I was surprised that more of a fuss wasn't made by the Joplin Globe of the miracle reading scores that were recorded by Joplin R-8 fifth and eighth graders last year.
The scores were revealed to the R-8 Board of Education Tuesday night and came as welcome news in a school district that has seen its scores declining every year since C. J. Huff took the helm in 2008.
According to Jennifer Doshier, executive director of elementary education, the eighth graders scored 54 percent proficient in the reading test they took at the end of their seventh grade years, 69 percent in a test taken at the end of September and then 80 percent in a test taken at the end of the 2013-2014 school year.
Fifth graders showed similar results, beginning at about 40 percent at the end of their fourth grade year, moving up to the sixties then, up to 82 percent.
Huff said the goal was to move the students to 90 percent proficiency.
Since most studies have shown that over the summer months students lose some of what they have learned, Doshier noted that students had kept learning during summer school and during the first month of the school year before the tests were administered.
The tests were from Scholastic.
It will be interesting to see if these test scores are repeated when MAP scores are released next month.
5 comments:
What a crock of crap! As a teacher myself, thats next to impossible! We can't get all children up to par in a few months.
My daughter was behind and was all year! She busted butt at home with me helping five days of te week with ' homework' that I made for her since she never brought any home. Her final grade...can you all guess??? An 'A'!! Go her! This district is a disgrace. All that shows if you are lazy, chose not yo work to standards, or simply struggle that you still recieve the best possible grade. I'm not saying some kids don't bust it and get grades up but really??? Over 50%?? Any idiot can see whats happening.
Similar to the increase in graduation rates, if you simply change the way you figure the scores/rates, you can make it come out however you want. You know that old saying about figures don't lie but liars figure.
Are these read 180 kids?
Hmmmm Miraculous or something else.
This is what happens when you try to attach numbers to learning. Assessments and scores are manipulated to show whatever result administration wants to show. Many of the assessments the school is using is nothing more than a giving a pretest over material that students have never covered before, followed by the teaching of the new material for a few days, then the administering of a post-test that then shows student "improvement". Unfortunately, these assessments in no way measure any long-term learning. The scores also won't translate to end-of-year testing, such as the MAP, when students are then asked to recall the material they supposedly mastered during the 3 days they talked about it in September or October. Unfortunately, the high stakes testing then forces the teachers to drop everything later in the year and teach only for these tests. The hypocrisy in education right now is huge. Everyone wants tougher, more rigorous standards that hold students accountable, but funding and accreditation are dependent upon passing as many students as possible and achieving high graduation rates. These two goals do not go hand-in-hand. It is only logical that the more demanding and rigorous the curriculum, the fewer the number of students that master the material will be. This is why manufactured statistics have to be used by the districts. So much time is wasted on the never-ending testing. What if districts quit worrying about tests and statistics and put all of their emphasis on quality instructional time and instilling a true joy of learning in the students? It is sad that this sentiment seems all but impossible in the current profit-driven, politically charged educational climate.
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