Number 2 Pencil

The gifted-vs-remediation tradeoff

From Pennsylvania comes this tale of students who have learned facts but don't really understand the material - or so the teachers claim:

Wolfe, an eighth grade reading teacher at Big Spring Middle School, helped design the Reading Increases Students' Excellence (RISE) class to prepare students for the ninth-grade standardized writing test...

They had memorized the definitions for a test in other classes, but "they didn't actually know that they had to know it for knowledge, for life."

This, of course, is the lead-in for a crop of test criticism. But I see this as a criticism of their former teachers. What did they do in their language arts classes? Say to the kids, 'Okay, just memorize this list, but you'll never use these words again - they aren't important"? How bad do teachers have to be for kids to get the idea that the English language is not knowledge they'll need for their lives? Don't go blaming tests for this, nuh-uh.

Getting the right answers on a state standardized test is a "game," says Donna Benson. It's a game many of her students refuse to play.

Benson teaches gifted students at Cumberland Valley High School, and says highly intelligent students tend to ignore test-taking conventions, especially when writing essays. Instead, many write creatively, and as a result score low on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA).

I hear this a lot, but I've never seen any evidence to back it up. Anecdotal evidence, sure. But there isn't a scoring rubric out there that doesn't give examinees a boost for using correct spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. Is it really true that there are vast numbers of very smart kids whose writing is so creative that, despite proper vocabulary and spelling, their essays recieve very low, or flunking, grades?

"It's done kind of as formula writing," Benson says of how the writing portion of the PSSA is scored. "I want the kids to know what the formula is, but ... I want the kids to go beyond that," she says.

And they can. But they should understand why the formula is there, and why it would be silly to protest the formula on the grounds that it's too "dumb" for them. For a lot of kids, it would be a big step forward just to be able to write well, period, even if the writing came out formulaic.

Highly intelligent students often have trouble with multiple choice and true-or-false questions because they "over-analyze" the question, Benson says. She worries gifted and bright children get left behind when schools emphasize remediation...

"I'm glad my children aren't in school anymore," says Candy Shively, who works for Cumberland Valley School District and used to teach special interest classes. "I think we're really skimping on the enrichment things and the higher level of thinking."

And I can understand her way of thinking. Unfortunately for the bright kids, the act is called Leave No Child Behind, not Push The Smart Ones Ahead. Proficiency isn't enough for a subset of kids, true. But when so many students are failing miserably, schools are often forced to focus on them.

Data Recognition Corp isn't recognizing its errors

Great headline on this testing oopsie - "PSSA report spaced out".

A line-spacing error that threw off the standardized test scores reported last week by the Pennsylvania Department of Education has school officials wondering if they can rely on the numbers. The error prompted the department to remove a school-by-school report on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test scores from its Web site Thursday, less than 24 hours after posting it.

"If they want to hold us accountable, maybe they ought to be a little bit more accountable on how they send out their scores," he said.

Granted, this isn't a true scoring error, but a reporting error. On the other hand, people are touchy, and anxious, about the whole deal. Releasing scores via the web that are wrong is a bad situation, no matter how easily the rectification.

Hey, at least somebody's optimistic about it

Penn State is optimistic and enthusiastic about the new SAT:

“We receive over 40,000 freshman applications each year, and we have more students sending us their SAT scores than any college or university east of Los Angeles,” said John Romano, vice provost and dean of enrollment management and administration at Penn State. “Penn State processes a tremendous amount of student information and, while we applaud the addition of a writing component to the SAT, we need to remind ourselves that the results of the new SAT will be just one of many factors we look at as we make admission decisions.”

“The immediate impact of the writing component,” Romano said, “is the strong signal it sends to students, parents, teachers and administrators in our nation’s secondary schools that writing is important. Eventually, we hope to observe in our university classrooms across all disciplines the results of this added emphasis. For now, we need to assess what role the additional component should play in our decisions.”

Forty thousand applications. Good Lord. What a mountain of paperwork that must be...

Cheaters with blood on their hands (literally)

Becuase I forgot to post last week's Cheating in the News roundup from Caveon, here it is. Apparently, there's a computer virus that can steal test items, though I'll believe that only after Snopes verifies it. Cheating has gotten so bad, though, that even people who you really, really don't want to be faking their knowledge are starting to do so. I don't know which is worse - the knowledge that you can fake your way through an EMT exam, or the idea that some people are happy to do so.

Oh, and on a related topic, blogger CD of Ipse Dixit has discovered that a nine-year-old essay of his on Jane Eyre is for sale online! Now we can all own a little piece of CD, and if our professors aren't too sharp, we can pass it off as our own.

Join me, fellow twinkletoes, on a journey of dreams!

Devoted Reader John L. sends along a candidate for Idiotarian of the Year. Out of - surprise! - Oregon comes the most flowerly, nonsensical paen to progressive "education" that I've ever read, and that's saying something, even for the dean of a school of education:

Follow me on a little imaginative journey: You and I have invented the wondermeter, a device that captures bold ideas and original insights.

Which, like the wondermeter, aren't worth much unless they're patented. But I digress.

Using the wondermeter we are able to measure the daily wonder production of Oregon. As it turns out, every Oregonian has at least three bold ideas and original insights a day. The population of Oregon is almost 3.6 million. According to the wondermeter, at least 11 million bold ideas and original insights erupt in Oregon every day. That's approximately 4 billion bold ideas and original insights a year. Four billion.

Do you find it as amusing as I do that the type of touchy-feeling educators who are always saying that we can't quantify learning have so boldly quantified ideas here? Nope, we can't trust test scores - but we can trust their estimate of 4 billion!

The news that Oregon's middle- and high-schoolers are not doing well on standardized tests is disappointing, but it may also be pointing us in the wrong direction. More scientific discoveries have taken place in the last 10 years than in the previous 600. To reduce learning to the measuring and mismeasuring of antiquated knowledge is a huge strategic error that will result in considerable suffering and a weakened economy.

1. How many scientific discoveries have been made by kids who haven't mastered basic science skills?
2. How many scientific breakthroughs were generated by people who consider scientific facts, and vast stores of scientific knowledge, to be "antiquated knowledge"?

It is said that Oregon loves dreamers. What would an inclusive, high-performance education system look like for Oregon's dreamers?

Four billion ideas a year, bouncing around, with no discipline, factual knowledge, or structure to ground them to anything in reality. That's what it would look like. Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them - and Peter W. Cookson Jr. of the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education would like all of your children to spend at least 8 hours a day there.

Maybe more:

Coordinate all the state's educational assets. There is a disconnect between higher education and K-12 education, there is a disconnect between the public sector and the private sector, and there is a disconnect between universal education and education for economic productivity. Instead of a competitive model, let's imagine a cooperative model where all the state's assets are used.

Can you say, "cradle-to-grave welfare state?" I knew you could!

...Enable Oregonians to be culturally competent. A just education system ensures that each student, no matter what his or her age or background, is celebrated and supported. Oregon has already made great strides through the state's Department of Education by placing cultural competency at the forefront of the educational agenda. This effort ought to be emphasized and enlarged.

Because, as we all know, scientific breakthroughs, and strong economies, depend on the cultural competency of students. This is why cultural competency - not reading skills, not the ability to compete in a global economy through the use of mathematics and computer science - should be at the forefront of the educational agenda, according to them.

At least they're honest about their priorities.

Accountability is one of the current buzzwords in education, but accountability is too often translated into test scores. I am suggesting an accountability that goes far deeper. We are accountable for the welfare of our citizens. Oregon's dreamers deserve opportunities to make their dreams real. Wonder is our most precious natural resource; we dare not squander it.

We can be the authors of our own miracle.

Five bucks to the first person who can explain just what the heck this means.

Quibbling over the MCAS

A Boston English teacher handles letters about the MCAS in the Globe's "Ask the Teacher" feature:

Q. These days, there is much pressure put on our adolescents to pass the MCAS test. In addition, school personnel often need to address youth's other needs, such as social and emotional growth, career exploration, etc. Is the MCAS exam helping or hindering our youth from achieving and being well-rounded?

A. The MCAS has had its fans and foes well before students began taking the statewide test in 1998. Proponents applaud the exam as a means of creating and measuring statewide educational standards, particularly in math and English. Critics, however, take issue with its too-high stakes (a high school graduation requirement), an apparent preference for memorization over knowledge, and a dismantling effect on teaching (faculty teaching to the test).

"Too-high stakes" - meaning Massachusetts students shouldn't be expected to master 10th-grade material in 12 years. And explain to me again exactly how you don't "know" something once you've "memorized" it, and how you can "know" a concept about which you've "memorized" no facts?

Some school districts have kept their focus on educating the whole person...

Translation: Rock-bottom test scores are okay as long as the student learns to play well in groups of properly-distributed diversity...

...while others have reshuffled course content and academic priorities to prepare students for MCAS exams. Karen Harris, who taught English at Watertown High School for 12 years, then became a teacher at Brookline High, has seen the MCAS effect from two distinct perspectives.

"At Watertown High, the MCAS became an obsession for teachers as well as students," said Harris. "Early on, many students failed the exam. After that, every faculty meeting addressed the issue of how to prepare students to pass this one exam . . . What important issues weren't we discussing as a result of this obsession?

What would Harris consider more important than the fact that Watertown students were in class eight hours a day, yet weren't mastering basic reading and math skills? I for one am delighted that the MCAS scores were the focus of every faculty meeting.

"In Brookline, where there's less anxiety about students passing the exam, you have the opportunity to turn the test into a lesson on conscientious objection, for example. I realize that's not a luxury every school system has.

No, it's most definitely not. Could you be a little more condescending about the fact that smart kids at the better schools get to be "conscientious objectors," while the kids at the poorer schools would be better off if they had teachers dedicated to helping them learn to spell those words?

"If teachers are only teaching the test, the students are receiving a very limited education. Plus, with teachers forced to wear more and more hats these days, it's increasingly difficult for many to help create the sort of capable and curious student we all want to see."

I agree that teachers are spread too thin. I also think bad teachers don't know how to teach basic skills without narrowing curriculum. But I fail to see how any student could be termed "capable" if they don't learn these skills.

Students often fare well on standardized tests when their teachers know their subject and show a passion for it. More importantly, their students appreciate that education's worth can't be quantified.

That last statement is true only in the sense that "Money can't buy happiness" is. We all know that a great education can't be wholly captured by a test, and high test scores do not by definition mean a great education. But just as money can buy everything except happiness (and make misery a whole lot more tolerable), the better the test scores, the better off the students are.

High test scores may not mean everything's going all right, but low test scores always mean that something has gone wrong. And there's not a student on earth who has ever been "hindered" by their high test scores.

Start earlier - or study it more slowly?

At some California schools, Algebra I will now be a two-year process:

Atascadero schools have started a two-year introductory algebra course in hopes of ensuring that all students will meet state requirements and increasing proficiency levels...Atascadero Unified will offer the mathematics course with lessons spread out over two years while still keeping the traditional one-year offering.

State guidelines recommend that students take Algebra I in the eighth grade, though many students enroll later.

The problem with enrolling later is that those who take it later tend to do worse - although that's not proof that taking it earlier will increase comprehension:

Results of Algebra I testing from the California Standards Test showed 94 percent of Atascadero eighth-graders -- 177 students -- scored at the basic level or above, but in higher grades the results weren't as good.

Of 151 ninth-graders who were tested on their Algebra I skills, 36 percent were below the basic level. Of 77 tenth-graders, 56 percent scored below basic, according to the California Standardized Testing and Reporting Web site.

Are two-year classes the answer? I suppose they might be - but I have the feeling most of what will be taught in them is not Algebra, but all the pre-Algebra concepts that the more disadvantaged kids never mastered. Otherwise, I don't see how it's possible to spread introductory Algebra out for two years.

Is August better for vacation - or school?

As some schools are starting earlier and earlier, allegedly to get ready for standardized tests, frustrated parents are writing letters to urge their state governments to set the school start dates later - and make them consistent across schools:

...some Georgia politicians say they've heard from enough frustrated parents to consider stepping in and passing a law that would push back the first day of school and making it the same day for all schools across the state.

"I just don't see any advantage. I have not seen anything - in studies or the results of testing - that shows this is the better way," said Barb Twist, an Athens mother whose 11-year-old daughter has been back in class for weeks.

If early starts don't help with test scores, they may be an unnecessary expense - and it is expensive in the Deep South to keep a public building open in the heat of August. On the other hand, the schools let out in May instead of June, which is more in line with the college schedules. Be interesting to see how much support this gets.

Getting out of the rat race

As someone who used to videotape rats as part of a psychology project, and who admires the self-employed, I found this cartoon particularly amusing (and apt):

Number 2: The Perfect Pencil

No real reason to post this; it's just not every day that the Number 2 Pencil makes the news:

The No. 2 pencil is ideal for computer-graded tests because it contains the perfect combination of lead darkness and hardness and is reflective enough to be picked up by a scanner, said Tim Loomer from Scantron Corp. The No. 2 is in between the No. 1 and the No. 3 in darkness and level of shine, making it the pencil of choice.

"If you did a mark with a 1, 2 and 3 pencil, each one will get progressively darker; as you go from 1 to 3, each one will get progressively shinier; and each one will get progressively softer," Loomer said. "The number 2 is the ideal blend for the technology that optical mark readers use, because it's got the perfect amount of reflective quality from the graphite and it is also really easy to erase."

Must have been a SLOW news day at the Associated Press...but I think I've got my new tagline. "Number 2 Pencil - the ideal amount of reflective quality!"

When effort isn't enough

Before I head off, I have to link to this one article about Benedict College in Columbia, SC (sent by Devoted Reader Greg M.), because (a) it's in my hometown, and (b) it's absolutely appalling:

Benedict College has fired two professors who refused to go along with a policy that says freshmen are awarded 60 percent of their grades based on effort and the rest on their work's academic quality.

Students "have to get an A in effort to guarantee that if they fail the subject matter, they can get the minimum passing grade," Swinton said. "I don't think that's a bad thing."

There are so many things wrong with this, I don't know where to start. How are professors supposed to accurately measure "effort"? How can a professor defend his or her measurement of effort if the student challenges it, given that the student's perception of effort might be vastly different from the professors?

And then there's the most important question of all, which gets to the heart of Benedict's supposed reasons for doing this. Why should we expect a struggling freshman to do better later on in their college career if it takes everything they've got to make a barely passing grade? It's not that effort doesn't matter in college. But ineffective effort doesn't get a student anywhere, and that's what Benedict wants to reward here. Putting in a lot of effort to little avail doesn't move a student along any more than putting in no effort. Put simply, Benedict wants to reward freshmen who work and work and work and still don't master the material.

Why should those students be passed? Why does Benedict think those students will succeed later on? Are there any studies showing that students who work very hard yet fail classes early on do better in their sophomore and junior years, and thus deserve that extra boost? Nothing is cited in this article.

And, of course, there's the part about professors who insisted on higher standards being dismissed:

Science professors Milwood Motley and Larry Williams defied that policy and Swinton dismissed them. Neither had tenure, which could have protected them from firing.

"There comes a time when you have to say this is wrong," he said.

Especially if you're a freakin' SCIENCE professor. My God, I can't believe Motley was even going along with the plan grudgingly. It would have been torture, for any science professor, to be forced to reward students who DO NOT GET THE RIGHT ANSWER, yet make a lot of "effort." That is not how science works. That is not how the real world works. This is not how Benedict College, which is not educating children but young men and women, should work.

Benedict College is an open-admissions, historically black college that was founded in 1870 in order to educate freed slaves. The school sees itself as a "haven" for students who have to overcome a lot of things just to make it to that level, and for that, I admire Benedict. But a college that tries so hard to be a "safe place" that it rewards students less for actual achievement will end up doing a grave disservice to all its students.

College follies roundup

Well, I'll be out of the office tomorrow (Ozzfest! Woo!) and busy on Friday, so let me leave you with a few golden oldies just in case I don't get a chance to blog again until the weekend. Here are a few of my favorite past posts that, in honor of the back-to-school season, represent my favorite provocative or amusing stories that involve college students (NB: no guarantees on link status).

College students falling out of bed in Buffalo (9/24/2003) - be sure to read ALL the comments, which are hilarious.

Bondage in Iowa, of all places (11/6/2003)

An impassioned plea for the First Amendment on campus (11/11/2002)

Harvard and the Nine-Foot-Tall Penis! (2/24/2003)

Where have all the men gone? (5/5/2003)

When students come together to graduate separately (5/19/2003)

and finally,

Big Bird does a great job! (4/26/2004) - read the comments to get the full story.

Also note that posts from before May of 2003, which I switched to MT, do not have comments, but feel free to add 'em now!

Who's in charge?

From the SacBee comes this fascinating tale of the frightening squabbles between California's State Board of Education and Bonnie Reiss, the senior adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:

The disaffected board members have told friends that Reiss, an entertainment lawyer with Kennedy family connections, knows little about education - or about government - and because she has too much on her plate, she doesn't have time to learn. (The governor's education secretary, ex-Mayor Richard Riordan of Los Angeles, another novice on state education policy, is often out of the loop altogether.)

By itself it's no big deal. But because it opens a loophole in the state's curricular standards and, in the board's view, could easily be the start both of watered-down standards and of curricular resegregation of minority students, it's something that encroaches on its authority and that it very much opposes.

Also on the table is a bill that would place the authority for deciding curriculum standards in the hands of the elected state superintendent of public instruction, instead of the board - and subject to the lobbying of the teachers' unions.

Board members are meeting with the Governator today. This story ought to be interesting.

The UK: Where the men are men and the sheep have long memories

And here I thought that, as a psychometrician, I was doing real, necessary, important, meaningful research.

Who was I kidding? Here's where it's really at:

Lonely sheep, like lonely people, are much happier when they see pictures of friends and family, according to a study published yesterday. A group at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge has found that the sight of a friendly face reduces stress in sheep.

Prof Kendrick has found that sheep, while apparently ruminating mindlessly, could be dwelling on long-absent flock mates, mothers or even shepherds.

Oh, man. The dirty jokes just write themselves.

When A's become unhealthy

Parents in Palm Beach are facing a difficult decision - do they want their kids dumb and thin, or smart and fat?

In the midst of a healthier school-food movement and childhood obesity epidemic, Krispy Kreme is rewarding students with a doughnut for every A on their report cards — up to a half-dozen per grading period. Critics believe the doughnut company's giveaway is full of nutritional holes...

Cathy Probst of The Acreage has campaigned against using sweets as rewards and using sales of junk food to raise money..."I certainly would not want to see posters in classrooms with doughnuts on them as a reminder every day, day in and day out." she said. "When you do well and you reward yourself with food, that is something that will continue to promote obesity."

Then again, parents don't really have a difficult decision. All they need to do is encourage their kids to work hard, and not drive them to Krispy Kreme when the report cards come in.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Sharkblog tells us about his evil genius toddler:

My son is a genius. You probably already knew that, but here is the latest proof.

My son is also a threat to our nation's automobiles. The other day when he was behind the wheel of the Subaru, he shoved his little plastic bubble wand all the way into the slot of the in-dash CD player. Now the CD player is useless.We're afraid to put any CDs in there lest they jam up or start sounding like Lawrence Welk. But there are serious consequences for toddlers who commit such dastardly deeds. He's not getting the keys to the BMW until he makes me whole for the Subaru.

Moving forward by stepping back

Hopeful news for some seriously struggling Kansas schools:

To help frustrated children...learn to read, the district is embarking on a new reading initiative in the 15 elementary schools with the lowest reading scores. The new program will begin Monday, when classes resume in the district.

“For some kids, this is going to make a dynamic difference,” said Kacy Parker, a school district administrator.

Emphasis mine. So what's this revolutionary new method that's going to make such a dynamic difference? Well, it's....phonics. You know, the straightforward and effective language education method that was used in schools until the "progressives" came up with the "whole-language" program, which some say contributes to the recent rise in reading disabilities?

Apparently, the way to be truly progressive these days is to be...old-fashioned.

Update: Check my comments for a dissenting view, with lots of links, from Liz.

A minute on the lips, forever on the mind?

Given the wide variety of increasingly-dangerous hot sauces that are available these days, I say any parent who wants to try this had best be careful. And for the record, has anyone ever heard of this? I sure hadn't.

The practice of "hot saucing" a child's tongue as a method of discipline may seem cruel to some parents, but those who regularly use the punishment say it teaches their charges valuable and long-lasting lessons.

Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair on the popular 1980s TV series Facts of Life, is an advocate and practitioner of "hot saucing." Whelchel, the author of Creative Correction: Extraordinary Ideas for Everyday Discipline, says the practice worked for her children when other disciplinary actions did not.

"There's no room for pain and humiliation and fear in disciplining healthy children," Kendrick said. "I think it's a rather barbaric practice to say the least."

I can't decide what's weirder about this - the idea that there is no room for any kind of humiliation in child-rearing (embarassment is a useful learning tool for kids and adults), or the fact that this is how Blair from The Facts of Life is getting press again. And don't some kids like spicy foods? I suppose it's unlikely that hot sauce could become positive reinforcement instead of punishment, but with kids, you never know.

And the part about Virginia considering this "an actionable offense" is just ludicrous. Does this mean if an adult leaves a spicy taco lying around so that a kid can eat it and burn his lips, the adult is guilty of criminal negligence? Ridiculous.

Dave Barry wins the gold in Olympic humor

I'm not spending a whole lot of time watching the Olympics (I'm still cursing myself for turning off the TV before I saw Paul Hamm make his comeback, but I had a 6:30 flight the next morning), but I am reading Dave Barry's Olympics columns. And they are good.

On the taxi drivers of Greece:

It's not just that the taxi drivers are aggressive. It's also the Greek Motor Vehicle Code, which, as far as I can tell, consists of a single law: No Stopping. The motorists here do not stop for anything, including other vehicles, stop signs, red lights, pedestrians, buildings and the Acropolis. If you're driving here, and you see something in your path, your sole responsibility, as a Greek motorist, is to honk your horn at it. After that, whatever happens is not your fault; if the Acropolis, having been duly warned, fails to move, that is tough tipiyokti for the Acropolis...

Once you're in the taxi, the real excitement begins. The driver, in addition to honking, is usually very busy talking on the radio and the cell phone, smoking, writing things down, yelling and gesturing at other motorists. I was in one taxi where the driver got off an expressway at the wrong exit, so he reversed and drove the taxi, at perhaps 40 mph, down the ramp backward onto the expressway. Seeing my facial expression (EEEEEEEEEEEEEE), he gave me a big smile, as if to say: "Can you even BELIEVE we are doing this?''

On women's weightlifting:

The weightlifting competition I saw was the women's 63 kg class. I'm not sure whether this means the actual women weighed 63 kg or the weights they lifted weighed 63 kg. Or possibly the temperature in the weightlifting hall was 63 kg. There's no way to know for sure without finding out what a ''kg'' is, and my belief, as an American, is that if I have to start understanding the metric system, then the terrorists have won.

On the US Basketball Team:

But before you get too cynical about the Olympics, let me stress that not all the athletes are taking performance-enhancing drugs. Some of them appear to be taking performance-reducing drugs. I refer here to the U.S. All-Star Billionaire Men's Basketball Team...

Listen: If we let Lithuania beat us in basketball, it's only a matter of time before France does. And if that happens, we basically have no choice but to use nuclear missiles.

Brown-nosers and workaholics welcome!

We keep reading about college presidents and professors who claim their students don't have adequate writing skills and aren't going to do well because of this. It's amusing, then, to read this article in OpinionJournal about one school you might have heard of - Harvard - that definitely isn't selecting the best writers. And maybe that's a good thing.

Part of the ordeal of a meritocracy is constantly having to prove yourself worthy, especially to gatekeepers who stand ready to exclude you from the Next Big Step Up...only a very few will get in. What is the secret of their admissions success?

And yet, the system works. HBS probably did the right thing to admit the guy who wrote that essay and most of the others in the book. The business school isn't looking for stylish and amusing writers; it is looking for good businessmen.

And, perhaps, for those who show an eagerness to kiss up to the boss:

The fine art of sucking up is taken to new heights by one candidate's blatant rephrasing of points from the business school's Web site. She looks forward to studying "multinational businesses in an academic environment with a world-class faculty and state-of-the-art facilities." Now there is an original thinker...

If you are applying to Harvard Business School, then, forget showing your application to your English-major roommate and certainly don't blow 50 bucks an hour on a professional editor. Just be yourself, gambling mother and all.

Does AFT stand for "Alternatively, for testing"?

In regards to the AFT/Charter school brouhaha of last week, I can't believe I failed to pick up on a very salient point that the Education Intelligence Agency noticed right away:

AFT’s single-minded effort to rid us of charter schools also serves to effectively undermine every argument teachers’ union have made – and are still making – for the poor performance of regular public schools. Here are just a few that immediately spring to mind:

* Judging schools by a single standardized test score is now OK. How often have we heard complaints about politicians, reporters, parents and the public misjudging the performance of public schools on the basis of results released from a single standardized test? It is one of the main talking points in NEA’s campaign against the No Child Left Behind Act, and a 2002 AFT resolution specifically condemns the misuse of standardized test scores in such a way. In the last week, AFT has repeatedly referred to NAEP as the “gold standard” of standardized tests. Very well, now we can apply the gold standard to everyone.

I can't believe I missed this, because it's one of my pet peeves. Even the most vocal of testing critics will leap with both feet on a test score if is supports their point of view, which is hypocritical, to say the least. I hope the AFT realizes that they have in fact given their stamp of approval to judging the US public education system by NAEP scores.

Harnessing the power of the web

From Carnegie Mellon comes this advancement in education:

Carnegie Mellon has developed a Web-based computer tutoring system to help middle-school students prepare for standardized mathematics tests like those required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The "Assistment" system aims to solve a dilemma for teachers: how to prepare students for tests without sacrificing quality instruction time. The system is designed to quickly predict a student's score on a standardized test, provide feedback to teachers about how they can adapt their lessons to address students' problems and provide individualized tutoring to suit each student's needs. The system is being tested in Massachusetts with a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, but it can be easily adapted for use in other states. In developing Assistment, researchers have drawn upon the proven success of Carnegie Mellon's popular Cognitive Tutor®, a comprehensive secondary mathematics curricula and computer-based tutoring program that is in use in 1,500 schools nationwide. Contact: Jonathan Potts at 412-268-6094 or Anne Watzman at 412-268-3830.

I found more info at the Pittsburgh Advanced Cognitive Tutor site. Sounds interesting.

A Catholic school that isn't catholic in the least

FrontPageMagazine has an editorial from someone who recently escaped a horrific Catholic school. No, it wasn't horrific because nuns were roaming the halls swatting kids with rulers; it was horrific because left-wing groupthink was expected - and enforced:

The following are some instances of liberal indoctrination that I experienced at my Catholic high school...

On the first anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, a teacher gave us a rather lengthy handout that argued that whether a culture is “civilized” is relative. The handout was full of statements such as “a terrorist loves his truth just as much as I love mine,” and “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Our teacher went on to say that America imposing its view of what it is to “be civilized” on the Afghan people is bigoted. It would be disgusting to initiate such a discussion on the anniversary of 9/11, even if my school wasn’t located 15 miles from Ground Zero. Many students in our school, including myself, lost family members the day of the attacks. Regardless of one student’s crying in class, the teacher continued to be downright nasty when some of the other students expressed their outrage.

Students at my school endured multi-annual presentations, videos, and lectures on the "forgiveness of world debt." All of the videos attributed footage of Africans living in squalor to the United States’ “selfishness” in not forgiving debts of developing countries. Forgiveness of world debt is a rather complex economic concept, but the general conservative stance regarding debt forgiveness is that doing so would result in little or no improvement of third world living standards. At the end of my Senior year, in a totally unrelated project, I decided to survey the political knowledge of some of the teachers at my school. The teacher who was the biggest proponent of forgiveness of world debt could not even name the governor of our state...

That's so outrageous that I hope this young woman is exaggerating the matter. I fear that she isn't. Her last name is unusual (Inauen) and via Google I found her listed on the debate team at the Catholic University of America, which is presumably where she's now an undergraduate. I hope her undergraduate career offers more freedom than her high school years did.

An F is an F by any other color

Just when I think the cult of self-esteem can't advance any further in our educational system, they prove me wrong:

When it comes to correcting papers and grading tests, purple is emerging as the new red.

That's the cue pen makers and office supply superstores say they have gotten from teachers as the $15 billion back-to-school retail season kicks off. They say focus groups and conversations with teachers have led them to conclude that a growing number of the nation's educators are switching to purple, a color they perceive as "friendlier" than red.

Come ON people! If your students are flunking, do you really think it matters - to them, to their parents, to their lives - what color you use on their papers? My dissertation advisor used nothing but green ink in his pens and at times my dissertation drafts looked like leprechauns had bled to death on them. Do you think I felt better about having to change every word, twice, just because I got the message in green rather than red?

Here's a hint, teachers - if your students' papers are swimming in a sea of red ink, you have many more important things to worry about than the colors of your pens. Trust me on this.

A mix of red and blue, the color purple embodies red's sense of authority but also blue's association with serenity, making it a less negative and more constructive color for correcting student papers, color psychologists said. Purple calls attention to itself without being too aggressive. And because the color is linked to creativity and royalty, it is also more encouraging to students.

"The concept of purple as a replacement for red is a pretty good idea," said Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute in Carlstadt, N.J., and author of five books on color. "You soften the blow of red. Red is a bit over-the-top in its aggression."

This is why I don't drink while blogging - I'd spit my mead all over my keyboard laughing. It's nice to know that a deep purple pen can make it all better for a student who received a D-minus. Yes indeedy. And now the teacher can feel better about herself, too, because she's not being "over-the-top" in her "aggression", which is what touchy-feely types define as "grading objectively" these days.

"I do not use red," said Robin Slipakoff, who teaches second and third grades at Mirror Lake Elementary School in Plantation, Fla. "Red has a negative connotation, and we want to promote self-confidence. I like purple. I use purple a lot."

Hanley said a growing contingent of her colleagues is using purple. They prefer it to green and yellow because it provides more contrast to the black or blue ink students are asked to write in. And they prefer it to orange, which they think is too similar to red.

Are these the same teachers who are complaining that the testing requirements leave them no time to teach? I can help them save a few hours right here - just use whatever pen is cheapest and mark the darn papers.

But aside from avoiding red, Hanley said she is not sure color matters much. At times, she uses sticky notes rather than writing on a child's paper. What's important, she said, is to focus on how an assignment can be improved rather than on what is wrong with it, she said.

Isn't it sad when the argument that teachers should be wary of pointing out what is wrong with papers is the most sensible thing in an article? No, I take that back, the article actually winds up with a quote from a model of common sense, although we're probably suppose to conclude that she's hopelessly old-fashioned:

Red has other defenders. California high-school teacher Carol Jago, who has been working with students for more than 30 years, said she has no plans to stop using red. She said her students do not seem psychologically scarred by how she wields her pen. And if her students are mixing up "their," "there," and "they're," she wants to shock them into fixing the mistake.

"We need to be honest and forthright with students," Jago said. "Red is honest, direct, and to the point. I'm sending the message, 'I care about you enough to care how you present yourself to the outside world.' "

Note to the Boston Globe - Ms. Jago, and others like her, are not defending the color red. They are defending the right to ignore these silly issues and the cult of self-esteem, and focus instead on teaching their students.

Update: More from Joanne Jacobs, from Tiffany, and from Snooze Button Dreams. Best Quote award goes to Tiffany:

In my opinion, the fear associated with getting an essay back that's been marked up with red ink is the best conditioning a student can get. They'll want to improve to prevent errors and the emotion associated with failure.

What the hell is purple going to connote? "Oh, Jilly, I love you very much, but could you please not use so many comma splices, thank you!"?

Unhappy students, worried legislators

From Devoted Reader Dave H. (his page seems to be down) comes this report of young Delawarians who are unhappy with the proposed tiered diploma system (covered before on N2P, here). If anyone can explain to me why the newspaper chose the graphic they did for this article, please let me know.

Grant Russell, a 16-year-old A.I. du Pont High School junior, is sure he will get a distinguished diploma when he graduates in the spring of 2006, if the three-tiered diploma becomes law.

"Those tests" are the three high-stakes tests 10th-graders must take: math, reading and writing. The rating on the diploma, descending from distinguished to standard to basic, depends on the scores in each of those subjects, weighted in a formula devised by the state Department of Education.

As I argued before, I haven't seen much validity evidence for the tests that Delaware is using for the diplomas. And it's interesting that it's the smart kids who are protesting this. This suggests that, unlike the exit exam situations in which it's the kids who are doing poorly overall who complain, we're seeing kids who are doing quite well who are unhappy with this system:

Russell and some of his friends were part of this year's Delaware Governor's School for Excellence, a one-week program that provides academically outstanding high school juniors intensive instruction. During one of the seminars, conducted by state treasurer Jack Markell, Russell asked about the economics of state testing and the diploma.

"I'm the one who said it was asinine," said Villarreal, of Newark.

It's hard to find fault with kids who know their Roget's so well.

Some students said they don't mind a rated diploma if it is based on more than high-stakes tests taken so early in their high school careers.

Besides, he learned a lot during his junior year, and expects to learn a lot more this year. "There's a lot of knowledge I'll have from my last two years," he said.

I can understand why students believe it should be based on GPA (although that allows for a lot more grade inflation). It sounds like there's a great deal of concern as to whether the test really matches the curriculum, and whether it's really meaningful for this purpose. Given that, it sounds like Delaware's Legislature should stick with the one-tiered (no-tiered, really) system.

Talking out of both sides of his mouth

This description of two candidates for a Washington state Senate race sums up in a nutshell why I'll never vote Democrat:

The high-profile contest to represent the 49th District in the state Senate continues Tuesday with the second of three debates between Republican incumbent Don Carlson and Democratic challenger Craig Pridemore...

Pridemore has said the standardized test enforces conformity on children, instead of letting their own strengths flourish. Carlson said the test sets a standard that makes a high school diploma signify more than simply attending school for 12 years.

Oh, my, isn't it terrible how we force kids to conform to the English language and learn all those rules of mathematics? Why, we should just allow their own illiterate and innumerate "strengths" to flourish, because we all know if a skill is measurable by a test, it must be bad.

The candidates also differ on charter-school legislation passed this year. Pridemore supports a referendum that would repeal the bill, which would authorize a limited number of publicly funded schools operated by nonprofit organizations. The charter schools will fragment society, Pridemore argues. Carlson voted for the legislation, calling it a worthwhile experiment.

Wait, I thought Pridemore wanted our kids to be boldly nonconformist, to go their own way on their own strengths. But now that Washington state has the option to create new schools for every kind of kid, he's worried about "fragmentation" of society.

"Nonfragmentation without conformity!" - is that his battle cry? You tell me.

No more pencils, no more books - oh, wait, school just started again

Virginia schools are cutting the summer vacations short, and that's not because of snow days:

Not so long ago, school districts throughout the country waited until after Labor Day to summon their charges back to class. Not anymore. With standardized test scores increasingly determining a school's success or failure, more districts are starting classes earlier in the summer to give students additional time in the classroom before state exams.

Simone had a different take on it. "It's kind of bad because all my other friends who don't go to my school don't have to go to school for two weeks," she said.

Don't mess with us Testocrats

Devoted Reader Dr. Michael S. (I actually have two of them, so you'll have to guess which one I mean) sends along this masterpiece of anti-testing hyperbole (free sub required):

They're trying to reform the SAT again, which is like trying to turn a pit bull into a toy poodle. What they ought to do is euthanize this mutt.

This time they've added a writing section to the Scholastic Aptitude Test. That's because educators have been saying that writing is critical for success in college. Actually, university professors have been saying this for centuries. You have to wonder why the College Board, which administers the test, has only now caught on...

I guess I should give this guy (one Joe Rodriguez) credit for being original. While everyone else is having hissy fits over the fact that the SAT is changing and adding a writing component, he's kvetching about the fact that there wasn't one all along.

The highest possible SAT score is 1600. I can't remember my exact score, because I don't want to, but it was under 900.

On second thought, I don't think a writing test would have jacked up my score all that much. And it won't make much difference today for students in schools like mine. They don't have as many advanced placement classes or experienced teachers. Nor do they have affluent parents who can pay for expensive SAT preparation courses, as they do at privileged schools. Poor schools that can't teach reading and mathematics aren't going to teach writing any better.

And does Joe use this claim as the basis for supporting school reform? Better SAT preparation at poor schools? More focus on the core skills of readin', writin', and arithmetic?

No. He just brings in the old eugenics argument (which I've addressed before), because he's one of those guys who believes we don't need the achievement gap to disappear, we just need the test to disappear.

Instead of tinkering with the SAT, we should kill it.

A major flaw of today's SAT is that it's vulnerable to coaching and short-term improvements. How can you trust a test that, for the $800 price of a quickie prep course, can produce a gain of 100 points?

How can you trust a columnist who takes the outrageous claims of test prep companies at face value, despite a total lack of independent evidence that score gains this high are routine? But don't worry, Joe, bigger fish than you have been suckered by this worm.

A test isn't much good if it can't predict something, and the SAT hasn't been proven to be a reliable predictor of college success.

A few years ago, plucky little Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania measured the first-semester grades of freshman with SAT scores of about 1000 against freshmen with 1200 scores or better. The results were virtually identical.

Ooh, bonus points for finding the one tiny piece of data (could you find Muhlenberg on a map? and what makes it "plucky"?) that appears to support his arguments, but which can easily be dismantled with the concept of restriction of range, which every first-year stats student learns.

But the absolute, worst assumption of the SAT is that any young person's potential can be reduced to a number. It assumes that, after four years of college, a 900-point student from a poor school cannot catch up to or surpass the 1400-point student from a wealthy school.

No, it doesn't reduce a person to a number, and it doesn't say that person cannot catch up. But college resources are finite. College resources are best spent on those who have the most potential to use them. If that weren't the case, all colleges would have open admission, and the value of a college degree would subsequently plummet (further than it has already). I mean, in a day and age when a decent school has the gall to brag about admitting students with 900 scores on the SAT, this characterization of low scorers as innocent victims whose lives are totally ruined by that one score is ridiculous. Students with scores that low won't get into the Ivy League, but they will get into their local community college, and maybe UGA as well.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sure glad my boss didn't ask for my SAT score when I applied. Come to think of it, none of my employers have ever asked.

Maybe that's because it's only supposed to predict first-year college grades. How you then do in college is what your employers care about.

Some years ago, former University of California President Richard Atkinson called for dumping the SAT. He wanted to replace it with tests that try to measure achievement in specific subjects, rather than overall aptitude. The testocrats shot him down, but it's still a good idea and much better than a one-size-fits-all test that doesn't live up to its promise.

So, you're in favor of tests that, while they may be more predictive in some cases, also may continue to show a score gap and may be just as susceptible to coaching - as long as they're more specialized? Just checking.

And - "testocrats." I love it. My favorite Disney movie as a kid was The Aristocats, so I need some words here to go to those melodies. I suck at that sort of thing, so I'll leave that to my more creative Devoted Readers.

Oh, and one more thing...

..if you like handmade jewelry, my friend Jenn has finally got a store up on eBay. It's Freya's Fire, and I can personally vouch for the quality of her jewelry and the care that goes into making every piece. She recently made me a great black crystal necklace with this little guy hanging upside-down at the bottom of it. If you buy anything, tell her I sent you!

The truth about exit exams

Here's a devastating indictment of the nation's high school exit exams, as featured in Newsday. I don't think anything in this report, though, will be surprising to some of my more involved Devoted Readers:

From Newsday:

Many high school graduation tests don't measure whether students are ready for college or work, and some states haven't even made clear what the purpose of their test is, a study finds. Of the 25 states that have or plan graduation exams, only one, Georgia, says its test ensures students are prepared for higher education or work. Most of the states gear their tests toward 10th or 11th grade learning, and some gauge pre-9th grade skills, according to a study released Wednesday by the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit research group.

The center takes no position on the tests, aiming instead to highlight what's working and what's not as state leaders weigh decisions. For its annual report, the center collected data from the states, reviewed research and convened a national panel on the tests' impacts.

I think Newsday's analysis is pertinent, although I disagree with their claim that the debates about exit exams are "quieting somewhat." As they note in the article, the total number of students who failed to earn diplomas because of test scores is hard to track in part because of the number of appeals (and the number of lawsuits, too.)

What's more, we're seeing more and more accommodations, such as those in Alaska that ultimately don't require a student to be able to read before being granted a diploma. Anyone who thinks that allowing students to have test questions read to them, or who are allowed use of a dictionary during an English, is a simple accommodation that doesn't change the nature of what's being tested is fooling themselves. The exit exams are easy enough to begin with, and these accommodations make it possible for virtually anyone to pass.

The report itself is a treasure trove of information, and it's well worth your time. One conclusion startled me:

While several states report conducting studies of the alignment of their exit exams to their standards, fewer report doing studies of the alignment of curriculum and instruction to their exit exam, and almost none report conducting studies on the impacts of their exit exam systems. We recommend that states undertake or encourage others to do studies of alignment between exit exams and curriculum and instruction and studies of the effects of their own exams.

Emphases mine. If schools are doing nothing to ensure that kids are taught what they'll be tested on, and whether the exit exams are holding back only those who truly need more time, no wonder the students and teachers don't like them. Memo to administators: This isn't a touchy-feely project in which you can convince us that there's nothing to measure. The studies are there waiting to be done, and if a diploma hinges on the results, you need to do them. Get over your anti-science bias and collect some data so you can validate the exams.

Everybody's at fault

I feel sorry for this grandmother, but I also think she's fooling herself about the "goodness" of her kid:

Two boys in his 4th grade class kept "messing" with him, the boy said, so when his older brother gave him a stolen 9 mm pellet gun, he stuffed it into a book bag and took it to his Sauk Village elementary school. "They kept saying they wanted to fight me," the 9-year-old said as he sat on his grandmother's couch in a red basketball jersey and black sneakers. "I told the teacher three times, and she didn't do anything."

He is a "good kid," Howard said. "The most trouble he caused--when you asked him to do something, it would take him all day."

Well, he managed to put that gun in his backpack pretty darn quickly, didn't he? I mean, the grandmother should be mad that the teachers didn't do anything, but the kid brought a gun to school - given to him by his older brother, no less - for the purpose of intimidating (at the very least) another kid. Does the grandmother really want to teach the kid that he is the innocent victim in this situation?

I do believe the kid is in some way the victim here, but mainly of his grandmother, who doesn't seem to be worried that he is getting guns from older siblings and is already, at age 9, looking at a gun as a problem-solver.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Behold, the latest round-up of education, testing, and school news that will make us all roll our eyes, if not in horror, then in amusement:

Brits spend more dough on beer than books. My guess is that's not the case here only because college towns tend to serve up lots of low-end beer at very cheap prices (a prize to the first person who can tell me what a "Blue Cup" is!)

If you're planning on moving from the US to the UK and becoming a citizen, best to watch a lot of Eastenders before you go.

Won't you sleep better at night knowing teachers can be "enriched" so easily?

We couldn't make it up. Here's the Los Angeles Times on professional development courses that some California teachers are taking to renew their certification and earn higher salaries: "Sara Telona learned the choreography for Mexican folklore dances, mastered the words to folk songs and took a crash course in marimba and xylophone playing. . . . To complete the course 'Sharks: Myth and Facts,' the teachers must watch a National Geographic video about the great white shark and read three books. Then, they answer several fill-in-the-blank sheets and write an essay on how their lives would be affected if sharks became extinct. . . . [The] 'I'm So Stressed I Could Scream' course taught . . . stress reduction techniques and helped with classroom management. Instead of disciplining her slightly rowdy class after lunch, [one teacher] started reading a book to calm students and herself."

It's always good when I can read the words "furore" and "airy-fairy" in an article that's critical of public schools (in New Zealand).

Finally, it's funny how the same people who oppose the "top-down" regulations of standardized tests don't seem to have a problem with refusing to let kids run and play:

Games where kids chase each other - tag or even cops and robbers - are generally banned in Natomas Unified's elementary schools. No grabbing or pushing is allowed. At Natomas Park, students can only toss and catch a football - tackling or blocking isn't permitted. But the no-contact rule applies beyond the grade-school gridiron.

"One person can be a little stronger than the other," she said as she walked away.

Yes, and recess is when kids are supposed to find this out, and the strong are supposed to learn how to play nice with smaller kids, not avoid them entirely out of any irrational fear of contact.

Cheating news roundup

Since I didn't get the chance to post Caveon Security's Cheating Roundup from the 12th, here you go. Everything from cheating Kiwis to those who insist that camera phones are better "regulated" than banned outright, because we all know kids never cheat with those things:

The cheating scenario is a stretch from the get-go. Cellphones used that way would be too conspicuous in any classroom where the teacher is paying even minimal attention. Besides, the camera function isn't a key to that kind of cheating. Current phone screens display text, and — though it would take a little more stealth — a cheater could message the questions.

Rather than outright cheating, it seems more likely that students might snap a quick photo of the FCAT tests and perhaps post the questions on the Web. I'm not sure that having a ban makes that kind of espionage less likely. In fact, I'll bet it happens soon, if for no other reason than to protest Gov. Bush's refusal to make FCAT tests from previous years public.

So, kids don't cheat with camera-phones, except when they're engaged in this honorable form of civil protest, is that it?

And here's another instance of test score cancellations due to "tampering" (love those euphemisms!):

Eighth-graders who recently graduated from Sunset Ridge School won't be able to compare their math skills to other Illinois students when the state reports standardized test scores this fall. After investigating an incident of test tampering at the Northfield school in April, the Illinois State Board of Education has said it will withhold the tainted math portion of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test for the 80 students believed to have been affected...