Number 2 Pencil

Movin' on up (in the blogosphere)

Woo hoo! Michelle Malkin, for whom I have tremendous respect, knows I exist! I'm thrilled to see a link to N2P from her blog - and thrilled to know she's not singling me out for skanky behavior (though that would get me another Insty link). She doesn't pull any punches.

But Mom, I have to have this new dress from the Gap! It'll help me on my SATs!

Whee! Let's have fun! Let's get kids wondering whether the outfit they wear on the day of the SAT will effect their score! That's so much more fun than drilling them on vocabulary!

Test-prep company Peterson's says it plans go beyond drilling students in the three Rs, starting what it's calling a testing laboratory to see whether students gain any edge on the SAT from the little things - the choice of pre-exam meal, the hue of their clothes, the music they hear on the drive to the test...

"We don't want people to think they really will raise their scores 100 points if they wear the right color," said Jessica Rohm, vice president of communications for Thomson Learning, Peterson's parent company. But "just taking the edge off by bringing in some fun things associated with testing I think will raise their scores a little."

"Fun things associated with testing"? C'mon. I'm in testing, and "fun" is not one of the first five words I'd associate with the field, or with the image the public has of it. I'm all for taking the edge off for examinees - test anxiety is through the roof these days, in no small part because of inaccurate press which claims that tests are biased, unfair, useless, or all three. But I don't think everything should have to be "fun" to get students involved, and that includes a demanding admissions tests.

I'll eagerly await the outcome of Peterson's experiments, but I'm betting the top scores will continue to be delivered by students who see the SAT as a challenge for which one has to methodically and intensely prepare, and are able to motivate themselves for it without "fun" - or wardrobe considerations (how classist! What about those kids who don't have that many clothes to wear? And doesn't that just add more stress for obsessive clotheshorses?) - being in the picture.

Segregation (by sex) now?

One Florida middle school is so satisfied with their experiment in sex-segregated classes that they've expanded to include most students, in every grade:

Boys and girls will be seeing even less of each other when school starts next month at Odyssey Middle School. The school's sex-separation experiment will expand to include the majority of students in every grade. Ninety percent of sixth-graders, 70 percent of seventh-graders and 60 percent of eighth-graders at the 1,200-student school will be in boys- or girls-only classes.

Parents have the option of choosing mixed classes if they disapprove of the program.

Although standardized test scores did not significantly improve among the 270 students whose classes were sex-segregated last year, behavior problems plummeted...

Plummeting behavior problems is always a good thing, and I applaud Odyssey for being willing to strike out and try something different (or, in this case, something that was the norm way back when). In this day and age, though, any attempts to move towards sexual segregation would have to take into account, at least in California, the upswing in students who are changing sexualities - and genders - while still in school. Should segregation be done by actual sex? Perceived gender? Or none of the above? Would students experience less harassment if they were placed in classes with the gender they identify with, rather than the one they are?

Whew. All the issues that your one-room schoolteacher never had to deal with, way back when....

Do eggs over easy make the tests easier, too?

Suburban schools are facing more and more low-income children every year, and have responded by opening up the breakfast buffets:

The children at Meadows Elementary School in Plano don't hide their hunger well. "The little ones will just sit at their desks and cry," principal Linda Engelking said. "The older ones sometimes will just be angry."

Ronald E. Kleinman, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, has studied the effects of breakfast on schoolchildren for 15 years. He said the free breakfast program, known nationally as universal breakfast, offers strong rewards at a low cost.

It sounds like free breakfast is needed in Dallas, given that the percentage of "economically disadvantaged" students has nearly doubled in less than 10 years. A hot breakfast hasn't been shown to raise test scores, but it certainly can't hurt. And offering breakfast to all students does help reduce the stigma of having to accept a free meal.

Does it bother anyone else, though, that so many of Dallas's children have parents who either don't bother to feed them breakfast, or just can't be around when the kids wake up to go to school? Aren't any adults around at home when they go to school? This seems like a ominous harbinger of more than just grumbly tummies.

Stressing out in Massachusetts

Testing features prominently in this article about the raising of academic standards - and parental stress - in Massachusetts:

Making sure a student stays above the pack requires more active parenting than ever before, say parents and educators. Waiting lists are growing at the best private schools, public schools now require students to pass a state standardized test to graduate, and graduates of any high school face increasingly intense competition to get into college.

''Just keeping your kid afloat requires an overwhelming amount of parental support," said Jane Frantz, whose three sons graduated from Newton North High School, the youngest last month. ''Academically, there's so much more work now. That's driving an increase in how involved parents feel they need to be."

Is that really true? Or was there such a decline in parental involvement in the 1970's and 1980's that this is just the pendulum swinging back? Do these parents who hire tutors work harder than parents who homeschool? Is the school system just so complicated nowadays that even a stay-at-home parent will feel overwhelmed? Or are teachers so inefficient that parents now feel compelled to hire tutors in every class?

Given that I'm not a parent, nor am I involved with a K12 system, I don't really have answers for these rhetorical questions. I'd love to hear your point of view in the comments section.

The obligatory "competitiveness/anxiety" meme appears shortly thereafter in the article, but the first example given doesn't sound like a description of a concerned parent to me:

The competitive academic climate also fuels an overzealousness that some school officials say is dangerous for students and their families. One elementary school principal said he has seen a rise during the past three years in the number of parents suspected of doing their child's homework for them, or at least helping more than they should.

Those aren't overzealous parents, nor pushy parents, nor competitive parents. Those are dishonest parents. If a parent really wanted their kid to do well later on, why would they help them cheat at this level? This, to me, does not so much spell a rise in competitiveness among parents as a decline in character.

One of my commenters said, on a cheating post of mine, that cheating might be on the rise because a college degree is now seen not as a growth process, and something you earn, but something you simply have to get to be able to get what you want later on. Parents who help elementary school students cheat are reinforcing the idea that grades matter more than learning, which is not the same thing as being a concerned, or even pushy, parent.

Non-testing roundup

Next week, we'll be back to our regular educational testing programming. But for now, a list of everything else that's jamming up my brainwaves.

Metal Yamulke (great name for a blog!) shows his Boston spirit by eviscerating an inane letter to the editor of the Boston Globe (thanks, Reginleif!). And speaking of Boston, I could have used this guide when I drove there a few years back. I found the highway patrol kind, but, to this lost Southerner who didn't understand the accents, rather unhelpful.

My long-distance crush on Hal Sparks is reaching life-threatening limits. I first noticed him on VH1's "I Love The {insert decade here}" shows, and now I'm dreaming about him. He's by far the funniest commenter they have; he's got this wildly-expressive face and a seemingly never-ended list of one-liners. I have an incurable passion for funny, smart, geeky dark-haired musicians with handsome faces, goofy demeanors, and a penchant for pop-culture humor. Luckily for him, my boyfriend also matches this description, but if I ever meet Hal, it's all over. (And yes, there is a LiveJournal fan site, where fellow crushees describe themselves as "Halapenos.") (And no, you don't need to point out to me that, given the comments Hal himself has posted to his website, it's pretty obvious we'd disagree mightily when it comes to politics. I'm aware of it already - just let me dream, would you?)

Got a problem with a local company? Be sure to post your tale on The RipOff Report. It's like NoIndoctrination.Org in that you can make public complaints, and the focus of your wrath has the chance to respond with a public rebuttal. Unlike NoIndoctrination.Org, though, there's a chance that an outraged customer might actually get his money back through Ripoff.

Need the latest metal music news? Dying to read what metalheads say when they get into an online pissing match over Vince Neil or Ozzy? There's always Blabbermouth, which has the latest news AND the great squabbles in the comments section. If you're suffering from a mullets-and-Camaros deficiency, go visit Blabbermouth at once.

I'm not as bad as my sister, who actually has a subscription to the National Enquirer, but I am addicted to celebrity gossip (although I suppose if you have a subscription, only your mailman knows how pathetic you are, as opposed to everyone at the grocery store). And I am ultra-addicted to Defamer. It's very catty, very sharp, and quite unafraid. Whether they're introducing stalkers to their favorite stars, or just belching with nausea at the latest rash of Kevin-and-Britney pics, they're always an entertaining read.

And speaking of Hollywood, this is just goofy. If you're really dying to see what Amish kids are like when they test the waters, rent the stunning, emotional documentary Devil's Playground (which was actually produced by two of the same producers of the upcoming reality show, Daniel Laikind and Steven Cantor. Go figure.)

That's all for today. Normal kvetching about testing critics, shoddy reporting and asinine educational theories returns tomorrow!

Update: Oh, I almost forgot! The blogosphere is abuzz over this paper by Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell, which is said to be the first scholarly paper about blogs. It's fascinating. It's concerned primarily with political blogs, but much of what it says applies to edu-blogs as well.

Update #2: Oh, and how could I forget this? Classic movies, re-enacted in 30 seconds. By bunnies. I can't really describe it; you have to see it for yourself.

Redefining sex-ed

The Common Sense Chronicles blogs on a school sexual-education course where the instructor displays a startling lack of common sense:

The Common Sense Chronicles says:

The sex-ed class I took in Jr. High was centered on the reproductive parts of the male and female anatomy. It wasn't about sexual positions, technique, or toys. It was anatomical information. It was more of a science class than anything else. I didn't miss out by not having "extra" information. Believe me; by the end of class everyone understood what it took to make a baby...and what it was like to have one.

According to a report in the Santa Fe New Mexican, parent Lisa Gallegos said that when her 15-year-old daughter balked at putting a condom in her mouth, instructor Tony Escudero told her, "Come on, sweetie, have a little fun."
-----

Someone remind me again why it's the schools that refuse to teach sex-ed, or who teach abstinence, who are supposedly the biggest threat to teenagers today? This isn't sexual education; it's sexual play, and it's appalling that Mr. Escudero has been given the freedom to decide that this is what is "age-appropriate" for a ninth-grader.

Update: Then again, I suppose I should be grateful that the US's Puritan heritage keeps us from doing away with adult supervision in sex ed altogether. Only in the UK could a reporter for a major newspaper open a story with a straight face and the sentence, "Teenagers want to learn about sex from one another rather than from their teachers." (Thanks to the Rottweiler for the link.)

Building character along with test scores

Now, this is interesting - A school in Virginia aims to "build character:"

An Achievable Dream, located in the inner city, is a partnership among the Newport News public school system, the city and the local business community. It began in 1992 as a summer education and tennis program for about 100 fourth-graders, becoming a full-time school in 1994.

"We don't want to love children into failure," he said.

Amen. So far, the results seem promising:

Eighty percent of the students passed the 2003 Virginia Standards of Learning tests, compared with 85 percent statewide for white students and 60 percent statewide for black students, according to the school.

About 90 percent of the program's high school graduates have gone to college, with the rest joining the military.

Wonderful. I have to wonder about that tennis requirement, though, although I suppose it's just my weak ankles that have made me fearful of the court.

AP exams disappearing in transit

It's not as exciting as Sandy Berger stuffing top-secret documents down his pants, but here's another tale of documents inadvertently going missing:

For the second time in two years, the company that administers advanced placement exams at Walter Johnson High School reported that a group of answer sheets are missing. As a result, halfway into their summer vacations, 44 students may be forced to retake exams they took back in May...

Another 19 exams were reported missing last week for a total of 44.

Out of 3 millions exams given, 44 isn't a huge number, but missing tests are like homicides. Ideally, there'd be none, and for each one, there's an anguished victim or set of survivors, not to mention a lot of news coverage. The school claims to have followed ETS's mailing instructions "to the letter." And other schools in the same county have suffered similarly within the past couple of years. No one seems happy with ETS's offer to refund money or assign students to a retake, but it's understandable why ETS isn't comfortable with projected scores (due to validity and reliability issues) or with just giving students credit for all the lost items (validity and reliability issues and the potential for abuse by unscrupulous schools).

Is there a way out of this standoff? Not likely, not with the mailing back and forth of 3 million packages every year. Even if the tests were all on computer, that kind of data can vanish, too.

College professors insist on less say in admissions decisions

This is, quite possibly, one of the dumbest anti-testing efforts ever from a political body:

The state Legislature has passed a bill that would limit the state and city university systems from using the SAT or other high-stakes tests as the major criteria in determining who gets accepted.

Both CUNY and SUNY consider SAT scores as one factor — along with scores on Regents exams and high-school grades — in determining admissions. The bill would not immediately impact the selection policy in either system. But the legislation, if signed into law, would bar CUNY or SUNY from relying more on standardized tests in the future.

Something's not right here. I can see professors being opposed to admissions tests. But how on earth can anyone in academia think it's a good idea to open the door for politicians to decide the best way to admit students? Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't some universities fight tooth-and-nail to preserve quota systems and sets of double standards, in the face of court decisions, all because it interferes with their plans for diversity? Don't universities normally claim that they alone know what admissions processes are best for their student body? Didn't the universities get mad when the courts tried to tell them they could not use race in admissions? And here university members are pushing for the government to tell them there's something else they can't use?

If the SAT is useful in admissions, New York schools should be free to use it as much as possible, because, despite the mythology, the SAT is a reliable, quick, and cheap assessment that can be quite valid for use in this context. If the SAT doesn't work for schools, they should be free to chuck it. Given that the anti-testing types tend to be the ones who complain about top-down control of education, it's appallingly hypocritical for them to be pushing for top-down control of the admissions process. Or is it just that unwarranted governmental interference is a good thing as long as tests are being prohibited instead of mandated?

(Thanks to Devoted Reader Kevin for the link.)

A surprising educational force in Oregon

Hidden amongst the hippies and educrats in Oregon are a group of pro-testing professors who have been developing empirical evidence to support standardized tests and NCLB:

Over the years, the University of Oregon has developed a reputation as a hippie haven, home to Hacky-Sackers, Frisbee-throwers and anti-globalism activists. But tucked away in a bucolic corner of the campus is a group of education professors whose work has been widely influential and found favor with the Bush administration.

"The emphasis on research-based instruction is a bit of a problem," said Barbara Bowman, a professor at Chicago's Erikson Institute, a graduate school in child development. "Some of the more qualitative ways of assessing children's learning are generally not included. We are focusing on things that are easy to see, rather than taking a look at the whole."

Lovely to see the anti-science crowd rush in to identify themselves as fools. Apparently, it's more important to take a non-scientific look at "the whole child" than to measure how well a child can read. How easy it must be to "teach" a child when the assumption is that the outcome cannot possibly be measured.

On the other hand, given that critics insist the structured curriculums are actually harmful to kids, no wonder teachers are so stressed out today:

Rheta DeVries, who directs the Regents' Center for early development education at the University of Northern Iowa, said such structured curriculums [as phonics] are harmful to children.

"Testing takes over and determines the curriculum, and children don't get experience with hands-on science experimentation and activities that call forth their best energies," she said. "What a child knows cannot necessarily be measured in fragmented tests used for assessment."

Yes, it can. Tests can indeed measure what a child knows - maybe not everything a child knows, but someone who understands the material will not fail a basic skills exam. It's one thing to (correctly) worry that basic skills tests might lead teachers to dumb down curriculum, but it's just plain silly to claim that test don't actually measure learning.

What's nice is that some Oregon teachers who have special education students are rejecting the touchy-feely stuff and embracing the empirically-supported theories:

...Sharon Brumbley, a special education teacher who has long been a Direct Instruction disciple, said that using the curriculum at early grades has reduced the number of children placed in special education later on at her school in Springfield, Oregon.

"They've pared out all the nonessentials, and gotten down to what kids need to learn, what they need to know," she said.

Nothing but the 3 R's

A letter to the editor of the Pasadena Star-News says that students at one local middle school will soon be taking virtually nothing except math and English:

Students at Eliot Middle School in Altadena have just been informed by the Pasadena Unified School District that every student will have two math classes (yes, even if they are at or above grade level) most will have two English classes (apparently, even if they are performing at optimum level) and some will have three English classes next year.

First, understand that there are only six classes in a day, though these will now be divided into a block schedule. If five of them are English and math, what happens to foreign language, science, physical education, arts, history?

I don't think it's even good idea at first blush. Three English classes? Just how inefficent are the teachers at that school? Immersion and tutoring is one thing, but if it takes the teachers three hours a day to bring kids up to speed on the English language, something's not right. The letter writer points out that the kid will be tested in high school on classes they're supposed to be starting in middle school, like history. While I'm all for focusing on the core skills, I have to wonder why Eliot Middle School needs this much time to teach the basics.

Testing brouhaha in New Hampshire

Well, well. There appears to be a clash between teachers and SAU administrators in New Hampshire's North Hampton school district:

The School Board voted not to test North Hampton School students next year using a standardized test recommended by SAU 21 administrators. The NorthWest Educational Association tests were used this year, but teachers at NHS unanimously said they believe the tests are not useful and should not be continued. School Administrative Unit administrators suggested that teachers at NHS were not trained to properly use the tests and so cannot judge their effectiveness.

Ouch! But it's worth asking - who was in charge of making sure the teachers were properly trained? The NWEA is a computer-adaptive exam, so the students would have needed a bit of training as well.

NHS Principal Peter Sweet said teachers "tried to make (the test) meaningful," adding, "They used and shared the data, but they don’t want to do it again." Sweet said he would prefer that the school focus on grade-level assessments developed by the teachers to monitor students’ learning.

Teachers have complained that because of the structure of the test, students might end up being asked questions usually meant for much-older kids, and this kind of data is not helpful for how they want to teach.

SAU administrators pointed out that other districts in which more teacher training took place seem happier with the test, and more able to use the scores.

Self-defeating prophecies in education

Thomas Sowell has some harsh criticism for so-called "friends" of minority students:

My own moment of truth came when a roommate at Harvard said to me one day: "Tom, when are you going to stop goofing off and get some work done?"

Why endure all the hard work, self-discipline and self-denial that a first-rate education requires if The Man is going to stop you from getting anywhere anyway? People who have been pushing this line for years are now suddenly surprised and dismayed to discover that many black students across the country regard academic striving as "acting white."

And people who have pushing the line, "Standardized tests are biased against minorities" are now suddenly surprised and dismayed to discover that many black students regard tests as biased and unimportant, and the test score gap continues because black students are afraid of the tests, or are so convinced of their failure that they don't study for them.