Comments on: Will Bipartisanship Rule in Building Quality Charter Schools?

By: Larry G

Larry G — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:15:06 +0000

the most important thing that we have not done so far – is to agree on a standard curricula and a standard assessment approach.

what’s I’ve heard is that teaching to the test is not good and Charter schools are good … but no agreement on what good means since we don’t see to like measuring achievement.

we need to agree: 1. – on the need to measure 2. – a way to measure

advocacy to bring more Charter schools online without a resolution to 1. and 2. above is not a solution.

By: Larry G

Larry G — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:54:40 +0000

The NAEP has standards comparable to world standards and “teaching to the test” is what our competitors do and it is how the kids in our countries will out compete our kids for world jobs.

We can make all the excuses we want about what tests don’t do but at the end of the day – the test that cannot be dismissed is whether or not our kids have the equivalent education they need to compete for world jobs.

I would urge anyone who thinks that teaching to the test is wrong to take a look at the NAEP proficiency standards for Reading – here:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/Reading/achieveall.asp

Basic
(208) Fourth-grade students performing at the Basic level should demonstrate an understanding of the overall meaning of what they read. When reading text appropriate for fourth-graders, they should be able to make relatively obvious connections between the text and their own experiences and extend the ideas in the text by making simple inferences.

Proficient
(238) Fourth-grade students performing at the Proficient level should be able to demonstrate an overall understanding of the text, providing inferential as well as literal information. When reading text appropriate to fourth grade, they should be able to extend the ideas in the text by making inferences, drawing conclusions, and making connections to their own experiences. The connection between the text and what the student infers should be clear.

Advanced
(268) Fourth-grade students performing at the Advanced level should be able to generalize about topics in the reading selection and demonstrate an awareness of how authors compose and use literary devices. When reading text appropriate to fourth grade, they should be able to judge text critically and, in general, to give thorough answers that indicate careful thought.

this above is where we rank 10-15th in the world.

Virginia SOQs say that 70-80% of our kids are “proficient” but by the NAEP World Standards above – only 30% of our kids are.

Kids who meet these standards in other countries do so across the board. They don’t need “magnet” or “Charter” schools because their basic school curriculum is keyed to meeting these standards.

We are fooling ourselves if we want to blame the test or think that Charter schools will fix this problem.

I have no problem with the Charter schools as perhaps finding a better path for us but those schools need to be 100% open to all kids and they need to demographically represent the community they serve and they need to meet the NAEP standards for proficiency IMHO.

By: The Race To The Top Has Begun – Schools Building Communities

The Race To The Top Has Begun – Schools Building Communities — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:42:19 +0000

[...] Daily Times) Texas — $10 million gift energizes charter chain (Houston Chronicle) Va. — Will bipartisanship rule in building quality charter schools? (Bacon’s [...]

By: JCH

JCH — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:06:39 +0000

The problem with the SOLs and NCLB standards is the failure to adequately measure “success”. Additionally, if you simply teach to the test in the traditional setting then all that is emphasized is “succeeding” at taking the test, not necessarily learning. In effect you can game the system, show compliance, accreditation, acceptable yearly progress, etc and yet still fail to provide a good education. Meanwhile, the charter students may in fact be learning much more, but since they haven’t crammed for the fill in the bubble test then they may not perform as well, even though they may have better mastery of the specific content, as well as demonstrate greater capacity for things not easily quantified with a multiple choice test (analytical skills, reasoning, etc).

By: Larry G

Larry G — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:41:25 +0000

I don’t have a problem with different approaches – as long as – all of them – are held accountable to the same assessment standards and based on the results of those assessments – we evolve the policies and curricula accordingly.

Right now.. despite some improvements, most of our kids rank near 10th when compared internationally – and any Governor who professes to want to be a “jobs” governor needs to be focused on Virginia providing a competitive education – for as many kids as possible – keeping in mind that every kid that we do “leave behind”, his societal costs will be paid for by the kids that did not get left behind.