No Curriculum Left Behind

The last time I blogged about the nationalization of American education: a year ago, almost exactly. A year ago, it was ratcheting-up-rhetoric. But words have a way of translating into action:

Maryland and several other states are pushing rapidly toward adoption of new academic standards proposed Wednesday for English and math, adding momentum to the campaign to establish common expectations for public school students across the country.

The District also is on track to adopt the common standards drafted by experts in a project led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. However, it is possible that Virginia will not join the apparent surge toward approval.

I should point out that my home state--the "other" Washington--is part of the effort. And what might it mean?

Widespread adoption of common standards would mark a watershed for schools, triggering consequences for curricula, textbooks, testing and teaching. Some critics say common standards amount to a thinly disguised ruse to establish national standards under federal control -- an allegation that state and federal officials deny.

They don't have to be a "ruse" to have the eventual--and seemingly inevitable--effect of a national curriculum. Unless the feds dismantle NCLB, which simply isn't going to happen, there will always be a reason to federalize.

Added: a blog-neighbor questions the Common Core standards.

standards-based grading in Spokane

Spokane's elementary schools will now employ a 4-point grading scale based on state standards, the local newspaper reports.

Most elementary students in Spokane Public Schools are seeing their new report cards for the first time this week; instead of A, B, C, D or F, it’s 4, 3, 2 or 1...

Instead of one letter grade for a whole topic, the numbers correlate to specific elements of learning within that topic. Instead of a grade for “writing,” for example, a student might receive separate grades for “writes in complete sentences” and “understands punctuation and capitalization.”

Spokane tested the grading scheme for three years before implementing it district-wide, a smart move.

I hope someday high schools adopt a similar scheme--one that translates directly into a grade point average, rather than the percentage-based adjustments we use now.

math requirements changed again, again

From time to time, this blog deals with the education standards set by the state, particularly those dealing with graduation requirements. After all, they're important.

They're also as confusing as hell.

Actually, more confusing, because in hell, as Gary Larson, cartoonist and theologian, noted, you get your accordion and off you go. As for passing high school in Washington state, should you fail the math WASL*: welcome to hell. Here's your flow chart.

Which is now obsolete, with yet another in a long line of changes to the math requirements. The Seattle Times explains:

The board decided earlier that beginning with the class of 2013, high-school students will be required to earn three credits of math to earn a diploma.

When the requirement was changed, the state rule said students who took a high-school-level math class without credit as an eighth-grader were required to repeat that same course for credit in high school.

The state board decided Friday that students can choose to start with a different math class in high school and don't have to repeat the eighth-grade class if they don't want to.

Hurrah for flexibility, I suppose. And, hopefully, someday, hurrah for clarity.

Someday.

Until then, here's your accordion.



*Which won't be the WASL for long. Progress!

math WASL: one and done?

If Governor Gregoire signs HB 1562, students who fail the math WASL wouldn't have to keep taking it and taking it. Instead, they'd have to earn at least two more math credits during their high school career.

"To me, it makes perfect sense rather than retaking the WASL," said Jean Lane, Richland School District superintendent.

What students need if they're failing the 10th-grade math test is more math education, not more testing, she said.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn has proposed phasing in a replacement for the WASL that would be less on general knowledge and instead test students at the end of a course on knowledge they gained in that class.

Dorn spokesman Nathan Olson said that form of assessment should be in place by 2013, when the proposed law would expire.

Why change things now?

Ron Williamson, assistant superintendent for secondary education for the Kennewick School District, said dropping the requirement to retake the test in 11th and 12th grades would cut down on confusion.

"From a school perspective and a parent perspective, this probably helps because there is so much information about the WASL and the changing requirements that parents get mixed signals," he said.

So another change will help cut down the confusion caused by all the changes.

Yeah.

Update: She signed it.

nationalizing banks the curriculum

These days, everybody's talking about nationalizing banks. What many are missing: the nationalization of American education.

I encourage you to go have a look at what people are posting...because I get the impression that this discussion isn't going to subside anytime soon. If anything, we're just at the beginning of this rhetoric...and perhaps not too far from words becoming actions.

I'm not terribly afraid of national standards designed by experts in assessment and instruction. (Call them... teachers.) I am wary though, of national standards dictated by politicians, textbook makers, ed-school "theorists," corporations, lobbyists, and the like.

I disagree with The Science Goddess only slightly: though there's been a recent uptick in national standards rhetoric, this blog predicted its rise over two years ago. It's one of the ironic legacies of the No Child Left Behind Act, which only went partway, allowing states to maintain their own standards, one of the reasons for the act's failure. Now, we're clawing our way out by reaching for a French-made rope.

L'école Américaine normalisée. Bush, père.

standards-based grading: more popular by the minute

Blog-neighbor TRP's school is starting to have the same conversation we are: how to get smarter about grading. The TRP's initial take on one principle--no zeroes--isn't too favorable.

My colleague also said that if a student understands the material, than he or she is "an A student" and should get an A. She cited a positively brilliant kid--one of the best writers I've ever had in 12 years on the job--who got a C for me last year and is getting a C for her this year in AP. Why? She skips assignments. "But you've seen her writing," my colleague says. "She's an A student."

My response: "No. She has an A brain...but A students do the work. Therefore, she's not an A student."

We kicked around some possible alternatives: A 4-point system, where an A is worth four, a B three, a C two, a D 1, and an F zero. It penalizes kids less for screw-ups. (The aforementioned kid with 3 75s and a skip would get a C- under this system.)

I wouldn't buy into that either...it means that the kid who tried and struggled gets the same grade on a paper as the kid who played video games instead. That's unjust.

But then, that's because SBG requires something that most schools aren't doing: meaningful grades. As I explain in a comment over there,

The problem is that one grade (A, B, C) means too much and too little at the same time. I like some of the theory behind standards-based grading--but it requires a smarter report card. If "A" represents only learning, then we need separate categories (on the transcript, natch) for things like behavior, effort, and timeliness.

And it can be done.

We just need to be more--how do I say this gently?--Canadian.

See here for an example [pdf].

a brief intro to standards-based grading

Want to get the jump on the trendiest trend in educational trends? Visit Dr. Pezz's classroom, where he introduces some of the basic principles of standards-based grading.

Oh, and here's a followup.

If your building isn't talking about standards-based grading, they will be soon. Trust me.

math and science WASL delay heads for conference committee

That committee will iron out the differences between the House and Senate versions:

In an 81-17 vote, the House signaled its desire to replace math and science on the WASL with end-of-course exams in algebra, geometry and biology, as long as an independent third party agrees those exams would be superior to the WASL.

Senate Bill 6023 also calls for a five-year delay in the year that students must pass the math WASL to graduate — from 2008 to 2013. Students who fail, however, still would have to take additional math courses to earn their diplomas. Passing the science WASL also would not become a graduation requirement until 2013.

The one thing I like about end-of-course exams is that they fall at the end of a course, and can thus be directly tailored to the content, say, on the geometry or algebra curriculum--thus, "teaching to the test" just means teaching the class you should be teaching, not worrying about remediation and a generic curriculum.

They'd might even waste less time and fewer resources--and cause less trauma. At least, one can hope.

we had to destroy the arts in order to save them

Venice Buhain reports that while the state is considering standards for the arts, no one's (yet) talking about an Arts WASL.

Sample tests, which are available online at the OSPI Web site, focus on skills students can learn in class and not on talent — how well a student can draw or sing, for example. The sample tests show that teachers score on specific criteria, such as whether a student understands arts vocabulary, develops skills important for creating the art, and processes feedback from a partner or the audience.

“It gives relevance to the arts,” Joseph said. “This is how you would be using it, the arts, in real life.”

Joseph said districts are eager to use the assessments.

“We can make sure that all kids are getting art like they’re supposed to,” she said, pointing out that the state and the federal government’s No Child Left Behind act consider the arts to be a core subject, just like math, reading or science.

You'd never know that by the way districts are gutting the arts to provide extra WASL prep classes. Maybe making the arts part of the WASL is the only way to save them.

Maybe. Or maybe we should step back, pause, hold on, breathe, and think before playing the next measure.

didn't see this one coming

The WASL's been attacked from just about every conceivable angle, now including a charge of ethnic stereotyping:

A story depicting Mexican immigrant children picking strawberries for less than $1 an hour will be removed from a statewide test after an outcry from Latino leaders and test opponents.

Terry Bergeson, Washington state's top public education official, said Thursday the book excerpt should not have been used without an explanation that the scenes were from the 1950s, and not the present.

Opponents of the high-stakes statewide test and a national Latino group said they were not satisfied.

"This is not over. It's just getting started," said Maria Salazar, a regional vice president for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

It was true a while ago, and it's still true: no end of WASL controversy in sight.

the March madness of standardized tests

Blogging neighbor Mark Olson takes on standardized tests, raising some interesting points.

First, Olson argues against "curricular dogma," noting that schools test to a limited knowledge set, when instead they should test whether students can memorize, persevere, reason, and be diligent--in other words, be "studious." Now, I'm not completely sold on the "critical thinking" line that students can largely do without a common curriculum--I'm reading Hirsch's The Knowledge Deficit, and finding it convincing in parts--but I would agree that the skills a standardized test measures are narrow indeed, and, even worse, leading districts to adopt corporate-driven national curriculum, a prelude to what I've called the Frenchification of education.

Second, Olson explains why his proposal won't get too far in the present climate: he blames unions and bureaucrats for perpetuating into the status quo.

I'm not so certain that teachers' unions would be opposed to smarter tests that measured real learning, though. Most of the criticism coming out of the NEA is that the current standardized tests miss out on real merit, take ungodly amounts of time and money, encourage data fudging if not outright cheating, cheapen local control of curriculum, and place unfair burdens on teachers who teach in troubled schools.

Perseverance: our students just survived five sessions of the WASL, and have four more before they can prove their graduation-worthiness. When it comes to standardized tests, bureaucrats and testmakers have the perseverance of Sisyphus.


Sidebar: for a different teacher's take, go here.

a little calculus with your Camus: or, brush up your Schrödinger

Earlier this year another teacher and I were sent to the math department to show them how to incorporate reading and writing into math instruction, as per building initiative. Their response was gracious and witty: "So, when do we get to have math across the curriculum?"

Maybe soon.

Buried in Senate Bill 5955 [pdf] is this nifty proposal:

The professional educator standards board shall:
(a) By December 2007:
(i) Adopt new knowledge and skill standards that prepare all individuals seeking residency teacher certification to integrate mathematics across all content areas...

Rookie teachers would learn how to use logarithms in literature, phase shifts in phys ed, square roots in social studies, and bounded sets in biology.

You might think that as a literature teacher I'd be freaked, but I'm not. I'm quite fond of using math and science in my mini-lectures. Möbius strips, fractals, asymptotes, recursion, imaginary numbers--these are powerful metaphors that beg introduction into the English classroom. (Math is mind-bending.)

I am a bit skeptical, though, of any attempt to mandate such things from the top down--and that a plan to free rookies from math phobia can be pulled together in less than a year.

The bill, currently in committee, is pretty ambitious. There's much more about professional development, certification, and National Board stipends in there. Read it all, then contact your relevant legislator with your thoughts.

Mostly, though, learn to love math. It's fun.

who says we won't teach to the test?

High-stakes testing is necessary to keep our math-based economy strong. For an example, look at how it's created work for Carnegie Learning, producers of a new WASL prep math curriculum.

Carnegie Learning, Inc., a leading publisher of math curricula for middle school, high school, and postsecondary students, today introduced Math Prep for the WASL, a new research-based course developed specifically to improve student performance on the 10th grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) state exit exam.

Math Prep for the WASL incorporates content from multiple Carnegie Learning math curricula including Bridge to Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II. Math Prep for the WASL can be adapted for diverse implementations such as a full WASL-prep course, supplemental intervention program, or a diagnostic-prescriptive tool for identifying concepts and skills that require remediation. In addition to the Washington edition, Carnegie Learning Math Prep courses also include a National Edition and state editions customized for California, Florida, and Texas. Carnegie Learning releases additional Math Prep courses correlated to state-specific exams throughout the year.

Forget stem cell research or biofuels. The real way to boost American economic might is to develop non-stop assessment.

Terry Bergeson defends the WASL

Thoughtful critics of the WASL would do well to examine Bergeson's apologia in yesterday's P-I.

The notion of completely abandoning the WASL graduation requirement for math -- let alone reading and writing and eventually science -- is unconscionable. It would dishonor the hard work and trust that students, teachers, administrators and parents have put into meeting our education standards. Worse, it would put Washington children at an enormous educational and economic disadvantage....

We have made progress.

Washington fourth-graders' math scores in the National Assessment of Educational Progress have climbed from 17th in the nation in 1996 to ninth in the nation in 2005. At the same time, fourth-grade African American students have improved from 13th to first in the nation in their NAEP scores.

Eighth-graders have boosted their NAEP math scores ranking from 14th in the nation to seventh, while African American eighth-graders have gone from 19th place to second.

These improvements reflect the progress on WASL-measured math knowledge. The percentage of students meeting the fourth-grade math standard has almost tripled since 1997.

Despite this progress, we've not gone far enough fast enough. And it's not the kids' fault. We realize many students haven't had the opportunity to learn what they need in order to meet the math standards.

There are several reasons. There is a nationwide shortage of highly qualified math teachers. Teachers are offered inadequate preparation and professional development. Too many schools are still using math curriculum that isn't aligned with our standards and our test. Many students -- often the students most in need of intensive instruction to accelerate their learning -- are instead tracked into remedial, dead-end courses. And we simply lack the funding to provide the teacher training, smaller class sizes and individual help that students need....

As they say, read the whole thing.

face the music

I spent the past three days at a national qualifying forensics tournament, hearing sad stories about how regional speech and debate programs are suffering as schools drop classes to fit in more WASL prep.

Thankfully, the Olympia School District still values electives, with robust art, technology, debate, business, and manufacturing programs--and now ranks as a top district for its outstanding music education.

That is, among the top 100 in the country.

The eighth annual survey is sponsored by the NAMM Foundation, a nonprofit association working on behalf of the musical instruments and products industry....

The survey also asked districts about how many students continue in music after high school graduation.

That's another area where Olympia shines, said Dan Lundberg, the district's music coordinator and Capital High School's band director.

"We do have a lot of kids who are adults now that are music teachers or that are playing on the side," he said. "They continue with it at some point in their life again."

Lundberg attended Olympia schools and learned to play the trumpet. He has taught in the Olympia School District since 1978 and last year was named Outstanding Music Educator by the Washington Music Educators Association.

Congratulations to Lundberg and the other unheralded music teachers in our district--the work you do changes lives.

Oh, and legislators, while you're staying in Olympia, come and check out Oly or Capital's music offerings, and then see if you can justify pillaging the arts in the name of standards.

NAEP scores released; media misreports

From The Olympian:

High school seniors lag in math, reading on national tests

WASHINGTON -- High school students are getting better grades and taking more challenging courses, but that apparent progress is not showing up on national math and reading tests.

Keep that in mind: no apparent progress in math. Then, scroll down for the revelation:

The government said it could not compare the math results with the previous scores because the latest test was significantly different.

The claim is repeated on the NAEP's report page.

Results from the 2005 mathematics assessment could not be compared to those from previous years because of changes in the assessment content and administration.

So, there's no apparent progress in math, but the scores aren't comparable, so even if there was progress, we'd have to discount it.

Question that springs to mind: could the reporter who wrote this pass the Wonderlic?

Added: The NAEP details the changes that render comparisons moot.

The 2005 mathematics assessment is based on a new framework. The assessment includes more questions on algebra, data analysis, and probability to reflect changes in high school mathematics standards and coursework. Even though many questions were repeated, results could not be placed on the old NAEP scale and could not be directly compared to previous years.

teach to the test / teacher for the test

Do I want my performance tied to students' test scores? You bet I do.

If it encourages "teaching to the test," so be it. At last, I will have an objective, unbiased way to prove that I am a superior teacher. And trust me, I'll lord it over you.

parlez vous dérivé?

The Times, always willing to spend other people's money, supports Gregoire's math initiative.

A critical voice on this must be that of Terry Bergeson, the superintendent of public instruction. It is to Bergeson we must all look for leadership as 296 school districts begin aligning their math curricula and installing teachers qualified to teach math. Schools will have to increase their math classes to accommodate students who will have to skip electives and tackle more math.

Gregoire has outlined the road map. Bergeson can lead the way [emphasis added].

Meanwhile the grandest of all unintended consequences, the Frenchification of American education, continues apace.

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.