Massachusetts Teachers to Face Limited Grading on Student Test Scores – 2011 MCAS Results Speak to Deficiency in Public Schools Statewide

From: The Boston Globe: “In a dramatic departure from past practice, students’ MCAS scores and other achievement data will become key barometers in evaluating the performance of their teachers and administrators, under new criteria the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved yesterday.”

In reading the article, The MCAS Scores and “other achievement data” will be used in determining a teachers overall ability; and warnings will be issued with lack of improvement, with a four warning levels, as well as the use of an “evaluator” who will factor in the teachers “pedagogical or management skills.” (Boston Globe). Those evaluators will have the ability to negate a teacher’s inability to teach, keeping them in the classroom based on management skills? No wonder the teachers unions weren’t marching in the streets, banging bongo drums!

In addition, the program will ‘phase’ in, beginning with ten districts evaluating teachers in underperforming schools, the balance of the Bay State systems have two years to institute this system.

One wonders why the Teachers Unions agreed to allow those teachers to be so judged on performance, with the caveat that management skills would override a “failing teachers” fate of “firing”. – The Globe explains completely in the last paragraph of the article:

“Our first step is to identify teachers who need additional support and ratchet up efforts to identify outstanding teachers,’’ Johnson said. “What we don’t want are students to suffer multiple years from ineffective teachers. We want them to have effective teachers every year.’’

(Boston Globe)

What this tells the casual reader or concerned parent is that a failing teacher may not be totally incompetent; rather, they may just need “additional support”. – In other words, nothing will change.

With the results of the latest MCAS assessment available at the Massachusetts Department of Education, it is evident that the board might have put more “teeth” into the teacher assessment program – in effect, firing those that did not achieve a class with at least a 70% total score, instead of allowing them to be judged on their “art of teaching” and “management skills”, getting a passing grade, while their students sink into oblivion.

The scores are based on three categories: English, Math and Science and Technology: One may download the excel sheet with scores for individual Bay State High Schools here at the Dept. of Education Website.

Taking one example: New Bedford: All students combined for the class of 2012 had a mean grade of 27% passing on the three tests combined: Females fared better than their male counterparts, with 30% passing, to 24% of males passing the test. Of course, one has to further break down the test, to be fair, as 40 of the students have limited English proficiency, 145 are described as students with disabilities, and 399 of the 795 enrolled are “white” – in other words, regardless of ethnicity, disabilities and the inability to speak English – only 27% of the 795 enrolled students passed. (Based on the data available)

The grade 10 student English Language Arts Test here in PDF Students read a selection from a book entitled Candy Freak (no Tolstoy), and multiple chose questions assessed their reading skills.

(Taken from the PDF)
The first question:
In paragraph 1, what does the repetition of the word “actual” suggest about the author?
A. He hopes to have access to alot of free candy.
B. He wants to be employed by a candy company.
C. He wants firsthand experience with the candy business.
D. He regrets the disappearance of so many candy companies.

The paragraph is available for readers here at Amazon.com

One might suggest there has been a serious decline in the expectations assigned to the English Language and our students’ ability to read and comprehend.

If one cannot, for some reason, speak English, the tests are also available in Spanish. The balance of the MCAS questions for all grades are also available at the Mass. DOE website. If one finds these tests difficult it is a good bet one was educated after 1970.

If teachers (to be fair, not all teachers), were less concerned with pleasing one of two unions, their pensions and salaries, and more concerned about the success of their students, then these grades might be a tad better.

The facts are that standardized tests have been administered for eons, in the 1950’s and 1960’s there were both IQ and Achievement Tests, which ranked students, those who passed with flying colors (and you can best the house it was more than 27% of a class) continued to learn and improve, those that did not were put into “special classes”, which allowed them to learn at their own pace.

At that time America ranked among the most educated nations in the world. In the 1970’s the first teacher union was introduced in Philadelphia, and the test scores plummeted from that point forward – over a period of 30 years, also known as the “dummying down of America”.

Fix the problem: realistic goals for both students and teachers, with an emphasis on aiding the teachers by giving them the respect due, with consequences for those students and their parents who would prefer to disrupt the process and sue the municipality in question, allowing their children to run rampant. It is, to be fear, difficult to teach if one is surrounded by students who have neither respect for the teacher, and the teacher has no recourse as far as discipline is concerned. Perhaps, just perhaps, parents who support inappropriate and disruptive behavior should be sued by the school, student suspended, and a list of nice private schools given to them on their way out the door.

In other words, roll back the process to the 1950’s. When teachers were respected, disruptive students were sent home, or Juvenile dentition (another sadly missed aspect of that time), and the balance of the students excelled. Parents who’s student was sent home, soundly dealt with them, rather than suing the Town or Municipality. This may sound nostalgic, however, it is common sense, with some slight modifications, (updated texts and tests for example), would better serve our children and generations to come, rather than the system that states employ today.