David Goldstein takes on the WASL

While we're on a WASL kick, here are Goldy's unfiltered thoughts on Washington's high-stakes test:

The point is, the one thing these standardized tests are truly capable of evaluating is the ability of the student to take these standardized tests. They do not necessarily test the student’s grasp on the material, and they do not necessarily predict the student’s future performance in college or the real world. Hell… look at me: according to the SATs I’m a fucking genius, yet here I am blogging for free while my thermostat’s set to 58 and I’m struggling to pay my mortgage. How smart is that?

So when I read all these editorials and columns lamenting our student’s poor performance on the WASL, it absolutely infuriates me that nobody ever questions the performance of the WASL. I mean, did it ever occur to anybody that when it comes to measuring the ability of a typical high school student to grasp and apply a body of knowledge, that perhaps the WASL sucks? Is it so outside the realm of possibility to even consider the notion that the very same educators who are constantly being accused of failing to teach our children might also have devised a crappy means of measuring a student’s progress?

Actually, David, you're not alone--there are a lot of people who question the WASL. They're just not named Bergeson or Gregoire, and they're too busy teaching to the test as though their jobs depended on it. Soon they will.

teacher, may I be excused from the WASL?

I have to barf.

Some errors apparently were accidental, such as useful posters hanging in classrooms, providing the wrong kind of pencils and teachers who misread test directions or had students start the wrong sections at the wrong time.

Irregularities also included fire alarms, nosebleeds and other illnesses. A booklet from Eatonville was returned to the testing company in a plastic bag because a student had vomited on it.

I've always thought proctoring the WASL is as dull as watching public television. Maybe not.

Some tests were invalidated due to teacher idiocy and student mischief:

An Everett teacher gave students definitions of acute and obtuse angles and how many meters are in a kilometer.

"This departure from test protocol destroys the validity of these four test items and significantly impacts the credibility of the score results for these students," Paul Dugger, the state assessment coordinator, wrote in a report. OSPI invalidated the tests. A complaint against the teacher is still being investigated....

A Lakewood High School 10th grader got in trouble for using his cell phone during the test to send a text message after finishing his exam and turning it in. Another student had his test recommended for invalidation because he received a text message.

800 pages of issues, in sum. Makes you wonder how many anomalies go unreported when the pressure's on.

for WEA eyes only

Mr. Rain reads WE Magazine so you don't have to.

a WASL alternative to Gregoire's alternative

Gregoire says to the legislature, postpone the WASL requirement for three years. The state's Board of Education says, sure, but only if you adopt specific recommendations:

The math action plan calls for a clarification and revision of state math standards, a revision of the math WASL if necessary to properly test for these standards, a limited menu of math curriculum choices for school districts and improvements in teacher training and recruitment.

A "limited menu of math curriculum choices?" Ack! Next stop, France.

stepping back from the abyss: a substitute for the math WASL?

This is a surprising turn for Terry Bergeson:

Gregoire and Bergeson announced today they will propose to the Legislature a temporary suspension for the classes of 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Those who don't pass the math section of the WASL would have to take rigorous math classes and take the WASL annually.

Olympia School District faces cuts--again

On the heels of increased spending, the district finds itself facing a potential shortage:

Under a 2006-07 budget totaling about $74 million, the Olympia School Board approved about $1 million in new spending. The budget set aside money for a new math curriculum, a high school counselor, several special education services and more. And that new spending made sense because the money went toward high-priority needs and because the district's reserve fund remained at a healthy 6.2 percent despite the additional costs, Lahmann and other district officials have said.

But if the school board doesn't make reductions in the 2007-08 budget, the district is expected to spend about $2 million beyond the revenue it takes in that school year, cutting the reserve fund in half. And the following year, projected spending would exceed revenues by another $3 million, leaving the district with a $531,000 deficit.

Staff raises, increases in health insurance and fuel costs, and more are expected to cause a revenue shortfall in years ahead, particularly as the district tries to purchase new curricula across the K-12 system, which can cost up to $1 million per subject.

"We're in a terrible position," Olympia School Board President Russ Lehman said. "We just have terrible choices, and this is all coming at a time when the requirements of education reform in Washington state are now being implemented in earnest. ... It's just terrible timing."

It is unfortunate--but then, this board voted against joining the funding lawsuit, which at least would have pressured the state to ease the situation. Lehman would have set aside $5,000 for the task--a small amount, but enough.

Note to the board: it's not too late.

Oregon's standards: up to standard?

While we're debating Washington Learns' recommendations here in the Evergreen State, our Beaver State friends have similar issues on the table.

With the state Department of Education swamped with more than 100 e-mails a day on the topic, the Board of Education announced this week that it would push back the final vote on the proposal until mid-January.

The state has beefed up the number of credits students need to graduate. Legislators boosted the English and math credits to four and three, respectively, in 2005.

Chairman Jerry Berger said the board seems to be leaning toward requiring students to take higher-level math classes rather than letting pre-algebra courses count toward a diploma.

The new proposal also would boost the science requirement from two credits to three, including two years of laboratory science.

Good in some ways--all students deserve a challenging education--but I fear for electives and vocational programs, which are already at risk because of increased emphasis on standardized testing. I'm not yet convinced that all students need advanced study in science and math, as interesting as those subjects are to me, and as economically useful as a degree in either can be. Aren't there better incentives, college- or market-wise, that would draw in more students to Science and Its Language? Or is there a good argument to be made that all students should take Calculus and Physics?

whistler in the dark

Now that the world is falling apart, I'm fleeing to Canada. For the weekend, at least. Regular blogging resumes Monday.

"merit pay" is hot, hot, hot

When Washington Learns released its report, it became obvious to me that its merit pay proposal would start topping agendas.

Evidence: the Sunday Times' editorial, which calls for a more stable funding structure for education (hear, hear) to support all-day kindergarten, higher education enrollment, professional development, improved high school curricula, and, you guessed it: merit pay.

Question is, when will the WEA address it?

where are the good edublogs?

The WaPo wants to know.

[via Education Wonks]

if people are willing to pay for grades, no wonder there's inflation

After all, 'tis a free market.

Grade inflation is hard to measure, and experts caution numbers are often misleading because standards and scales vary so widely. Different practices of "weighting" GPAs for AP work also play havoc. Still, the trend seems to be showing itself in a variety of ways.

The average high school GPA increased from 2.68 to 2.94 between 1990 and 2000, according to a federal study. Almost 23 percent of college freshmen in 2005 reported their average grade in high school was an A or better, according to a national survey by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. In 1975, the percentage was about half that.

GPAs reported by students on surveys when they take the SAT and ACT exams have also risen - and faster than their scores on those tests. That suggests their classroom grades aren't rising just because students are getting smarter.

money for grades, the root of all kinds of evil?

Parents paying for grades makes me a little uneasy. (Same with strangers paying for grades.) In a case of the right hand's ignorance of the left hand's machinations, The Times runs two articles on the same day that shed light on each other--while neither references the other.

The first covers the topic of money for grades--when it works, when it doesn't. (Even if it works, the experts seem to say the alternatives are better, so there's little to no need.)

The second describes a potential downfall to a pay-for-grades scheme: the risk that it will make students self-centered, even if they become more self-reliant.

...Vohs and her colleagues theorized that even subtle reminders of money would inspire people to be self-reliant and to expect such behavior from others.

A series of nine experiments confirmed their hypothesis.... [S]tudents who played Monopoly and were asked to envision a future with great wealth picked up fewer dropped pencils for a fellow student than those who were asked to contemplate a hand-to-mouth existence....

A poster of bills and coins prompted students to favor a solitary social activity, such as private cooking lessons, while students sitting across from posters of seascapes and gardens were more likely to opt for a group dinner.

My grandpa, who spent a fair part of dinnertime conversation railing against "plutocrats," had it about right: the mere thought of wealth turns people into conservative Republicans.

Now that's evil.

debating the WASL

Today, a group of my 9th graders debated the merits of the WASL as a graduation requirement. Unfortunately, one member of the pro-WASL side has been sick, so I agreed to sub in, only because every other debater was busy. I'm a debate coach with more than a couple years of public speaking experience, and I blog competitively. I promised I would hold back.

I must have succeeded, because we lost.

In my rebuttals, I pointed out that testing isn't that expensive, that stress is a normal part of life, that no one took it seriously before it became a graduation requirement, that the WASL is sparking education reform, and that there are alternatives for the student who tries and fails continuously.

At the end of the debate, one of the judges said, "Gee, Mr. Anderson. You're intimidating. You almost had me agreeing with you."

Almost.



Update: How about this fun standardized testing story?

According to three of the students who were there Oct. 14, the proctor and the associate test supervisor in the room let students work on some sections long after time expired and on others ahead of time. They let students make cellphone calls and eat in the room. Lacking a clock, they let students time the examination themselves with a microwave oven timer....

The Educational Testing Service... canceled the exam scores for all eight students after looking into reports of testing problems. Ray Nicosia, test security director for ETS, said the students can have letters sent to the college admissions officials to absolve them for missing any deadlines. The students also may take a special makeup test as early as tomorrow.

Oh boy! They get to take it again!

[Link via Obscure Store]

Democrats go with Hoyer

Sorry, Nancy Pelosi. Sorry, GOP schadenfreudeans. Murtha's out, and the Democratic non-crack-up continues.

(Yes, I hereby copyright "schadenfreudeans.")

oh be careful little mouths what you say

Ah, teachers. Some of them make you so proud to be part of the profession. Consider David Paszkiewicz, who used his classroom as a bully pulpit... for Jesus. Listen here and draw your own conclusions. (Read a professed former student's more positive opinion here.)

The same strategy that brought down Jay Bennish (he of the famously discombobulated anti-war rant) was at play here: disaffected student with a recording device (probably a tricked-out iPod) pokes and prods and elicits a great reaction, all while digitally preserving the inanity.

Ready to ban iPods in your classroom?

Washington Learns report released: make way for merit pay

Today Washington Learns released a sixty-page behemoth that will transform the way we bureaucratize education [pdf]. Among (many) other things,

Subject to appropriations, by June 2009, the professional Educator Standards Board will set performance standards and develop, pilot and implement a professional teaching level assessment and licensing system based on demonstrated teaching skill.

By June 2009, the Professional Educator Standards Board will revise the requirements for college and university teacher preparation programs to match the new knowledge- and skill-based performance system.

Subject to appropriations, by June 2009, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction will design and pilot a professional development delivery system that focuses on teacher knowledge and skill areas identified by the state.

Subject to appropriations, beginning with the 2007-2008 school year, the teacher salary allocation model will include pay for performance, knowledge and skills.

By July 2007, a state committee will begin development of a professional performance-based educator salary system and will identify the elements and support systems necessary for implementation. The committee will involve teacher and administrator groups, the Professional Educator Standards Board, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Office of Financial Management and the Legislature.

I hope and pray the pay scheme rewards higher WASL scores, thus leaving 11th and 12th-grade teachers out in the cold where they belong.

a failure to communicate: Rainier Beach High School and the TAF

A well-intentioned educational foundation approaches the Seattle School District, hoping to replace Rainier Beach High School with a souped-up, futuristic academy. Teachers vote no. When the foundation returns with a slight variation on the plan, a major gaffe occurs:

The district has been in discussions with the foundation for the past year but had not told the community....

[TAF Executive Director Trish] Dziko faced a tough audience at the Rainier Beach Community Center. There was shouting and, at one point, the PTSA president walked out with dozens of students. Dziko traced some of the anger to the community's feeling toward the district.

"I think it's going to take a lot for people to get to the point where people believe the district is trying to do the right thing," she said.

As anyone who's ever been in a bad relationship knows, words hurt, but silence hurts worse.

I got a link

Thanks to The Rain of I Thought a Think for kind words and a permalink. He also says what I've been thinking:

To those who would lambast the WEA for spending their money mainly on democratic candidates I would ask this: where the hell do you expect them to spend the money? Here in Spokane, for example, there was a contested State House race between Brad Benson, the Republican incumbent, and Chris Marr, the democratic challenger. Benson hates public education by any measure—should the WEA and WEA-PAC have supported him, just to appear fair?

Update: Oh, and Dr. Homeslice has the latest Union Bouquet up. Somehow I missed it.

I will miss Donald Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld's pronouncements always had the ring of poetry, as Hart Seely so capably demonstrated years ago. (See also here.) One of my favorite Rumsfeldisms: "Clarity."

I think what you'll find,
I think what you'll find is,
Whatever it is we do substantively,
There will be near-perfect clarity
As to what it is.

And it will be known,
And it will be known to the Congress,
And it will be known to you,
Probably before we decide it,
But it will be known.

Such perfect epistrophe, such a ringing conclusion.

One of my favorite lessons is to have my students read these poems--without attribution or identification--and judge them as poetry. If they find them profound, I laugh uproariously. (On the inside.)

hello, alternative assessment

So far, after two tries, less than 60% of Washington's class of 2008 are on track to graduate.

Adding the August WASL results to those who passed the test in the spring, 87.2 percent have passed reading, 85.7 percent have passed writing and 57.7 percent have passed math.

Even if we don't scrap the test, shouldn't it come under pretty heavy scrutiny? Are Washington's other math scores--the SAT, the ITBS, CAT, whatever--that far off? Is it possible that the WASL is just too tough for normal students?

(I don't know from experience, never having taken it, and never having taught math. I welcome your learned insights.)

behold my not-so-amazing powers

I called for the defeat of I-920, and lo: it was defeated. Quite handily at that.

I predicted Cantwell over McGavick, 53-47. Net result: Cantwell 57, McGavick 39. (All other federal results there, too; absentee ballots aren't done, though, so keep an eye on the close ones.)

Find other state election results here.

bring a gun, lose your job

The teacher in question brought a gun to campus to protect herself from her abusive spouse. No one got hurt, and the teacher eventually resigned. The ultimate result: Lacey schools are considering making gun toting a firing offense. (Couldn't avoid the pun. Didn't want to.)

When everyone else is debating whether teachers and staff should carry guns to protect students against aggressors, especially since "gun free zone" means "free pass for psychos," it fascinates me that Lacey's debate goes in the exact opposite direction--and fascinates me more that The Olympian article doesn't even consider that angle, and whether Washington's law establishing "gun free zones" is any good.

Oh, and for the record, I keep a plastic sword in my classroom, in case I'm ever attacked by civil war re-enactors.

Sunday's required reading

The hope and hype of the "small schools" movement is ably dissected by Linda Shaw in this morning's Seattle Times.

The experiment — an attempt to downsize the American high school — has proven less successful than hoped.

The changes were often so divisive — and the academic results so mixed — that the Gates Foundation has stopped always pushing small as a first step in improving big high schools. Instead, it's now also working directly on instruction, giving grants to improve math and science instruction, for example.

Most of the dozen-and-a-half Washington schools with so-called "conversion" grants have ended up only as hybrids — a mix of small-school elements added to big-school features.

why this blog will not endorse Aaron Dixon

In my continuing lassitude, I rely on the observations of others, this time the opinion of a trusted UPS student and debate judge.

He spoke for some time about how democracy was emerging in South America; then more about South America. South America...South America has elected so many socialist presidents that they are a quantifiable democracy. They know the true spirit of democracy is socialist presidents. South America some more...and wait! Campaign finance reform! The powers-that-be fear change. As well they should! If given the chance, people would stop voting them into office.

All of this is not to say I did not appreciate Aaron Dixon, the man. Aaron Dixon the politician was jaded, was long winded and gave no solid answers about specific policy reforms for any domestic issues. But the man...he genuinely wanted to change the world. He made clear that he couldn't though.

I had high hopes after the arrest. Too bad they were dashed on the rocks of realpolitik.

strings attached

Sign that the WASL is here to stay: you can now win a scholarship for scoring highly in math and science.

DeVry will award students with qualifying 10th-grade math and science WASL scores a $1,500 scholarship for each semester the student is enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program at DeVry University’s Federal Way or Seattle/Bellevue campuses, for a total of up to $12,000 over eight semesters. Students achieving qualifying scores on the eighth-grade science WASL are eligible to lock in a scholarship award of $500 per each semester the student is enrolled at DeVry, for a total of up to $4,000. The eighth-grade scholarships will be granted by DeVry University regardless of the student’s subsequent performance on the 10th-grade WASL as long as the student achieves the requirements for high school graduation. DeVry has set no limit on the number of scholarships it will grant.

Remind me again why we don't just use the SAT and call it good?

McGavick pro and con

No wheel reinvention here. Props go to Josh Feit of The Stranger, who, in showing the utter bizarrity of a Seattle Times endorsement for the would-be senator, lists the issues that matter.

time out

Taking a break from grading to point you elsewhere:

1. The venerable Carnival of Education, 91st edition.

2. Public education = untold wealth. For one clever bastard.

3. You can raise WASL math scores. Even so, some aren't going to pass. Then what?