On another post Anonymous wrote:
Please use this to start a new post!
WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE...
Ok,
I'm mad. No, mad doesn't quite cover it. Totally disgusted is
probably closer to the truth! In January, high school students took
CBAs--benchmark tests that serve as the final exam grades in each
course. These scores are also used, however, to determine teacher
effectiveness and are a part of the yeacher's "Value Added Measure".
There were so many issues surrounding this test administration, however,
that the Union has informed it's membership that the score will be
disregarded and not used for any teacher evaluation purposes. Bravo to
the teachers for managing to bring to the administration the issues, and
kudos to the Board for agreeing that it was such a horrid situation
that scores are invalid. What has my panties in a bunch, however, is
the fact that to date, NO ATTEMPT HAS BEEN MADE TO DISREGARD THE GRADES
FOR STUDENTS! Why are we allowing our children to be evaluated via
final exam grades when the test scores were not valid!?? My son saw a
marked decrease in his GPA due to poor final exam grades. As he is a
junior, that GPA may now hinder him in his ability to be accepted to
certain universities. It may also negatively impact his Promise
Readiness status. I am outraged that our children are being made to
suffer the sins of an inadequate and unreliable series of tests. We
need to come together and demand that if the scores were invalid enough
to be discounted in the evaluation of teachers, they should also be
thrown out as valid indicators of the achievement of our kids.
Angry and Disgusted Parent
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16 comments:
Are CBA's the tests that replaced PSSA's for grade 11? What does CBA stand for?
Curriculum benchmark assessment--it is the final exam, developed by District personnel, and administered to all students in English, math, social studies and science. The grade on this test shows up on a child's report card and counts as a percentage of the course grade for the semester.
But don't 11th grade math teachers write their own final exams? Or did that change this year? Are the exams available for review so that the community as a whole can see how benchmarks are being tested?
Also was the CBA in line with what students had been learning all semester? Ie would a student who could do the problems covered in class all semester be well equipped to handle the problems on the CBA?
Final exams are centrally created now and given to teachers the day they are to be administered. Teachers are not permitted to preview these exams and are only provided answer keys after the exams are given. The entire process is shrouded in secrecy and screams "we don't trust our teachers". The multiple choice portions of the exams are even graded at central office. The idea is that the exam covers the skills students were taught during that semester, based on the managed curriculum. The truth of the matter is that the pacing is difficult to keep consistent throughout the District, so some teachers are unable to cover everything that appears on the exam. The letter from the PFT says:
"In a February 27th District memo to teachers, the January 2013 administration of curriculum based assessments was called "a perfect storm" of problems that undermined the validity of semester ending tests."
The memo from the PFT goes on to say:
"The multitude of problems with the CBA administration meant that the results were possibly capturing more information about the CBAs troubles than they were revealing teacher effects on student learning."
Were parents or the public given any notice of this change? Any input sought? For what grades does this apply?
I have no idea if public input was considered, but I do know that centrally designed CBAs are not new. What is new is the way in which they are being administered--teachers are kept completely in the dark as to the actual questions until the day of administration. A testing coordinator is expected to disseminate the exams to teachers, then collect them at the end of each testing day. The answer keys are given to teachers on the final day of testing. Teachers are expected, in some disciplines, to copy the answer sheets and grade them, though the originals are sent to central office where they are scanned. Scores are then uploaded for teachers to access. It is the scanned score that appears in the District database. I have no idea if this is handled the same way at every grade level, but it is most certainly how high schools must do it. This most recent round of CBAs were fraught with errors, including questions which had no relevance to the readings students were given; typos; and answer keys that were just plain incorrect. Revisions were sent out AFTER students had taken some of the exams! This has to be addressed!!
I had the opposite problem in a different year- teachers designing a final much much harder than the already demanding work that had been done all semester- they did not see it as a problem that almost the entire class got below a 70
Maybe a case of good intentions and valid reasoning but rushed implementation with insufficient parent, teacher and community input? And as is so often the case no pilot before a large scale rollout?
If scores aren't valid for teachers they shouldn't be valid for students.
7:08, You hit the nail on the head. My bet is that most parents and students didn't have a clue about this. I work in a high school and didn't know until a moment ago so the information probably hasn't gone far. If my child's GPA were being impacted by a final exam that had been deemed invalid I would fight it. Parents need to get up in arms about it the way teachers and the union did about it impacting VAM. We are all really on the same page. The student's education and academic success. We need to band together and support each other. Strength in numbers!
At every level, the problem is "get imagined bad teacher" is more important than students. Yes we have had centralized testing before-- and prior to "get teachers" it was good- kids at Brashear taking same math gets same test as Perr. But if we add in- you must teach the script-and we are testing the script and not telling you what is on the test-- then we are busy "getting teacher" instead of teaching our students. We all went to school-- teacher plans to get through chapter 4-- students have a hard time with chapter 3, so teacher reviews that material to mastery-- and kidsd are tested up to chapter 3. Testing what has been taught seems pretty basic-- unless the goal of all testing is "get teacher"-
Thank you for this post. I thought my kid's science teacher was going bonkers when I asked him why my son's grade went down. He preceded to tell me that students were given the "District test", which doesn't match up with that they learn throughout the semester. How can this be? What is the purpose? I agree with most others that this is designed to "get the teacher", but they need to correct it so the students grades don't suffer. Thank you for this ammo. Now I know what to say and how to approach the administrators at my son's school.
There may be problems with the CBAs; but the CDTs are what will tell you whether kids are being taught at the appropriate levels.
Let's hear about how students are doing on the CDTs.
In some schools there are only one or two kids meeting proficiency! Why?
http://old.pps.k12.pa.us/1444201015135836173/lib/1444201015135836173/March-April_2013.pdf
The link above will take you to the Carrick Raider Report, a newsletter. Page three carries a story about the upcoming DATA REVIEW NIGHT and mentions several acronyms I have seen in purereform threads recently. It seems possible that admin in all buildings might offer the same kind of informative evening eventually, but it is a good bet you would not be turned away at Carrick if you want attend there.
Dr. Lane answered questions about the CBAs at the district parent meeting tonight.
She admitted there were "issues" with the CBAs and said that since the CBAs were tied to teacher evaluation, those issues were raised this year, which was good, because now they'll be addressed.
When it was pointed out that some children were being penalized because they were tested on material that had not been covered in their class, she said she would have to ask some questions and get back to us.
When told that a parent had been told by a teacher that the CBA would not be part of the grade, but the kids were being told it was so the students would take the CBAs seriously, she is going to research that and get back to us.
She spoke as if there were not changes in CBAs this year, that is, it was the same process as in other years.
All in all, I think it was good that these issues were brought to her attention. Hopefully we'll have a more complete answer soon.
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