Amid the current consternation over union contracts and the state of American schools, it’s nice to see good news in the realm of public education. And in Massachusetts, the most recent MCAS scores should bring cheer to both educators and parents. Released this week, the test results show that 88 percent of Massachusetts high school sophomores are proficient in English, a figure that bodes well for graduation rates and future employment. Over the past five years, the percentage of proficiency scores has risen in math and science, as well. Also heartening is the fact that the achievement gap, between suburban white students and minority students, appears to be shrinking — and that minority students’ test scores are rising as they progress through school.
State officials attribute the gains to hard-fought education reform: Schools are now better able to identify the areas where students need the most help, they say, and to deploy resources more effectively. This was certainly the promise of the law. In some corners, MCAS is reviled as a one-size-fits-all benchmark that requires rote memorization and discourages creativity. But in an ideal world, an assessment test is just that: a way to measure challenges as well as progress, a tool that schools and teachers can use to find the kids who are falling behind, and help them succeed, instead.
Comments
The 3rd grade reading score is not difficult to understand. For years the the pedagogy of early education was Grades 1-3 learn to read. Grades 4 and onward read to learn. Students are expected to come into school at grade k with established literacy skills. We need to get back to basics on teaching the fundamentals. A strong foundation is needed to build a skyscraper.
Grades 1-3 learn to read? (Slaps forehead!) Why didn't we teachers think of that??!!? Teachers have NOT abandoned fundamentals. If students, as you say, need to start kindergarten with literacy skills, it is up to parents and communities to see that they do. The foundation comes from the home.
The public has no idea how much real learning has been sacrificed in the interests of testing..testing..testing. Spontaneity, teachable moments and critical thinking are nearly gone public education. So is civic education, and along with it, civility in our political discourse.
Hey, Boston Globe writers, would it kill you to say--just once--good job teachers? You even had to start this off with a negative comment about unions. C'mon--enough already. Will teachers ever be good enough?
Does the Globe think that before MCAS, teachers had no idea which kids were falling behind? Individual MCAS results are no surprise. In any school, both formal and informal assessment is going on all day, every day. It is correctly evaluated by good teachers to direct and drive classroom instruction. If MCAS has value, it is in forcing school systems to align their curriculum with federal and state standards. The fact is, we have always known which kids were failing, and where.
"MCAS scores suggest that tool is working" is an oxymoron. All that data suggests is that more schools are MCAS focused, while Music, Art, PE, Social Studies, and Science are set aside. Schools are now forced to "duke the stats" in order to keep up appearances and not get the stick. School is now not a place of student growth, but of MCAS growth. This testing fixation is ruining education, while critical thinking skills are being lost in the shuffle. If kids were to grow up to be bubble darkeners than the MCAS would be a great tool! Seems to me it's not working. What's the unemployment rate again? What's the underemployment rate again? Lastly, the real winners are publishing companies, such as Pearson, that are raking in Billions in profits as they enjoy the ride on the testing industrial complex. If you want real solutions than fire MCAS and use the savings to promote EQUITABLY funded schools.
"The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor."
The above is called Campbell's law. Of course the editors of the Globe probably know this but will not tell the public. Since standardized testing has become the be all and end all in education we have seen cheating scandal after cheating scandal...the most notorious being the one under the watch of former DC chancellor Michelle Rhee, postergirl for the education "deform" movement. We have seen the curriculum narrow in urban school system after urban school system in the hopes of "raising test scores". No longer do poor children get to take a rich curriculum filled with the fine arts, industrial arts, physical education, and even recess. As a science teacher I am now forced to teach to the test...with hours of my time consumed with how to get the students to even try answering open response questions. Meanwhile my science supplies budget has been slashed to $0.00...because after all experiments take time away from all the material I am supposed to cover.
The public is being fed a bowl of hogwash to satisfy the corporate interests. Pearson publishing makes billions of dollars off these standardized tests. Their reach making its way into the university system in Massachusetts where a popular professor of education at UMASS was fired for teaching her students about this injustice.
Praise the almighty test Boston Globe...fiddle away as the public education system burns.