers' unions blocked that plan; yesterday's proposal was an effort to break the logjam.
Under the new plan, a third option would be added: a battery of new state tests to be developed in various subject areas, including English, math, sciences, and social studies. Passing those tests would show that a student had met the standards in that area. Good scores on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests would also meet the graduation requirement.
The plan is to be formally proposed by the state Board of Education this summer. If it goes through the regulatory process intact, it will apply to seniors graduating in June 2015.
Students who failed the state tests, which would be called "Keystone Exams," would get remedial help and retake them; the state is developing a model curriculum and diagnostic tools to help teachers find out what material students don't understand.
Also, the proposal said that school district assessments must be examined by an independent organization to confirm that they meet state academic standards. The state and local districts would share the cost of making sure the local assessments meet state benchmarks. Special education students can graduate if they meet the requirements of their individualized education plans.
A study released last week said that only a handful of Pennsylvania's school districts could show that their local reading and math assessments met state standards and were being used in a way that ensured that all high school graduates had mastered all required material. In 2007, about 56,000 11th-grade students who had failed at least one PSSA test the year before graduated after passing passed a local assessment.
At a news conference, the new plan was announced yesterday by Thomas Gentzel, the executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association; Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak and Board of Education Chairman Joseph Torsella. The association had opposed mandatory testing. Gentzel said he supports the the new plan because the state tests are voluntary and the local assessments can still be used.
"We believe this new language recognizes the need to ensure that all students in the commonwealth graduate from high school with essential skills, yet balances that with the need to provide local school boards with significant and meaningful flexibility in achieving that goal," he said in a statement.
Zahorchak said the proposal would ensure that for students taking a course "across the hall or across the state," the subject matter would be equally rigorous.
Eventually, the state would like to see the Keystone Exams replace the 11th-grade PSSA - the state's No Child Left Behind Accountability tests, Zahorchak said.
In January 2008, the state Board of Education proposed that all districts must use state subject tests. That plan was met with a storm of opposition from the school boards association, teachers' unions and education-reform groups. In July, the state legislature placed a one-year hold on the proposal.
This year, Sen. Jane Orie (R, Allegheny) introduced a bill that would block the Board of Education from imposing any new state graduation requirement without legislative approval. In a statement yesterday, Orie said the new proposal did not change her mind. "The truth is, we already know what schools are struggling and what students are failing," she said.
State Sen. Andrew E. Dinniman (D., Chester), was even more emphatic in his opposition. The 10 new proposed state tests and the process of making sure local tests meet state standards would cost "tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars," he said, adding, "We have struggling taxpayers, not just struggling students - how would he [Zahorchak] pay those bills?"
Education Department spokesman Michael Race said that the tests would cost about $30 million to develop and that the state is asking for $9.8 million to develop them this year. No cost estimate of the expense for validating the local tests has been arrived at.
State Rep. James R. Roebuck Jr. (D., Phila.), the chairman of the House Education Committee, was more positive. "I think this is a substantial step forward - this begins to move them into the necessary dialogue that will ultimately resolve much of the opposition," he said.
But James Testerman the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, while saying that the union had not made a final decision about the new proposal, said: "On the surface, it looks like they are still trying to put in place a series of high-stakes exit exams for high school, and we're opposed to that."
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Just Another Night in Morrisville, Part II
When we last left our story, an open insurrection was beginning against the autocratic rule of the Emperor. The members of the Q in the audience were aghast at her insolence. The Emperor himself was rocked and resorted to babbling semi-coherently about school safety issues.
But before we visit this storyline, let's take a look at the delivery of the Q-gram last weekend that was discussed by several speakers. For some bizarre reason, it was disclosed that pictures are taken of the houses that receive a Q-gram. Do me a favor and leave me off the distribution list.
The shocking revelation that the class of 2008 did poorly on the mathematics section of the PSSA was not shocking. The only people that were shocked were the dilettantes who bungee in to piously shed mock public tears about our education woes and then obliviously bungee out again until the next pseudo-crisis arises.
I am as disappointed in the math score as anyone is, but the truth of the matter is that real watchers and supporters of the Morrisville school district knew this already, because they were briefed by Dr. Beth Yonson.
The percentile scores for the class of 2008 were 28% scoring proficient or higher in mathematics. In reading, it was 58%. In writing, it was 86%. We have work to do in math, but it looks like the reading and writing scores are pretty good.
There was also a speaker who did an analysis of the complete scores for the entire state. Again, while the math scores were disappointing, they were not wildly out of synch with the rest of the state.
Kudos to Robin Reithmeyer, who had the audacity to openly proclaim that the Emperor had no clothing. She laid out her case rather well (does anyone have a copy of her statement?) and had several pointed exchanges with His Highness.
Then came the insurrection. Robin pointed put that the Emperor was trying to spend money without a comprehensive plan, and that if he has allowed the original December RFP for bids to have gone out without meddling with it, the board would be reviewing the bids already, not just the process. She also properly noted that the items listed as code violations are longstanding items that are grandfathered in. She further noted that the bids will be opened next week and spending the money now without a plan was foolish.
My understanding is that the Emperor melted down quite like the Wicked Witch of the West when Dorothy doused her. He babbled about fires in the school and how the children were in danger.
Isn't it curious how these same items existed last year and candidate Hellmann didn't want them addressed, and now that he's holding on to personal responsibility for it, he's the Mother Theresa of repairs?
The $200,000 in repairs only covered the high school, not the two elementary schools. These schools are even worse off than the high school.
Speaking of the elementary schools, The Emperor arranged for his buddies to do another study, this time at the elementary schools. This time, he even managed to mention it to the board before the study started.
Both of these items failed to be approved, by a 3-3 tie, with Hellmann, Worob and Farrell wanting to plunge along without a plan, and Reithmeyer, Kemp, and Frankenfield wanting a comprehensive plan. **NOTE ADDED: I should mention that Bill Farrell has a deep and genuine interest in the safety of the schools and the students, and I believe that he is more interested in safe schools "right now" so that our kids are safe.**
On another note, I don't understand all of this, so if someone has the info, please share, but apparently Hellmann has a serious personal issue with the banking institution holding the district's money. A move out of here was not approved as well.
Then came the revelation that Billy-Boy stuck his hand in the cookie jar. Again.
More to come.
But before we visit this storyline, let's take a look at the delivery of the Q-gram last weekend that was discussed by several speakers. For some bizarre reason, it was disclosed that pictures are taken of the houses that receive a Q-gram. Do me a favor and leave me off the distribution list.
The shocking revelation that the class of 2008 did poorly on the mathematics section of the PSSA was not shocking. The only people that were shocked were the dilettantes who bungee in to piously shed mock public tears about our education woes and then obliviously bungee out again until the next pseudo-crisis arises.
I am as disappointed in the math score as anyone is, but the truth of the matter is that real watchers and supporters of the Morrisville school district knew this already, because they were briefed by Dr. Beth Yonson.
The percentile scores for the class of 2008 were 28% scoring proficient or higher in mathematics. In reading, it was 58%. In writing, it was 86%. We have work to do in math, but it looks like the reading and writing scores are pretty good.
There was also a speaker who did an analysis of the complete scores for the entire state. Again, while the math scores were disappointing, they were not wildly out of synch with the rest of the state.
Kudos to Robin Reithmeyer, who had the audacity to openly proclaim that the Emperor had no clothing. She laid out her case rather well (does anyone have a copy of her statement?) and had several pointed exchanges with His Highness.
Then came the insurrection. Robin pointed put that the Emperor was trying to spend money without a comprehensive plan, and that if he has allowed the original December RFP for bids to have gone out without meddling with it, the board would be reviewing the bids already, not just the process. She also properly noted that the items listed as code violations are longstanding items that are grandfathered in. She further noted that the bids will be opened next week and spending the money now without a plan was foolish.
My understanding is that the Emperor melted down quite like the Wicked Witch of the West when Dorothy doused her. He babbled about fires in the school and how the children were in danger.
Isn't it curious how these same items existed last year and candidate Hellmann didn't want them addressed, and now that he's holding on to personal responsibility for it, he's the Mother Theresa of repairs?
The $200,000 in repairs only covered the high school, not the two elementary schools. These schools are even worse off than the high school.
Speaking of the elementary schools, The Emperor arranged for his buddies to do another study, this time at the elementary schools. This time, he even managed to mention it to the board before the study started.
Both of these items failed to be approved, by a 3-3 tie, with Hellmann, Worob and Farrell wanting to plunge along without a plan, and Reithmeyer, Kemp, and Frankenfield wanting a comprehensive plan. **NOTE ADDED: I should mention that Bill Farrell has a deep and genuine interest in the safety of the schools and the students, and I believe that he is more interested in safe schools "right now" so that our kids are safe.**
On another note, I don't understand all of this, so if someone has the info, please share, but apparently Hellmann has a serious personal issue with the banking institution holding the district's money. A move out of here was not approved as well.
Then came the revelation that Billy-Boy stuck his hand in the cookie jar. Again.
More to come.
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