KCAB:
Thank you for the best wishes; I am hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
One suggestion I received was to push/challenge the Board of Education to conduct a survey to determine the usage of home tutoring or paid tutoring. If the results are presented by elementary school, in Greenwich it would paint an interesting picture ( I am betting), in that certain schools’ students would have significant after school help, and certain schools’ students would have minimal help. While not statistically provable, I also would wager that the correlation to the CMT would be quite positive. There are probably a few things at work – the kids getting tutoring pushing up the scores (for which EDM will take credit), smart kids without tutoring going toward lower scores (the Race to the Middle) and losing interest, slower learners completely lost, and the great group in the middle, some of whom could be really great, just missing the boat. Mix that in with changing tests and changing standards, and there is no way of telling if any progress is being made.
And thank you for pointing out the P20 groups. I hope the 20 doesn’t indicate that it will take from preschool (P) to your twentieth year in school until you learn a useful amount of mathematics. I hope that when the results are posted, they trigger a conversation around how “40% of our students can graduate from high school and still have to do remedial math before doing college level math!” (Forty % is my guess)
On the face of it, the P20 posting of results by high school will be useful data point tied to real results, not test results which are subject to question. Real results like:
- How well prepared are the students for algebra after they have done EDM for six years?
- How well prepared are the students for the work world after graduating from high school?
- How well prepared are the students for college math?
There have been several unscientific studies by college professors indicating the decline in performance of incoming college freshmen:
Brian BTN
Yes - I think the survey would be interesting. The survey methodology is important, I think. I'm not sure you'll get accurate reports if it is the schools/teachers asking parents.
ReplyDeleteThe P20 information will only be useful for answering the third of your questions. The middle & high school teachers can probably answer the first question already.