Three Things My Students' Test Scores Won't Tell You

Every day there appears a new idea for making teachers accountable for student achievement. Yesterday I noticed a pip of an idea in a twitter post: Phys. Ed. teachers should be evaluated based on their students' fitness level.  This preposterous idea, that the fitness level of a student who has maybe 40 minutes contact time with the physical education teacher, should be the basis for that teacher's effectiveness is exactly what discourages me. Isn't there an "outside" influence on such success? Of course there is -- the home, the importance a parent places on physical activity  follow-through, not to mention nutrition choices!And then I began thinking about how our own state testing is going to impact how I am perceived. Here are three things that you won't see from picking apart my students' MCAS scores:Being in class matters: The students who did not regularly attend school had the worst SRI growth -- I'm waiting to see what the MCAS data officially looks like, but I won't be surprised if these same students' results are not very good.  Their growth from beginning to end of year using the Fountas & Pinnell benchmark (although that's somewhat subjective) also reflected limited growth. It would appear that something must be taking place in class that would cause students who do come to school to learn. Hmmm, wonder what that could be?Supportive families matter: Even when students come from some pretty unbelievable socio-economic circumstances (homelessness, poverty, violence), the end-of-year results of students where the parent was a collaborator were positive. What does that say? Could it be that learning in a vacuum without home involvement is rare?Timing is everything: One of my biggest -- notice I said "one of" -- is the timing of the state English Language Arts exams.  It happens in March which is, let me count, 7 months into the school year. Please explain how 7 months of learning makes a complete year (10 months). It follows on the heels of ELL testing, the MEPA in Massachusetts. the poor 8- and 9-year old kiddos who have to do all of this get exhausted.If I'm accountable for learning for an entire third grade year, shouldn't I get the whole year? This year was a special challenge; students coming from one of the classrooms had a long-term substitute for much of second grade. The regular classroom teacher is a strong, conscientious teacher but the substitute was definitely not up to the task. For these students I spent a LOT of time trying to bridge gaps from second grade. I really could have used more than 7 months for this work.Isn't this what bothers educators about state testing tied to evaluations? It is the unknown, random, living-breathing fabric of teaching. We work with humans. Stuff happens. Outside influences impact the final "product".  There is more to growth (an lack thereof) than testing. 

A Break in the Link

Twenty-four hours after the end of the 2010-11 school year finds me still trying to analyze why this year was so difficult. Why was it that so many students in the past group were such a challenge? Did my teaching change? Is my tolerance level low? Have I lost "it"?The more I think about it, there were things that I had no control over that impacted the dynamic of this classroom more than I imagined. Teaching in an urban district comes with challenges of trauma - social, familial, economic. Sometimes these are easy to surmount, but often they are not.When school works best, there is a partnership between student, teacher and parent. When one of those links is broken or dysfunctional, the possibility of success is lessened -- this is what I believe. The value of an education is undermined when there is lack of support from home.Within the group that has just moved on, there were quite a few broken links in this triumvirate: children who did not have the medication that would enable them to focus (enough times that it started to seem as if the parent was purposefully withholding). Children who did not arrive at school on time, not by a few minutes, but by hours and missed valuable lessons. Children who did not arrive, period. Absenteeism of 25, 30, 40 days of school. That's a considerable amount of time away from school when no reason was offered.School works best when there is a partnership. We did the best we could together, broken link or not. But I am so hoping that next year things are more cohesive, that I can convince parents - engaged or disaffected - that without their involvement, interest, and input their student cannot achieve all that they are capable.

The Elephant in the Classroom

Things are not always dire or bleak, but looking for a positive after yesterday's Parent Teacher conferences is fairly challenging. I have 22 students. Ten parents made appointments for a conference period yesterday; the conferences were held between 3 and 5 pm as an alternative to the 6 to 8 pm conferences held in the Fall.Of those 10 parents, one canceled her appointment the day before. Of the other nine, 4 kept the appointment and 5 choose not to attend without the courtesy of a cancellation message. One parent was confused by the sign up method and came without an appointment -- which as it turns out, was not a problem. Another parent was having day surgery during the day -- we conferenced on the telephone Sunday afternoon.I know that times have changed. People are busy. But common courtesy has not taken a header has it? I cannot imagine myself just not showing up when I had a conference appointment with my own child's teacher. Both my husband and I have had recent reminiscences about our own elementary days -- and our parents who would together attend conferences. Different times for certain. Since when do people just not show up to keep an appointment they made with a teaching professional? Notices on bright-colored paper, reminders in class, phone calls. Wouldn't that have triggered something?The parents I did see -- the ones who made appointments and kept them -- they are the positives in all of this. They are the ones who take a sincere interest in what their student is learning, how they can help. They came with questions, with requests, and I am gladly finding answers and responding to them.But for those who just blew me off I want to ask, what was that about? Clearly, parents are disconnected here. So what can be done to engage them? It is a conversation that needs to take place - now.Harlem Children's Zone's Promise Academy touts their success as a charter school amid the turmoil and needs of an inner city school system. I've read that their success is certainly influenced by the involvement of these students' parents in the educational process. So how do they get parents to the table?  How do they get parents to participate in the monthly workshops, the parent nights? How do they deal with the elephant that is in our classrooms? Is it the extraordinary funding that the school uses to provide incentives? Or is there some other school culture that is engaging parents?I would dearly love to know the answer.