Sunday, August 31, 2014

Questions that need to be asked about MAP results

Some have described me as hypocritical for making such a big deal out of local schools' MAP scores when I have criticized the overemphasis on poorly written standardized tests time after time in the past.

I have not changed my views on those tests and remain staunchly opposed to the idea that the tests should be used to evaluate teachers.

That being said, the MAP and other standardized tests, though overemphasized, do provide a considerable amount of useful information and raise questions that need to be answered, especially in the Joplin R-8 School District.

Acuity Tests

For instance, the C. J. Huff/Angie Besendorfer regime invested nearly $50,000 a year in Acuity tests. These were practice tests devised by the company that makes the MAP tests, and at one point they were given eight times a year, taking several weeks out of the school calendar that could have been used for instruction.

Not only were the tests given that often, but soon they were creating practice tests for the practice tests and those who did not do well on those were given extra work, often doing the same kinds of standardized test practice.

I participated in numerous meetings in which district officials pushed the idea of having curriculum revolve around those tests.

Math and communication arts teachers were frequently pulled out of class so they could grade Acuity tests or put the data from those into the computer. Other times, we were pulled out of class and forced to interpret what this data meant and how we could use it to improve our test scores.

And during all of those meetings, the students were "learning" from substitute teachers.

What were the results of this madness?

MAP scores have gone down in the district ever since Acuity was implemented, or for that matter ever since C. J. Huff and Angie Besendorfer arrived in Joplin.

We were told at the beginning of this that scores would go down initially, but we would soon see dramatic increases.. When that did not take place, the spin changed, and the tests became "unfair" and not indicative of how our schools were doing.

No matter that every other school in Missouri was having to deal with MAP, Joplin was the only one around complaining that it was not fair.

Teachers Pulled from Classrooms

Each year when test results were issued, administration came down harder on teachers, indicating that only teachers, and not administration, played a part in creating low test scores. More professional development, if it could truly be called that, centered around ways to improve students' test-taking techniques, ways to game the testing system, and of course, how to use data that was almost impossible to interpret in any rational way.

Teachers were constantly being pulled out of classrooms. I was teaching a tested area, but one year I was pulled out of class 16 days for professional development. I thought that was bad until I learned during my final year of teaching that our highly successful eighth grade math teacher at East Middle School had been pulled out more than 20 days and there was still time to go before the tests were given.

That would seem to be an issue that should be discussed in a board of education campaign and indeed, successful candidate Dr. Debbie Fort brought it up during the candidate forum, noting she had a teacher pulled out of her classroom (she was principal at Irving Elementary) for 60 days. That was the only mention. No one ever held the board or the administration's feet to the fire about why this was being done.

There have been times when half of the teaching staff has been pulled out of district buildings and one thing teachers learn quickly- when that many teachers are gone, not only will less learning take place in the rooms with substitutes, no matter how good the lesson plan that is left for them, but it also has an effect on the other teachers. The more substitute teachers you have, the more behavioral problems you have.

And with all of these people going to meetings, being fed, often having their way paid on seminars or trips, plus the cost of paying substitute teachers, you are throwing away thousands of dollars with no positive return.

Students need teachers in order for their educational experience to be successful. For some reason, that idea has never taken hold with the Huff/Besendorfer administration.

The Poor Treatment of Teachers

You also have a problem when you have approximately 300 teachers who have left the school district in the past three years, many of them among the best teachers the district had to offer.

With the administration's current emphasis on allowing students to find their way with teachers standing by as guides and telling them to Google for whatever information they need, teachers are not being allowed to teach. Especially at the elementary level, it is reaching the point where everything teachers do is being carefully scripted so that administration has more control. That approach has not benefited the students. It has also driven many excellent teachers out of the district.

Teachers have also been negatively affected by the lack of discipline at the schools. Principals are under orders to keep referrals down so that state statistics will show just how wonderful the behavior is at the Joplin Schools, so they begin coming up with different levels of referrals. As I have noted before, in my last year at East, we were required to have eight classroom referrals for students before they could be sent to the principal or assistant principal. Even then, there was often no discipline administered, just talks and promises that things would get better.

We were told that after the eight classroom referrals that we should send the students to the office with each additional referral. That stopped when we were told not to send them down so that we could give the principal's talk or offer of one lunchroom detention an opportunity to work.

Teachers are also provided with lists of actions that should result in students being sent to the office and actions that should be handled in the classroom. Many of the actions that are now considered to be classroom would have resulted in an automatic trip to the principal just a few years ago.

What happens when you have this lack of discipline is that younger teachers are afraid to send students to the office and behavior takes place that hurts the learning process. It also increases the chances that these younger teachers are going to get out of teaching...or get out of Joplin.

It also is unfair to the majority of the students who are there to learn and cannot understand why their classmates are being allowed to get away with so much.

The Poverty Situation
While educational "reformers" piously insist that it is not true, poverty does play a role in learning. If the children's families do not have money, do not have books in the home, do not have access to internet, it does make a difference.

It does not mean that the students do not learn or are not capable of learning. Far from it.

But any time you are examining standardized test results, it will become obvious that students from schools where there is more poverty are nearly always going to have lower scores. That is obvious in Joplin's results and it has been that way since long before C. J. Huff and Angie Besendorfer arrived. The Bright Futures program,when you remove its local excesses and get down to its core, has had a positive effect, but the idea of providing a stable educational environment inside the schools seems to be something that has been foreign to the Huff Administration.

Only three principals remain from the group that served Joplin when C. J. Huff arrived. Many of those who were shown the door were top-notch principals and were replaced by lower-level yes men and yes woman, some with little or no organizational abilityand no ability at all to inspire, but who would never question any edict from upper administration, even in a respectful manner.

The same revolving door, as noted earlier, has applied to teachers. It is important to have new, eager teachers in schools at the beginning of each year, but it is just as important to have veteran teachers, often just as eager, to show them the way, to help them get through the pitfalls of that inaugural year, and to provide a stable environment for children who desperately need it.

During the years of the Huff Administration, everything has been about each new program that has been started, all with the implied and often-stated message that the people in Joplin were never worried about education until C. J. Huff arrived and led us out of the darkness.

Stability is the best thing that C. J. Huff could have done for our schools, especially for those in the poverty-stricken areas of Joplin. The only stability that has existed in the Joplin R-8 School District since he arrived from Eldon is that he is going to be the center of everything and everyone else is disposable. When you have that kind of attitude, the ones who are the most damaged are the ones he always says he is doing everything for- the kids.

Questions That Need to be Asked

When readers are examining the MAP results and how they affect Joplin, there are questions that need to be asked and no one, especially the media, has been asking them.

1. Why are scores in Carl Junction and Webb City so high compared to Joplin? Is it a matter of people choosing to locate in those communities just to be in those school systems? Does it involve lesser poverty than you see in Joplin? 

2. How many Joplin parents are opting to move their children to other schools? We have seen the publicized instance of former R-8 Board of Education member Dawn Sticklen who moved her child from Joplin to Webb City and then resigned form the board. Many of my former students are now in Carl Junction, Webb City, Carthage, and Neosho, and these are students who were still attending Joplin schools after the tornado. I also have seen many of my former students transferring to Thomas Jefferson and College Heights and more than before are home schooling. Why are parents pulling their students out of Joplin schools? Is it discipline, is it education, is it the excesses of the Huff Administration? There is still the question of if Joplin's 21st Century learning is not negatively impacting students by removing lecturing and nearly all teacher-led lessons, when those are going to be the type of classes they will have most often if they continue to colleges or universities.

3. If we begin paying and evaluating teachers based on student scores on standardized tests, as Amendment 3 calls for, are we going to end up unfairly punishing teachers who work in areas with higher poverty and are we going to have a harder time finding teachers who are willing to teach in those schools, or continue teaching there when jobs in other districts open. Are we condemning the students in the poverty areas to having inexperienced teachers year after year after year?

MAP results are worth examining and the most important thing they do is to enable us to raise these questions. Hopefully, as time goes on, we will be able to answer some of them and use those answers to improve education in Joplin and the surrounding area.

The first thing we have to do, however, is ask the questions, and eliminate business as usual.




19 comments:

Anonymous said...

As someone who has experienced this firsthand, I can without reservation say that everything in this article is 100% accurate. As I have stated before, these issues are the ones that have been making life so difficult for those teaching in the district, not necessarily issues such as the excessive spending and delayed start date at the high school. It makes me so frustrated knowing that simply making some common sense changes at both the national and local levels could alleviate so many of these problems. Teachers are constantly placed in impossible positions with impossible expectations, and are then blamed for failing. Administrations need to give control back to the teachers, enforce discipline and remove the constant disruptions from the classrooms, and stop jumping on every new trend that comes along. Testing is not teaching. I wish Huff would have the courage to admit that he has been wrong and start taking the steps necessary to fix this. Unfortunately, it is far more likely for him to place the blame on the teachers and insist on more "professional development", data, and testing.

Anonymous said...

If you are the head of a company and profits drop, stock drop, morale drops amoung your employee's, and faith in the leader, or head of the company is at an all time low, the board of that company will replace you. Why isn't it the same with Dr. Huff? It has been year after year of fail and one law suit after another. So why wouldn't he resign? Why would he continue to keep putting himself in the way of getting someone that might be able to turn this train wreck around?

Anonymous said...

Maybe WC and CJ scores are higher because they now have the good teachers that were forced out of Joplin! Makes you think.........

Anonymous said...

Joplin has similar rates of free and reduced lunch (poverty) as other area districts, although about 10% higher than WC. Other districts pull teachers many days a year for professional development and team planning/curriculum writing. Other districts used Acuity last year. Other districts require classroom teachers to handle the vast majority of discipline in the classroom. Other districts have high turnover rates. Other districts have technology and teacher-created curriculum taking the place of text books. Other districts have jumped on every buzz-worthy edu trend. Other districts have much higher test scores. Why? Joplin isn't that different from other area districts. So, why the huge difference in measurable achievement? That's what Turner needs to investigate and report on. We need a detailed comparison to find out the truth. What are the variables? The sad thing is teachers will be blamed for this. Huff is never going to say he is to blame. That's why Turner needs to do some deep digging to find something parents can take to the media. Show the public how Joplin is different. Is it the number of years of experience? Show us that there is a connection in other districts. Is it class size? Show us the comparison. Is it poverty? Show us. Is it the number of students with IEPs or kids speaking other languages? Show us. If you can't find any differences, then it's either the teachers, the students, the Admin, or a combination. Report the facts, otherwise people will react emotionally and blame Huff or the teachers, and I don't want teachers blamed. When the evidence isn't stated, it's impossible to make an informed decision. I like the topics you report Turner, but I want you to do more. I want you to spell it out so that I (and others) can't try to find a different possibility. Write the article "This is Why It's Huff's Fault" and show evidence that the high achieving districts don't also do the same things you've mentioned in this post.

Anonymous said...

When your article forces CJ Huff to send out a press release, the other local media will run it.

Anonymous said...

Oh come on. Just fire all the teachers and replace them with the people getting their degrees in the mail from WMU.

Anonymous said...

WC does not do the extensive amount of teacher pull-out days that Turner talks about. Their HS uses technology like Joplin, and technology is used through the district. However, WC works with their teachers and build them. In the HS, teachers write their curriculum and assessment based on Common Core and state standards. We use a program that helps students take tests, but not use Acuity tests.

Anonymous said...

2:11--
You seem to already know that other districts do what Joplin does. One would assume from your post that you have already researched in order to declare that other districts remove their teachers as often as Joplin, that other districts are as poor, and that they use Acuity. It would be greatly appreciated if you would publish your findings so that the rest of us could learn from them, and it would avoid replication of research. It would save much time.

Thank you for sharing...nothing much yet...

Anonymous said...

2:11

Turner has posted articles clearly stating why certain things are CJ Huff's fault, but he just gets accused of vengeance. This article alone should inspire the parents of R-8 to show up to every future school board meeting until these test scores are up.

Anonymous said...

I agree with 5:48. 2:11, I think your intentions are good, but it seems unlikely that you have researched all of this before posting. You state that other schools have to handle discipline in the same way. Which schools? All of them? Do individual buildings differ in their approach, or is every one consistent. You say that other districts have high turnover rates. Which ones? Is the rate as large as Joplin's? Is the turnover rate due to a large number of retirements, or are they leaving those districts for other reasons? You say that other districts use technology in place of textbooks. Which ones? Have they completely eliminated textbooks? What are some examples of other districts jumping on every buzz worthy edu trend? Other districts pull teachers for professional development, but which ones pull as much or more than Joplin, and how are they using those development days?

You are probably correct in saying that there are other districts that deal with some of the same issues as Joplin, but are there districts dealing with all of these issues at the same time like Joplin is? It seems you are too eager to dismiss all of the reasons Randy has laid out in his post as to why Joplin is struggling.

Anonymous said...

As a recently retired teacher, I can say you have some good points such as the teachers are being pulled out the classroom too much for computer testing and grading. But, don't just assume those other districts are so great. Both Webb and CJ have good reputations, but suffer the same ridiculous curriculum requirements with computer testing and teacher development. Being inside one of them, I can tell you the level of academics has fallen because of the type of curriculum being taught and the pressures being put on teachers to teach to the tests instead of to the students. Teachers are not safe with tenure as the media would have you believe, they are threatened to conform with insubordination. Those that want to change things are treated as trouble makers and pushed out. Sadly, it is not just Joplin suffering, students are suffering. Parents do not see what is happening or just want to follow their own student and not get involved overall. Students today are not used to discipline at home or for themselves and so teachers are given the blame for their lack of achievement. Smaller schools can benefit from more individual instruction and discipline, Joplin has more trouble with this. Too many variables to point to for student achievement failings.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know how class sizes compare between Joplin and WC or CJ?

Anonymous said...

A great story would be talking to the area districts and find out how they do curriculum, processes, resources, and teacher morale. I know in our district, we have a great administration who push to do well, but also respects us as experts. Why are some districts better than others? Instead of just dumping on Joplin Schools, find out why success is happening in other districts. You learn more about your own culture when you examine others.

Anonymous said...

11:05

Well said.

Anonymous said...

@11:05 Although a great idea, you don't really think Huff & Company would talk to neighboring districts about curriculum, processes, resources, and teacher morale. That would be admitting there is something wrong and could be done better in Joplin schools. It is much easier for Huff to blame the teachers, blame the parents, blame the students, blame Randy Turner.

Okay, I just threw that last one in because Huff blames everything on those 4 groups or individuals.

Anonymous said...

Education has become commercialized. Saying that take the politicians out of education and bring respect back to the profession or continue to commercial it and continue seeing failure. Education is and should be for the student and not built for students. All learn differently and a good teacher knows how to get that from his/her student. Let the teacher back and take out the politicians...

Anonymous said...

1:56 pm.

We did it at our school.

I just gave the assignment of seeking out other schools for Turner to do.

It would be interesting.

Anonymous said...

1:56

I think 11:05 was suggesting Randy Turner do the research and inform the readers of what is working in other districts. Then, it would be up to the parents and taxpayers to work with the administration, school board, teachers, and students to incorporate the successful programs. But, speaking up and being heard is the first step.

Anonymous said...

This is one of the first truly helpful and intelligent conversations I have seen on this blog, and I appreciate it. I think there is validity to these questions, but I agree with those that have stated that other schools are dealing with similar issues. Having taught in a program that serves 36 school districts teaching in those schools all the time, I have had the chance to work with many administrations and many teachers. I have found the rigamarole to be very similar in every district. The one thing I have found to be unique is the kids. I can go from one school to another, and the BIG difference is the demographic of kids - the "rough" kids and the ones who come from terrible home lives is exceptionally higher in Joplin.

Not to say that those same rough kids aren't in Webb or Carl or Carthage - they are - but there's a sort of moral code in those schools. It's very different, and it's hard to explain objectively. It's not culturally acceptable to be failing or to get in trouble at Carl and Webb - you are socially ostracized in those schools for that sort of behavior more. In Joplin, I've had kids shout out that they had sex last night and are still hungover, and everybody laughs and high fives them. In Webb or Carl - though that behavior happens for sure - they would be looked at as "trashy" for that. It's almost like a class system that exists in those schools that pushes students to WANT to rise to the top. Because Joplin has such a smaller group of those "top flight" families, there's less of a cultural push from within the social groups of kids to want to achieve. It's just "whatever" to do well. When kids are doing poorly in school, the parents in Joplin call and throw a fit that the teacher and the school is terrible. In Carl and Webb, if a kid is doing poorly, the parents are calling and asking what they can do to help their child do better. (I'm not saying this is a 100% thing - that ALL families in Joplin do this and Carl/Webb families always do THAT - just that it is generally speaking culturally that way across the board).

I think that as a community, though it's valuable to look at the variables and see what the trends are and ways that Joplin can grow (ALWAYS we should be doing that) and learn from the schools around us, we also have to look at the culture of our community. Joplin has not drawn in those "high flying" families that push the social climate in Joplin because we haven't had the nicer schools, the safer subdivisions, etc.

Not that the new buildings resolve this, but I do believe that they (along with the new curriculum at the high school and more opportunities for kids in a bigger school) do bring much more of a draw. I think the work that's being done to intervene with little kiddos in the elementary schools with Read 180 and other programs that have GREAT results so far will begin to change the culture of Joplin - that kids are not going to be allowed to fail - we're going to work with them until they succeed. Those things will slowly begin to shift the culture of our community where it's more of that social contract of behavior and excellence that pushes kids to do better.