Tag Archives: education

And I Thought Teaching to the Test Was Bad

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AP World History teachers at a high school in Fairfax County, VA are getting a little international notoriety thanks to a piece in the Washington Post that was picked up by Boing Boing.  It seems the teachers don't want their students using any outside materials/influences for their studies.

"You are only allowed to use your OWN knowledge, your OWN class notes, class handouts, your OWN class homework, or The Earth and Its Peoples textbook to complete assignments and assessments UNLESS specifically informed otherwise by your instructor.''

That was not all. Students could not use anything they found on the Internet. They were not permitted even to discuss their assignments with friends, classmates, neighbors, parents, relatives or siblings.

What about complete strangers? The teachers had thought of that. "You may not discuss/mention/chat/hand signal/smoke signal/Facebook/IM/text/email to a complete stranger ANY answers/ideas/questions/thoughts/opinions/hints/instructions." The words were playful, but the teachers were serious. Any violations, they said, would mean a zero on the assignment and an honor code referral.

The rules are bad enough – as the Post writer notes the teachers are banning curiosity – but what bothers me even more is the teachers' apparent rationale for their rules as related by their principal:

Westfield Principal Tim Thomas told me he will decide soon whether these rules are okay. He couldn't say much on the record, but gave me the impression that the teachers, who did not respond to my request for comment, were only trying to be fair. Some students have more help and resources than others. They should not be allowed to use materials classmates cannot get. The teachers wanted them to come up with their own ideas, not borrow them from Wikipedia.

Really?

I'm all for trying to give every kid what they need to succeed, but to try and mandate that every kid use exactly the same tools in the name of fairness is just plain ludicrous.  Let's face it, some kids are smarter than others, some kids have a better work ethic than others and some kids will take initiative to learn as much as possible while others will do the bare minimum to get by.  Limiting one child's resources in order to level the playing field for another child is not only unfair to the former, it sends a terrible message to the latter. Just imagine this kind of thinking being applied when the kids get out in the working world:

Former Student: "Hey boss, I don't think it's fair that Ralph over there is getting promoted and I'm not."

Boss: "Well, he's really been doing a great job.  In fact he seems to consistently get his work done 50% faster than anyone else in the department and the quality of his work is excellent.  He always seems to find a supplier that none of the rest of you know about and they always seem to do superior work at a significant discount."

Former Student: "Well, that's because he works from home at night on his computer. His mom used to be in the business years ago and she gives him lots of advice on how to do his job. I don't have a computer at home and neither of my parents worked in this industry so I'm at a disadvantage.  It's just not fair."

Boss: "I fail to see how this is my problem.  If you want a promotion then I suggest you figure out a way to make sure you can improve your production.  If you can't do that then you might want to look for another job."

The lesson is this: fair does not mean that we all are exactly alike, have exactly the same resources at home, have exactly the same IQ, etc.  In the school's case fair is that each kid is provided with the same support from the school (textbook, chair, classroom materials, etc.); it is not hamstringing one kid to benefit another.

Basically, when we parents tell our kids "Life ain't always fair" this is what we mean.  You aren't always going to have the best tools or the most resources, but it's up to you to do your very best with what you have.  That's what you can control.

Jersey Shore Explained

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If you ever wondered how one state could produce enough morons to cast a show like Jersey Shore you may have found your answer in a recent report from New Jersey's state Board of Education:

“The findings that result from the extensive data we collected and the portfolio information we reviewed is disturbing. While there were many struggling students whose teachers and counselors provided good evidence of work accomplished and a record of appropriate courses and local interventions, there were other students, unable ultimately to evidence even simple math skills, who were unimaginably recorded by their schools as succeeding in Algebra II or even Calculus. Equally dispiriting, there were students whose records showed failure after failure in Algebra I, or English I, who were never provided appropriate courses or interventions over the years. Finally, some students with the requisite skills had to call themselves because their school would not prepare an appeal, and we had parents in tears because they could not get anyone to review matters at the school. Clearly, for the sake of these children and their families, changes need to be made.”

It’s the Teachers Stupid

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According to a study by the L.A. Times and the Rand corporation, teacher effectiveness has a much greater impact on students' success than the school they attend. Here are two bullet points I found particularly interesting:

  • Highly effective teachers routinely propel students from below grade level to advanced in a single year. There is a substantial gap at year's end between students whose teachers were in the top 10% in effectiveness and the bottom 10%. The fortunate students ranked 17 percentile points higher in English and 25 points higher in math. 
  • Contrary to popular belief, the best teachers were not concentrated in schools in the most affluent neighborhoods, nor were the weakest instructors bunched in poor areas. Rather, these teachers were scattered throughout the district. The quality of instruction typically varied far more within a school than between schools.

And I really found these two paragraphs interesting:

On visits to the classrooms of more than 50 elementary school teachers in Los Angeles, Times reporters found that the most effective instructors differed widely in style and personality. Perhaps not surprisingly, they shared a tendency to be strict, maintain high standards and encourage critical thinking.

But the surest sign of a teacher's effectiveness was the engagement of his or her students — something that often was obvious from the expressions on their faces.

Children’s Home and WSFCS School Collaboration

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Given the people spearheading this effort, George Bryan and Ted Burcaw, I'd say the new school being opened at The Children's Home stands a really good chance of working.  I was able to spend a bit of time with George during my organization's project at TCH and I've met Ted, who is the brother of a good friend of mine, on a few occasions.  Let's just say that both guys bring some serious wattage to the endeavor and that, in addition to this being a good idea in general, will go a long way towards helping the school succeed. 

From the article:

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and The Children's Home are entering into a partnership that will enable students to benefit not only from extra attention from teachers and mental-health professionals but also from being on a 212-acre campus on Reynolda Road that has a functioning farm.

"We will be able to do things for kids that nobody else has been able to do," said Principal Ted Burcaw…

Officials don't know yet how many students will go to Kingswood when it opens for the 2010-11 school year. The school is intended to serve no more than 150 students. It will have seven teachers provided by the school system, and each class will also have a mental-health professional from staff at the Children's Home.

"These folks already have experience with the types of children we're talking about," Bryan said.

Outside of class, students will have the opportunity to work with the Children's Home's psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists. And, when appropriate, parents will be invited in for family counseling.

Update (July 13, 2010): A commenter asked how to get her elementary school-aged grandkids enrolled at the school. I passed the question along to Theo Helm at WSFCS and here's his reply:

Jon — The school will serve students in grades 6-12 next year, so it's too early for Ms. Hall to register her children. Generally speaking, it will serve students who have more involved mental health needs. Most students will either be referred there (through the IEP, or Individualized Education Plan, process that serves exceptional children or through a mental health referral) or assigned there (through the discipline process). It will also serve children who live at the group home at The Children's Home. Although there will be some parental choice, students will still generally need to be those who need more involved services.

So Kid, You Don’t Think Education Is Important?

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An interesting article in the New York Times about the lack of skilled workers available for manufacturing jobs in the U.S.:

Here in this suburb of Cleveland, supervisors at Ben Venue Laboratories, a contract drug maker for pharmaceutical companies, have reviewed 3,600 job applications this year and found only 47 people to hire at $13 to $15 an hour, or about $31,000 a year.

The going rate for entry-level manufacturing workers in the area, according to Cleveland State University, is $10 to $12 an hour, but more skilled workers earn $15 to $20 an hour.

All candidates at Ben Venue must pass a basic skills test showing they can read and understand math at a ninth-grade level. A significant portion of recent applicants failed, and the company has been disappointed by the quality of graduates from local training programs. It is now struggling to fill 100 positions.

Evaluating Teachers

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My mother emailed me the link to this opinion piece on evaluating teachers and the author, who changed careers to enter the teaching profession, makes some very interesting points.  Basically she says that if we're going to evaluate teachers based on testing of students then there should be some considerations made for the teachers:

  1. Teachers be assessed based on only those students with 90 percent or higher attendance.
  2. Teachers be allowed to remove disruptive students from their classroom on a day-to-day basis.
  3. Students who don't achieve "basic" proficiency in a state test be prohibited from moving forward to the next class in the progression.
  4. That teachers be assessed on student improvement, not an absolute standard — the so-called value-added assessment. 

My first reaction when I read this, especially numbers two and three, was "O-M-G if a teacher has to ask for that then our education system is truly hosed." And it's not as if the author is saying that teachers are blameless. In fact she also writes this:

Yes, some students are doing poorly because their teachers are terrible. Other students are doing poorly because they simply don't care, their parents don't care, their cognitive abilities aren't up to the task or some vicious combination of factors we haven't figured out — with no regard to teacher quality. No one is eager to discover the size of that second group, so serious testing with teeth will go nowhere.

That's too bad. We need to know how many students are failing because they don't attend class, how many students score "below basic" on the algebra test three years in a row, how many students fail all tests because they read at a fourth-grade level. We need to know if our education rhetoric is a pipe dream instead of an achievable reality blocked by those nasty teachers unions. And, of course, if it turns out that all our problems can be solved by rooting out bad teachers, we need to find that out, too.

Yep.

I Wonder If It Was Cathartic?

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I read the front page article in the Winston-Salem Journal about the public airing of grievances by UNCSA's outgoing conductor at his final concert and thought, "I wonder if it felt as good to vent his spleen as he expected it to?"  Who hasn't daydreamed about letting loose like that at their boss/teacher/nitwit co-worker in a big public venue?

Back in the mid-90s I worked for a company that could best be described as a soul sucking black hole run by amoral jackals.  I fantasized about calling my bosses on the carpet at a large company function and listing their various misdeeds in excruciating detail.  Alas I just quit and went to a better job, but to this day I wonder what it would have felt like to let it rip.

BTW, check out all comments on the article about the conductor's rant.  Based on the number you'd think the article was about an illegal immigrant representing the ACLU in a protest against sectarian prayer at the county commissioners' meeting.

French or Ruby on Rails?

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Fred Wilson makes a great point about our schools today and it can best be summed up with this quote: 

If the Obama administration wants to really do something about jobs and retooling America for the 21st century, it would fund the development of great middle school programming curriculum. It would fund training teachers to teach that curriculum. It would get millions of kids writing code before they have their first date. That would change a lot of things.

Our experience has been that the computer classes at our kids' school focus on teaching students how to use basic programs like Word and Excel.  Sadly they don't do a great job of that and we, the parents, end up doing a lot of "tutoring" at home.   

I think our experience is the norm.  UNCG professor and economist Dave Ribar posted this piece about the College Board canceling the more stringent of their two AP computer science courses.  He also offers this quote: "The result of sporadic or skimpy computer science training is that a generation of teenagers great at using computers will be unlikely to play a role in the way computer technology shapes lives in the future, said Chris Stephenson, executive director of the New York-based Computer Science Teachers Association."

While I don't think French or Spanish should disappear from the school curriculum, I do think that we should get serious about teaching our kids computer science.  Put it this way: where do you think the jobs will be in 2020 or 2040?  Computer technology is one area of the economy that we can be pretty confident will continue to grow for the foreseeable future and it would serve us well to enable our kids to take advantage of it.  After all, these aren't burger-flipping jobs but desirable jobs as highlighted by a Bureau of Labor Statistics profile that Ribar cites:

In May 2008, median annual wages of wage-and-salary computer applications software engineers were $85,430. The middle 50 percent earned between $67,790 and $104,870. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $53,720, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $128,870.

Want an A? That’ll be $86

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UPDATE:  Theo Helm from WSFCS sent me an email with a response to some of my questions and I've posted the full text after the original post.  Thanks to Theo for taking the time to contact me and providing the info.

Our oldest son is a junior in high school and last night when I got home he asked me to co-sign a form with him that states that he will commit to taking an AP exam in May for each of the AP classes he's taking this year.  "No big deal," I thought, "of course he'll take the final for those courses. Why wouldn't he?"

As I read the rest of the form it dawned on me why they were asking us to sign a commitment form: each of the tests will cost us $86 for him to take.  Once I got over the shock I asked myself what the consequences would be if he didn't take the AP exam.  The simple explanation was contained in the next paragraph on the form: his grade would be reduced by one letter grade and he would lose the AP weighting of the course, which means his grade would essentially be treated as a regular honors course.  Best of all his curriculum and requirements would still remain identical to what they would be if he opts to take the exam.  In short if our son does great work all year and decides not to take the test the best grade he can hope for is a B.  Nice.

One issue I have with this whole setup is that I don't remember them telling us at the beginning of the year that AP exams would cost us anything.  Maybe they did and we missed it, but my wife is good about staying on top of those types of things and she doesn't remember seeing anything about it either.  You'd think they would have asked us to sign a commitment form at the beginning of the school year.  By waiting until now they've made it feel like a setup; why wouldn't you pay for the test now that your child is halfway through the school year and he really has no choice but to finish the class.  Would you really want to reduce his score by one full letter grade over an $86 fee? 

Speaking of the fee, last night I wondered where the cost came from and so I did what any good American would do, I Googled "AP exam fee" and found the website for College Board, the entity that administers AP tests and SATs, and found some very helpful information about AP fees here.  Especially interesting to me was this:

Fee reductions of $22 per exam are available from the College Board for students with financial need. In addition, schools forgo their $8 rebate for each fee-reduced exam, making the final fee for these students $56 per exam.

In addition, virtually all states offer exam subsidies to cover all or part of the cost for eligible students. Talk to your AP Coordinator to learn more about state and federal subsidies and other support that may be available to you.

For internal purposes, such as an audit or invoice verification, a state may request from the College Board the names of its public school students who receive fee reductions; in such cases, the state will agree to maintain the confidentiality of such data.

Check with your AP Coordinator to learn more about fee reductions and state and district subsidies.

I'm relieved that there is financial assistance available for children from lower income families, but I'm struggling to come to terms with the whole setup.  What if we don't want to pay for the test based on the simple principle that my child is going to a public school, we pay our taxes and it seems a little absurd that we have to pay $86 for our child to take a test?  Sure, I understand that taking an AP course is optional, but given the academic expectations placed on students by college administrators it would put our child at a severe disadvantage to not take the courses.  Realistically, it isn't optional if we want our kids to be able to compete for a slot in college. 

The College Board website also says that students may get college credit for their AP classes which means that in the long run we might actually save money, so there is that.  Still the whole thing makes me feel like we've once again been caught in the net of the education-industrial complex.  These folks make the Pentagon and Halliburton look like a bunch of pikers.

Response from Theo Helm received via email on 12/2/2009:

Jon: I just wanted to respond to your post about the cost of AP exams.

The school board began requiring students in AP courses to take the exams
in 2003. Its decision was based on three main ideas: 1., the AP exam is an
integral part of any AP course; 2., the College Board encourages students
to take the exams; and 3., it would allow us to monitor how our students
are doing compared to those in other schools, both in and out of our
district and state. The requirement and cost is included in each year's
High School Registration book. It was on p. 10 last year.

Since then (and until this year), students who did not take the AP exam had
one quality point deducted from their grades — meaning that the AP course
showed up on their transcripts as an honors course. We had to change the
way we handled it this year at the request of the Department of Public
Instruction. We were told that a state board policy does not allow us to
change how we weight the courses by deducting the quality point. We were
given the choices of dropping the exam requirement or lowering the final
grade by one letter grade.

In early September, the board voted to lower the final grade by one letter
grade for students because it wanted to continue to require the AP exam
(for the reasons mentioned above). This has the same effect as our previous
policy. A student who didn't take the exam last year and earned an A would
receive 5 quality points (4 points for the A, 2 points for an AP course, -1
point for not taking the exam). That same situation this year would again
result in 5 quality points (A reduced to B for not taking the exam equals 3
points, plus 2 points for an AP course). The one exception is a student who
earns a D in an AP class and does not take the AP exam would now not
receive credit for the class. Kim Underwood did a story about it that
appeared in the Journal on Sept. 9 (click here for the story), and we
posted news about it on our Web site the same day (click here). Schools
sent home a letter explaining this change shortly after the board voted on
it.

So the requirement is not new, but the method of requirement has changed
this year. We would have preferred to keep our previous policy, but the
state board policy would not allow it. We'd also like to be able to pay for
all the AP exams, but (again) unfortunately, we don't have the money to do
it. Instead, we pay for the fourth exam and beyond, and as you pointed out,
other funds are available for those who can't afford to pay for the exam.

I hope this long-winded answer helps at least a little bit. If you have
questions about this, or other school-related issues, just let me know.

Theo Helm
Director of Marketing and Communications
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
336.727.2696 phone
336.727.8404 fax
 All e-mail correspondence to and from this address is subject to the
North Carolina Public Records Law, which may result in monitoring and
disclosure to third parties, including law enforcement.   AN EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER

More Dudes Needed

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According to this post at Applied Rationality, which in turn links to an Inside Higher Ed article, it seems that small liberal arts colleges are struggling with their own bizarro world cases of gender equity:

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has started an inquiry into the extent to which liberal arts colleges discriminate against female applicants in an attempt to minimize gender imbalances in the student body. On Friday, the commission agreed on a set of colleges — primarily in the Washington area — to investigate, but declined to release a full list.

The issue is an extremely sensitive one for liberal arts colleges, many of which in recent years have worried about their gender ratios reaching points (60 percent female is commonly cited) where they face difficulty in attracting both male and female applicants. Generally private undergraduate colleges have the legal right to consider gender in admissions. They were specifically exempted from the admissions provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

People, it's not complicated.  Want more dudes?  Simply do the following:

  • Install 60" flat screens in every dorm room.
  • Outfit all rooms with an Xbox and a free subscription to Live.
  • Also provide unlimited supplies of nachos and any fried food.
  • Remove any "English Literature" requirements from the curriculum. Yes, yes I know it's a "Liberal Arts" college, but what's so liberal about reading boring crap written by a bunch of whimpy navel gazers or, well, women. Sounds anything but liberal to me.
  • Introduce a course on Family Guy, and call it something cool sounding like, "Influence of Modern American Cartoons on Familial Discourse."

Do those things and you'll be swimmin' in dudes.  You might be wondering why I didn't mention free beer, but honestly today's generation of young dudes seem to be a bunch of pansies who drink froo-froo concoctions with all kinds of silly names.  Sadly, the beer would be wasted.