On another post Anonymous wrote:
"New Post:
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/08/20/Test-scores-show-some-improvement-in-Pittsburgh-Public-Schools/stories/201408200175#ixzz3AzHUkWBk
The PSSA and Keystone Achievement Results for 2014 presented by the Superintendent at the August 20th Agenda Review reveals the following:
In both Reading and Math, PPS 2014 increased by 2 points from 2013. However, in both Reading and Math, scores have decreased by 7 points from 2011. So, in the final analysis PPS ACHIEVEMENT is DECREASING over time INSTEAD of INCREASING "
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22 comments:
On another post Anonymous wrote:
"*New Post*
The cherry picking spin doctors are at it again, how can she even show her face to share these results
Well at least she was too busy preparing her press statement to bother us at our trainings today!
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/08/20/Test-scores-show-some-improvement-in-Pittsburgh-Public-Schools/stories/201408200175
Best wishes to my fellow teachers for our new school year!"
The graphs released by the superintendent shows huge drops in achievement at Westinghouse.
At Westinghouse, ONLY 3% of students are proficient in Algebra and Biology. In Literature (Reading) ONLY 8% of students are proficient.
There was a 25 point drop in Literature!
The District ACHIEVEMENT GAP in Reading between Black and White student shows 28.8 in 2008 and 27.2 in 2014. In Math the GAP shows 26.9 in 2008 and 26.2 in 2014.
So, there is a 1.5 point average improvement over six years??? Is this significant?
11:21 - Are you really saying that more than 92% of the students at Westinghouse are NOT PROFICIENT in Reading, Math and Science?
No, it Literature, Algebra and Biology that more than 92% are NOT PROFICIENT!
HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE!
http://www.post-gazette.com/image/2014/08/20/testscoresbig-png
Today's Post Gazette shows that at Pittsburgh's High Schools, DISTRICT-WIDE, Keystone Exam scores have DROPPED from 2013 tp 2014!
PPS Keystone scores are LOWER than last year in ALL subjects tested by the state: LOWER in ALGEBRA, LOWER in LITERATURE, and LOWER in BIOLOGY!
Some PPS high schools have raised scores by a few points while others have dropped dramatically.
The FULL REPORT for TODAY. MORE will follow next month!
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/08/20/Test-scores-show-some-improvement-in-Pittsburgh-Public-Schools/stories/201408200175
(The PG article has changed three times since last evening. See the latest graphs.)
It's worth noting that at one time most PPS high school science courses had extra lab time.
For example, a math class would meet 5 periods a week, one period each school day. But a biology/chemistry/physics class would meet 7 periods a week.
The extra 2 periods allowed for serious hands-on lab work.
But over the last ten years these extra lab periods have slowly been removed from the schedule. Now, most high school sciences no longer have that valuable lab time.
I wonder how that has affected test scores.
Re: Science Labs My college '14 grad once remarked that she would have been lost without the lab experience she got in her pps high school. Thee is great value in keeping lab periods for all science and reintroducing those where they were cut. Without them out kids go to college and look second rate compared to kids from other districts. They appear to have come from somewhere were education was taken less seriously.
Just ask the principal at an elem school how much time is devoted to science k-8....that will give you a start
..then ask them what is the certification of that teacher. Just a thought...bet the "real" answer will surprise most. Science is an after thought in K8 schools.....
Also we decided lobg ago that there should be no science books...because hand- on is the way to learn science-which is true -- but if we arent reading the "language of science" how do kids score on written tests?
Right, no science books, few, if any lab classes, drastically reduced, arts, music, library, field trips, etc. Just more and more drill and kill reading and math, irrelevant to children's lives, dreams, hopes, talents, and development.
And you wonder why their minds go to other venues.
They are demonstrating the capacity to outwit you in a dozen other ways since you are hellbent on controlling their minds and activities in ways that ignore culture, context, and cognitive abilities and god-given gifts.
Why? Because someone told you that is what you had to do --- even if it defies common sense!
Ms. Wilson spoke about FOSS at the board meeting. If I follow, FOSS supplies are low in some schools. This is science, I am sure. What to do? Kids need to go home and complain to mom and dad. Mom and Dad need to complain to the principal.
Are they just doing something right at Obama, where literature and biology scores are outstanding?
Maybe, but word is they also send back to home schools a lot if kids who aren't doing very well.
Just an observer who lives near recent obama grads here in the south end of the city. they believe. the few i have spoken to with plans seem to really know what to expect their futures to be. they bought into the idea that they got a good education and worked hard it seems. they also seem more poised and aware than other kids from our community. blows the whole "success is determined by zip code" theory out of the water.
Very few, Questioner.
The reason for this is that PPS is constantly on school officials about their enrollments. Do they have meetings that warn kids and their parents? Sure.
Do they toss out underachievers? Very, very few.
You're misinformed.
I disagree, but it's not like straight information is available from Pps. But also look at kids coming from the closed career connections- which students are going to Obama and which are expected to go back to home schools like Westinghouse?
Also, Obama uses the IB curriculum It's not following the district curriculum in the same way that other schools are. It's following a plan that emphasizes reading and writing and thinking through real literature (not little chunks of it) and also they still have foreign language classes daily at middle school level as well as HS.
In other words, Obama is still using an educational plan that works, rather than what's dished out by the "reformed" parts of the ddistrict.
It sounds like today's leaders are scared to death the try "throw back year' even at one school-- what if going back to pre-2006 works? We no longer have the guts to "pilot" a program and then copy it in other schools. THAT was what charter schools across the country were to be-- public schools would implement what worked! It sounds like Obama at the middle school level is mirroring what neighboring school districts have in middle schools. You cant do "middle school learning" in a k-8.
Pretending to be a "neighborhood" parochial school" can't possibly compete with teaching reading and math through subjects intended to spark their interest. They've been drilling reading and math since kindergarten. How about some science, learning technology instead of using technology for more rote learning,etc. These kids have interests-- just like their suburban neighbors. We all learn more about things we are interested in-- and teachers teach better when they aren't drilling. Remember a time when teachers had "travel sabbaticals" because we really believed as a country that more worldly teachers inspired and enlightened students.
NEW POST??
The POST GAZETTE EDITORS got it RIGHT TODAY with DATA!
See the editorial "UnsteadY progress - City student test scores sorely need a boost"
The DATA shows that PPS achievement is declining as opposed to Friday's PG headline that announced it was inching forward.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2014/08/24/Unsteady-progress-City-student-test-scores-sorely-need-a-boost/stories/201408230033#ixzz3BLM8QC00
Based on last week's headline, though, most people in pittsburgh will think scores are slowly but steadily improving. Given schools where no one is proficient in science and few are proficient in other subjects it has to be difficult to say Excellence for All with a straight face.
About the achievement gap, we have had several years of to close it and the progress is too slow. sometimes you got to wonder if only the media and board and admin and teachers are aware of the efforts. could those caught in the gap be doing more to move the efforts along? especially in the most poorly performing schools? what do the organizations partnering w/pps say? Like HCZ.
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