What happens when a "good" school has "bad" test scores?
It's a Friday like any other here [at the John A. Reisenbach Charter School] - a weekly "Color Day," when students celebrate school spirit by wearing the hues of their floor - orange, green, and blue - rather than their usual oxford shirts and gray pinafores or slacks.
Except, this day, and this month, are like no other. State evaluators who oversee New York charter schools have recommended that Reisenbach be shut, due in part to the school's results on eighth-grade state tests...
The threatened closure has parents and experts both raising questions about a school's less tangible aspects - qualities no standardized test can measure. How, for instance, do you quantify the environment here - the safe, carefully monitored hallways, or the eager confidence of the students?
Well, those things can indeed be quantified. Safe environments will have fewer incidents of violence, disruption, bullying, and the like. There are assessment to measure self-confidence. But the question in my mind is, if the school is safe and kids are confident, why are test scores still low?
Both Craig Cobb and his daughter, Brittan who is a third grader, have fallen in love with Reisenbach.
Like other parents with children at Reisenbach, Mr. Cobb is smitten with the high level of parental involvement. Others rave about the safe, courteous atmosphere, an eighth-grade curriculum that includes reading Shakespeare and newspapers, and extras like drama class and a choir as reasons to keep the school open.
Shakespeare is good, courtesy is good, but I think it's strange that reading newspapers in eighth-grade is considered to be an outstanding part of the curriculum.
There is no doubt that the school has not delivered on its promise to raise test scores...Last year, however, only 13 percent of Reisenbach's eighth-grade class met state standards in English; only 7 percent in math.
Yeah, that's pretty low. How are those eighth-graders reading Shakespeare yet not demonstrating knowledge of the current form of the English language?
...[to some] hard numbers protect a school and should be relied upon. Benjamin Chavis, principal of the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, Calif., is a firm believer in scores, and skeptical of "feel good or other less quantifiable" measures of success.
In 2000, its fourth year, his school nearly had its charter revoked. But by 2001, a year after Dr. Chavis arrived, he'd turned the school around. Now, its scores are among the best in the state. "You can't win by saying, 'This is a safe school,' " he says. "That's a ridiculous argument."
However, the argument that some kids had been at the school only five months before being tested isn't ridiculous. And the school's administrators have offered to resign in order to keep the school open. Parental support is high. Perhaps the school just hasn't had enough time to prove how well it can educate its students:
Some argue schools with low test scores but high community support deserve more time to prove themselves.
In 1998, California's Oakland Charter Academy was in a position similar to Reisenbach's. One of the first charter schools in its district, it squeaked through its first renewal. Test scores were bleak, faculty turnover high. But parents rallied to support the Latino educators who understood their Spanish-speaking children and their community's values. Since then, the school has made modest gains in scores - and received its third renewal.
Update: Fellow blogger, teacher, and all-around tough guy Charles does some investigating. Conclusion? A conditional renewal, perhaps - and no more excuses about those eighth-graders:
It's quite possible a good portion of the 8th grade class in question had been at that school for years, as we shall explain.
We've had a fair bit of experience with charter schools, and a common way for a charter school to get on its feet is for it to start small, then "vertically" expand, adding one grade level per year for one or more years. While it's possible for a school to expand toward the younger grades, by far the most common method of vertical expansion is to grow with the students...
Reisenbach's parents and staff tried a number of arguments to explain away their failing scores, including the fact that "2002 was the first year the school had an eighth-grade class."
It would logically seem that the school only had higher grades, and expanded downward to 8th grade. Thus, when these students were tested for the first time, they got slammed unfairly.
The facts are the precise opposite. The school has served younger students all along, and has expanded vertically as their children graduate each grade. (A quick Google search revealed a pdf report showing the school with 75 seventh graders in 2001. If this school is so universally well-loved by parents, you can bet that a huge chunk of that 75 became the very eighth grade class that tanked in reading and math.)
The "transient students are pulling our scores down" appeal is largely a myth, but makes for a handy excuse.
I should bribe Charles' to catch this kind of stuff (and, you know, do the online research that I skipped) before I post. (I hear he works cheap - for buffalo-chicken sandwiches.)
Also don't miss his post on Diane Ravitch's Left Back, which he gifted me with recently. I'll get to it soon, Charles, I swear...
Posted by kswygert at February 24, 2004 11:23 AM