State releases End of Course Test results. Math still a challenge.
High school students in Georgia continue to grapple with the state’s more challenging math curriculum, according to End of Course Test results released this afternoon by the state Department of Education.
Passing rates improved on seven of the eight 2011 spring End-of-Course Tests, including Math II, a course combining algebra, geometry and statistics. But 45 percent of students who took the Math II test failed.
Thirty-nine percent of students failed the EOCT in Math I, a prerequisite to Math II that covers algebra, geometry and statistics.
This is the release from the state DOE on End of Course Test results.
The results of the Spring 2011 Georgia End of Course Tests (EOCT) show student improvement in seven of eight tests. In comparing the results to Spring 2010, students demonstrate significant improvement in Biology, Physical Science, and U.S. History. EOCT scores also improved for Ninth Grade Literature, American Literature, and Economics.
The percentage of students who met or exceeded the standards for Physical Science (76%) improved four percentage points over last year. Likewise, scores for Biology (70%) and U.S. History (66%) also improved by four points.
In April 2011, the State Board of Education approved a plan to phase out the Georgia High School Graduation Test, beginning with students who enter ninth grade for the first time in the 2011-2012 school year. Starting with these students, the EOCT will count as 20% of the final grade, an increase from the previous 15% level.
“We are very pleased with the improvement Georgia’s students have shown on the EOCTs,” said State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge. “I have always believed the EOCT is a better indicator of a student’s grasp of the content, and this year-to-year improvement is encouraging.”
The percentage of students who met or exceeded standards for Mathematics I (61%) decreased three percentage points, while the percentage of students who met or exceeded standards on the Mathematics II EOCT (55%) increased three percentage points.
In March, the State Board of Education approved Superintendent Barge’s recommendation to allow local districts to teach mathematics using either the integrated or discrete delivery method.
“Our Mathematics EOCT results are showing us that some students are struggling with the more rigorous standards, which underscores the need for different instructional delivery methods,” said Superintendent Barge. “While our Mathematics II results increased, those scores are still significantly lower than other content areas. The rigor of the Georgia Performance Standards, however, positions us well as we transition to the Common Core State Standards that contain the same level of rigor found in our existing standards.”
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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92 comments Add your comment
Jordan Kohanim
July 20th, 2011
11:24 pm
Em, how did you get on such a committee? Did you apply or were you nominated? I’d LOVE to know more about that process. Could you tell us how things are decided?
Does anyone know when/how they plan to restructure all of the EOCTs when we go to Common Core standards?
Cere
July 20th, 2011
11:35 pm
Interesting Angela. I think you make my point though. Obviously, students who have highly involved parents that work with their child and complete the tasks assigned by you will do well in your class. This is exactly what I’m trying to inform parents – in many schools today, parents are expected to almost “co-teach” and if the child falls behind, often the blame is placed on the parents not doing their part. That’s not how it used to be back in 60s and 70s – the time period many parents attended school. Our parents had basically nothing to do with our education. Those of us who were raised that way simply do not realize that we are now considered more or less partners in our child’s education. Really, the best way to address this (and you are obviously doing this) is to tell parents point blank what is expected of them. If they are incapable of doing their part, they should say so and some other kind of support should be triggered. (Support should be available in the form of tutoring in Title 1 schools.)
Carter
July 20th, 2011
11:38 pm
Hey John, this sort of feel good nonsense is part of what is wrong with education in Georgia: “Prior to Math 123, less than one-third of students were able to complete Algebra I. Those who can’t pass Math 123 are dropping out of school in shocking numbers, damaging their self-esteem and long-term economic prospects. Many resort to taking the GED, which doesn’t require Algebra II, to salvage their futures.”
Worries of self-esteem should never trump the push for academic rigor. Do you think the students will have a higher self-esteem when they are working on the road crew in this heat, 50 hours/wk, just because people like you lowered the standards enough to give them a high school diploma.
If you can’t do basic algebra, you shouldn’t graduate. I don’t understand how thousands of administrators how decided to turn a blind eye on the fact that we are making such an overwhelming effort to graduate idiots. Look at Georgia’s scores on any of the nationally normed standardized tests. They are shameful.
ScienceTeacher671
July 20th, 2011
11:40 pm
The different EOCTs have different cut scores. For Physical Science, a student who gets 43% of the questions correct will “Meet Expectations,” and the student who gets 63% of the questions correct will “Exceed Expectations.” I am not positive, but I think that Math I is very similar.
Because the students don’t actually have to get 70% of the questions correct to pass or even to exceed, it’s not unusual for me to have students who have not passed a test or quiz all year pass or even make over 90% on an EOCT.
Chris
July 20th, 2011
11:47 pm
Math hasn’t really changed that much in the last 1000 years. How have we managed to make it so hard to teach? Was the math 123 switch more about selling textbooks, and less about teaching math? I would love to see who profited from this switch.
math teacher
July 20th, 2011
11:57 pm
I have taught high school math for many years. The new GPS math is much more difficult than the prior curriculum- probably a grade level and a half! The top third or quarter of kids, who have a combination of high IQs, internal motivation, good parent involvement, and good basic math skills such as knowing multiplication tables and basic algebra, are usually successful, and many of these are on the “accelerated” track . Still, I have seen even these kinds of kids struggle mightily. A “middle” group of kids tends to lack some of the above characteristics, and, although many will eke out passing grades for the class, their knowledge of the standards and math processes varies greatly. The lowest third, however, come to us with few, if any, of the aforementioned attributes. Many cannot do multiplication or division tables mentally, cannot do fractions or percentages, and cannot solve basic algebra problems. Many received failing grades in math for many of their K-8 years. A generation ago, this was not a problem because, as I recall, we had a “General” diploma track that did not even require algebra 1. Kids just had to pass arithmetic classes. Up until just last year, many of these kids were in the “Tech Prep” curriculum and could graduate by passing the equivalent of algebra 1 and perhaps geometry. And believe me, the algebra 1 was a mighty struggle because it involves an abstract level of thinking that requires students to have formal mental processing skills. Most of the people who read and enter this blog have these skills, and it seems hard to imagine that kids cannot “get” seemingly easy material, but it is a fact. Now, these kids are subjected to the new curriculum, which has no grade-school arithmetic courses. There are “support” classes which provide more time and practice, but these still cannot get the more at-risk kids up to the levels of the aforementioned two groups. That is PART of the reason for EOCT scores being perceived as low. The other reason for low scores is that these only counted 15 or 20% of the course grade! If a student knew he had a decent grade going into the EOCT week, he knew that, even with a failing EOCT grade that he would pass the class, which is his goal. Plus, let’s not kid ourselves- kids are burned out by May. What kind of effort are you going to get?
ANGELA
July 21st, 2011
12:00 am
@Cere,
I ask last year about developing a program to assist parents. Well, I am not sure how this is going to play out because, we have a new principal. He is or appears to be above himself. I will pitch this to him when I meet with him during pre-planning. I am looking forward to making this happen. But, if he nix the idea it is my plan to do this when I retire. But, that is four years from now. I also, have another idea that I need to put into print in a plan format and implement it. I will see what happens after we go back to work on the 2nd.
ANGELA
July 21st, 2011
12:08 am
@Cere,
Oh, I also, have some new ideas about how I am going to implement a program with my students and parents to gain positive parental involvement. I am going to try and set-up a bi-monthly program that parents come into second grade and work with their child in a specific area. We did this when I was in 4th grade and it worked out well. We got more parents than we expected (but it also, told us how many parents that were unemployed). I have not pitched this idea as of yet to my grade level but I will when we get back.
So, many ideas but the KING and I do mean KING will have to be the one to approve my ideas. Again, he is very new to the school and what we have seen…………………………. the vertic is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out!
Veteran teacher, 2
July 21st, 2011
1:01 am
I was on the Precision Review Committee last school year. The EOCT’s will still be in effect when the Common Core standards come in. There will also be some type of national assessment that will be given at the end of the Junior year. By the way, the Common Core has the same standards as the current curriculum regardless of whether you teach the standards as discrete courses or as integrated courses. The cut score for Math 1 was 50%.
catch 22
July 21st, 2011
1:03 am
okay heres the deal….
Dr. Barge knows how bad the Math that K.Cox set up; but with only a year to go for NCC, he has to ride it out.
2014 is right around the corner and we are suppose to have 100% pass every EOCT. Washington has not changed the rules on that yet and we are in count down mode.
You tell me is there anyway year after year to maintain a 100% pass rate???
What some need to understand is that some of these courses were set up to make sure we never hit 100%; come on really they even adopted the one track graduation requirement.
They put in this one size fits all math and the one track dipolma for a reason…. do you really think they did this for the kids? There is an endgame and ppl are too blind to see it
John Konop
July 21st, 2011
6:02 am
Carter,
….. Worries of self-esteem should never trump the push for academic rigor. Do you think the students will have a higher self-esteem when they are working on the road crew in this heat, 50 hours/wk, just because people like you lowered the standards enough to give them a high school diploma…….
Aptitude is not the same as intelligences. My father is poor in math but a very talented trial lawyer. I happen to be very good in math yet via my dyslexia I have issues with writing and reading.
God did not make us one track robots with the same gifts and issues. And your snobbish view of working class people that cut hair, plumbers…….seems like a personal issue not an appreciation of different talents. Ironically many do better than liberal arts 4 year degree graduates especially when you factor cost of education verse income.
Finally the key of being successful in life is working in a field that promotes your natural talents not working against it.
d
July 21st, 2011
7:27 am
Has anyone seen the data for Economics?
Also, someone mentioned released tests….. I’ve asked Kathy Cox herself about this before she resigned, but the released social studies tests are from 2004 – under the old QCC standards. I would have expected that by now, with 4 years of GPS tests having been given, we could see a released GPS test.
Cere
July 21st, 2011
7:58 am
Great ideas Angela – I wish you the best. So many times the mantra seems to be, “if the parents would only…” however, personally, I just don’t think that’s fair to the child. If we are to break the cycle of poverty and low education, then we have to stand in for parents sometimes as well as do our best to bring parents into the fold. So many parents just do not have the tools to help their children. You obviously get that and have a heart for these parents and their children. You will make a difference for them!
BTW – does your school have a Parent Center? Do your parents have access to one? I thought they were supposed to be addressing some of these parental deficiencies. (I think you have to be a Title 1 school though.)
Jordan Kohanim
July 21st, 2011
9:36 am
Veteran teacher, 2,
Thanks for the info!
MD
July 21st, 2011
10:01 am
The K-12 Math education in American sucks. Yes, I got my K-12 education overseas. My kids are in a top notch private school in Atlanta. Even at private schools, math teachers aren’t nearly as good as their counterparts in Asia, Australia or UK. It took me a while to get used to it. Finally I decided to supplement my kids with additional math homework at home. They are now doing well (probably at least one grade level above their peers at private schools). I don’t blame teachers for every failure. But with math education, we need better teachers – teachers who come from middle and top tier of high school graduates. Math teachers at my kids’ private school don’t know how to teach math – they teach tips instead of math reasoning. I can provide more examples when I have time.
RJ
July 21st, 2011
10:05 am
@Gwinnett Parent, you should really try to READ my post. I never said I blindly trusted anybody. I’ve been teaching for 15 years, and I can assure you that my students are learning everyday. Twenty-five years ago I was in school and my parents DID help me. I had educational games at home to teach me multiplication facts. I can remember my dad playing them with me. My parents still have the books we read as kids. Heck, they still have the records that came with some of them! Apparently your family life was different.
For the record, I’ve always worked two jobs to put food on the table. I’ve also always attended parent-teacher conferences, PTSA meetings and volunteered at my kids schools. This is my responsibility to them.
At my school, we don’t use CRCT to determine if a student is on-level. Teachers assess the students based on work done in class. We are very much aware that CRCT scores don’t tell the whole story. If you feel as if your children have gaping holes in their education, why aren’t you at the school asking questions? You haven’t mentioned tutoring. Believe it or not, 25 years ago my highschool offered tutoring for students that needed it. Of course, I was tutored in math! That was my weakest subject.
The curriculum today is much different than it was when even 10 years ago. As a parent you can complain, or you can be a parent. It’s really up to you.
www.honeyfern.org
July 21st, 2011
10:57 am
Two questions:
1. I thought students could either take Math 1, Math 2, etc or opt for a traditional approach (isolated subjects). Is that true?
2. What is a passing score on the EOCT in each subject?
Thanks!
Lynx
July 21st, 2011
11:05 am
@RJ at 5:42 pm. “I have NEVER, EVER had a mind for math.” “Everyone is different.” Now substitute the word “reading” for “math” in your post. Would you be making excuses for your children if they couldn’t read at grade level? Math is a learned skill that is even more mechanical than reading, because there are no nuances – it is what it is – and so is even more amenable to being taught through lots of practice.
ha
July 21st, 2011
11:38 am
@honeyfern u are correct students can choose a more traditional approach, but the district decides which approach to use
tradtional, “new” math, or a combination of the two
I can tell you Hall county is sticking with the Math I,II… until the CCC comes out
ScienceTeacher671
July 21st, 2011
11:46 am
@honeyfern, if you ask the GaDOE, they’ll tell you that 70 is the passing score for the EOCT in each subject. The thing is, that 70 does not reflect 70% of the questions correct – the state curves the scores.
The cut score, or number of questions a student must get correct to pass, is apparently a very closely guarded secret that the AJC has so far been unable to obtain. If you have access to score reports, you can figure it out, and it seems to vary from subject to subject; for instance, you have to get a higher percentage of questions correct to pass the Biology EOCT than to pass the Physical Science EOCT, but I think Physical Science and Math I are approximately the same — 40-45% correct to pass, 60-65% correct to exceed (which translates to 90% or above for a grade).
ScienceTeacher671
July 21st, 2011
11:48 am
@d, the released science EOCTs are also QCC versions, not GPS versions, which is odd since the GPS questions are supposed to be “performance based” and very different from QCC questions. Maybe they aren’t really that different. Who can tell?
ScienceTeacher671
July 21st, 2011
12:21 pm
Oh, my sides! I just noticed the banner at the top of the GaDOE’s Assessment page: “Producing well-designed assessments aligned to the state curriculum with timely dissemination of results.”
It does look like, with all the money we’ve spent on computer systems, they could at least get the last part right?
@already Sheared
July 21st, 2011
1:11 pm
Still working for Kathy Cox as paid Blogger?
www.honeyfern.org
July 21st, 2011
1:37 pm
@ScienceTeacher, thanks. That is absolutely horrendous. I knew the scores were low, but it is horrible to see it in print.
Makes me feel better about giving straight scores on released exams to my students, frankly.
Ole Guy
July 21st, 2011
1:54 pm
RJ, I hear what you’re saying, however, I have difficulty…as an “old timer”…understanding how/why a younger generation could, in the early days of technology’s integration into the day-to-day world, master the concepts with no apparent difficulty. Stories abound of the wee little ones programing one device or another when the “oldsters” were out in the dark.
I believe the difficulties lie more in the lack of plain ole fashioned discipline to do what does not, at the moment, seem to be much fun.
Scott
July 21st, 2011
4:12 pm
This is an issue I’m very familiar with and have written about many times. Here’s what the low passing rates on the math EOCT’s basically mean… that student grades are inflated and that we are now paying the price for not holding students accountable to learn math in middle school.
If your student gets straight A’s and can’t pass the math EOCT… its because all his or her grades to this point have been a sham. Some of our students have very weak basic math skills. This deficiency has been ignored for years, and now that students are expected to actually do something with mathematical rigor, the students suddenly “fall short.” But they were behind all along.
As a GPS math curriculum expert, I can tell you that the math is nothing new. Yes, it is organized differently than in the past. But however you package it, Algebra and Geometry and Statistics haven’t changed. We are asking them to learn it a little sooner, and to know more before they reach high school… which is why we have such a train wreck in 9th grade. They fail the 8th grade CRCT and show up anyway. And can’t pass the EOCT in Math 1 and 2 either. Big surprise, eh? (And yes, high schools are passing kids to Math 2 when they aren’t ready, just like the middle schools did to them, because many high school teachers and principals don’t get it either… thinking that passing kids along is a good thing. Remember the EOCT is only 15%, or now 20%, of the grade. Unqualified kids are still being passed routinely.)
The comments about kids not putting forth an appropriate effort are true in many cases, but not all. It requires skill and effort – both learning and practice – to be successful in mathematics. If we gave rigorous grades in middle school math and stopped passing unprepared kids along, under-skilled kids would have an opportunity to get the help they need, and lazy kids would quickly realize that a failure to work will affect them in life (instead of just laughing or shrugging because their teacher got blamed for their test score).
Paddy O
July 21st, 2011
5:29 pm
I suspect my education was intended for me to learn information, front and back (rote), that I would then apply the rest of my life. We learned/memorized multiplication tables up to 15 or so. We could “long” divide, as we were taught the actual mechanics of the action. Mr. Sims: If you learned those items on your own, you have a natural talent for mathematical interplay. However, many/most folks do not. I did not like trig, and have had no use for calc. Geometry has been very useful. Today, it seems we are more interested in covering a curriculum than teaching kids valuable information that they will exercise in their daily life. IT would seem to me that MOM would have been more involved in her child to understand that she did not know how to do “percentages” – multiplication. As stated, ten & twenty percent is quite easy. However, I would not tip someone for making me a smoothy, but daily activity has been cheapened quite a bit in modern society. Why else is so much sold at walmart made in China?
Paddy O
July 21st, 2011
5:31 pm
Do english classes still diagram sentence structure? I am fully aware that spelling, at least in W. GA is not heavily taught.
Paddy O
July 21st, 2011
5:35 pm
RJ – how do the kids at your school perform on the CRCT?
ScienceTeacher671
July 21st, 2011
7:02 pm
@honeyfern, before the test, as part of my “test-taking strategies” talk, I always tell my students the approximate number of questions they need to get correct to pass the test – it ends up to be 28-30 of the 80 questions (Only 68 of the questions actually count.) A lot of the students suffer from test anxiety, or say they do, and I think it helps them to know that the ONE question they have absolutely no clue about is not going to make them fail.
After the test, when they get their score reports and after they’ve celebrated the marvelous grades the state gave them, I encourage them to also calculate the score they earned. It tends to keep down the questions about why their EOCT scores are so much higher than their usual test scores.
Peaches Tee
July 22nd, 2011
1:48 am
We are going to have problems with education until the end of time. Sorry to sound gloomy. There is no way to say who will do well and who will not. Whose fault it is and what can the government do to help. Test do not make the child, however, it can help to find the child’s strengths and weaknesses. Then perhaps the child can work on helping him/herself.
What does Albert Einstein, Colin Powell, Ben Carson, and George Bush, have in common? They were not the best students, but look at what they achieve whether we like them or not. What about Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates? Look at what they have accomplished. Yes, something must be done about education. We have to look beyond test scores. There are some who do well in school and may not achieve what was expected of them, and there are some who may not have been that top notch students, but achieve beyond what was expected. Teachers can’t give up on any of the students. They are the future for America.
We are questioning about dropout rates. Think about this, we are starting children in school at an earlier age, test them with regular school work, give benchmark test, standardize test, writing test, EOCT, graduation test, PSAT,ACT, and SAT (which they take a few times to improve their score). Is this part of the reason some students dropout? I know there are many other reasons, but we have to think about it. This is a lot of pressure on students along with societal issues. Some parents can’t help their children because they don’t know how.
Most teachers are doing a great job. People are feeling that the teachers are not teaching the right way to keep students’ attention. There are many complaints are how, what, when, and why teachers are doing what they do. Most teachers just want to TEACH and see those faces light up with that smile of confidence when the students really get what is being taught. I don’t know if teachers see that as much as I did when I was in school.
Lastly, the Math 123 is not all it was cut out to be. The students didn’t have a book to use at this magnet school. Math 123 doesn’t allow for the students to progress if they grasp the skills, and it doesn’t allow too much remediation if they don’t get it. It moves at a pace where children don’t have enough time to digest it. In other words, there is not enough practice time. There are some parts of that math where there should have been more hand-ons skills applied. The teachers may have felt it took too much time to prepare for the students to manipulate the material to get a better understanding. Also, teachers were required to have students use Carniegie Math on the computer along with their regular math class. Many times the Carniegie Math didn’t corrolate to what was being taught in the math class.
Peaches Tee
July 22nd, 2011
2:18 am
ScienceTeacher 671, it is amazing how they score these test. My son took the EOCT for Accelerated Math 2, and he came home a little cocky. I talked to several students from different schools, and they all said they didn’t complete it. He went on to say that they know it will be graded on a curve because the system can’t afford to have summer school for all those students. He scored an 83 on the test same as a student who made honor roll all year. My son has struggle with math since middle school. Every student at this school passed with 100%, grant you this is a magnet school. Go figure.
Disgruntled Employee
July 22nd, 2011
9:36 am
@ Scott…Amen! Grade inflation is the elephant in the room that no one dares discuss. I remember the AJC ran an article a few years ago documenting the numbers of A-C grades and the failure rates on the EOCTs at various schools. Why does this happen? It is the charade that districts play with the state. It trickles down to school admin who pressure teachers to pass all of their students. I taught at a school in which the principal hauled all teachers into the office if they had over 10% F’s. Granted this school is in NI status with the state. Could we not assume that there would be more than 10% of the students who were not performing at grade level or at least meeting classroom expectations? So what did teachers do to avoid the harassment? They made sure that they did not have more than 10% failures and the fantasy that all is well at the school continued.
What will happen when GHSGT goes away and is replaced by EOCTs counting 20%? In low performing districts, like DeKalb, admin will pressure teachers to have student grades high enough so when they bomb the EOCT they still “pass”. They will never say it directly to the teacher, but the harassment will be there and many teachers will simply surrender and play the game. There are lies, damn lies, and grades and test statistics.
Math Teacher turned Tutor
July 22nd, 2011
10:29 am
It is only the 2nd year the test over the new curriculum has counted! The same griping about bad scores happened when the original EOCTs were implemented in 2000 – and I remember the 1st Geometry scores being so horrible they threw them out and revised the test!
Add to that the curriculum is harder, there is no more tech prep diploma so GA State legislators in their infinite wisdom think all kids need rigorous college prep math, and the fact that the new curriculum was implemented in high school right as the budget drama started and class sizes are HUGE, it’s no wonder the scores aren’t WORSE.
As for students not doing their homework, or studying, that is certainly a huge part of it! In 20 years I have watched the effort on the student part decline. It is now worse than I have ever seen it. I can honestly say that regardless of curriculum, those students who failed EOCT… 85%+ had attendance issues and/or lack of effort issues.
Now, as a tutor, I see the same thing… parents pay money, drop kid off for tutoring, student brings NOTHING! That’s effort? Many (not all) parents have blinders on with regards to the ‘effort’ their child is putting forth! And then telling them “mommy/daddy isn’t good at math either” to make them feel better… just makes it worse… it validates the complaining and excuse making rather than just ‘doing it’.
The whole “i just can’t do math” thing is a crock! In 20 years I can count TWO students that busted their butts yet still failed! TWO and I honestly think that they were ‘missed’ with special ed testing! Every one else that failed my class was directly related to crappy attendance and/or lack of effort. NOTHING ELSE! Now root causes for attendance and/or apathy? I’m sure there are a ton of reasons, a few of which are valid, but bottom line… if you are not at school DAILY and putting forth your ‘real’ best effort ALL of the time, then that might be the first thing to correct before blaming everything and everyone else!
ScienceTeacher671
July 22nd, 2011
10:52 am
Disgruntled Employee, perhaps it is because the cut scores are so low, but I rarely have a student fail the Physical Science EOCT and have passing classroom grades. I frequently have students who are failing my class but pass or even exceed on the EOCT.
Maybe it shouldn’t, but it really annoys me when a student who only gets 63% of the questions correct receives essentially the same grade as a student who gets >90% of the questions correct.
KCS
July 22nd, 2011
11:13 am
@Metro Atlanta Teacher- Thank you, that is what we guessed was happening, so we dropped him to regular Math 2 for next year. However, this was against the advice of his teachers. We were told everything from “don’t worry he’ll pass in the end”(we have much higher standards than just passing in our house) to he will be so bored in regular math.
Paddy O
July 22nd, 2011
12:06 pm
school is just like any other endeavor – if you have a sharp kid, with attentive parents, he/she will most likely fly through with little problems. If you were in the Army, and pretty much passively went through your enlistment, it was highly likely you would get hurt – you have to be your best advocate and independently evaluate that which you are experiencing. KCS is doing a responsible job – involved in their kids education and understanding what their kid is experiencing. From my experience, just as Paul Simon sings, it is a wonder any of are sane after all the crap we are taught, much never again utilized, in high school. Sadly, valuable subjects such as civics & history, are not valued enough (society can only support very, very few scientists).
Peaches Tee
July 22nd, 2011
7:44 pm
@ScienceTeacher671- You are correct about grading on the curve with EOCT. My son has struggled in math since middle school. When he took the Math II test, he came home a little cocky. In our conversation, his classmates discussed how hard it was, but they figured out they will have to grade on the curve because the system didn’t have money to have a large number of students in summer school. He scored an 83 on EOCT. All the students passed the test. Get this- they attend a magnet school.
Ole Guy
July 23rd, 2011
1:40 am
Mandella, during my somewhat abreviated soujourn into the education community, I was somewhat dismayed to observe that many (so-called) teachers, themselves, were somewhat lacking in basic “math sense”. Winners of Teacher of the Month/Year/etc awards; holders of advanced degrees in all sort of educational academe, experienced embarrasing (at least to me) difficulty in explaining the mysteries “timses and gozintas” to 5th graders…the very same 5th graders whose names, in the teacher’s grade books, preceeded A’s and B’s. When questioned as to the disparity of awarded grade and demonstrated lack of basic proficiency, the teacher’s reply was “I give credit for trying”.
These teachers, Mandella, may be fine people. You just may find them, on Sundays, singing their lil’ole hearts out in the church choir; they may boast all flavor of academic “achievement” and “professional” recognition…and I certainly respect that. But you know, Mandella, while I respect the teacher corps, I have to border on the practice of teacher bashing, for these fine people have been duped by the “narcotic” of thinking they were helping kids when, in reality, they have been pawns in the high stakes efforts which have led to recent (though certainly not new) cheating scandles. All-too-many of these teachers are, themselves, products of an educational system which holds self esteem over the mere possibility of learning through courting failure. Far far too many generations have (younger teachers included) have been steeped in false achievements at the expense of actually embracing subject content.
THIS just may be the reason your daughter is not being drilled in the multiplication tables/the math facts to which you refer.
Peaches Tee
July 23rd, 2011
10:48 am
Ole Guy, right. Education enjoys that self-esteem bit. Parents see As & Bs on report card, but child didn’t pass the CRCT test. Few parents question that issue. Those who do may get comments like the student got nervous(can be true) or whatever excuse may occur. That is one of the reason there are many issues in education, and there are few solutions to solve the problems.
ScienceTeacher671
July 23rd, 2011
11:19 am
Peaches Tee, correct. Parents look at the classroom grades, and when the CRCT doesn’t match up, they conclude that their child “doesn’t test well.”
Parents really don’t understand what a low-level test the CRCT is.
Ole Guy
July 25th, 2011
8:37 pm
Teacher 671, I do not believe that parents do not understand the low-level nature of CRCT…I believe they do not WANT to understand this. These parents are, themselves, products of the early rumblings of a watered down educational system which, unchallenged, has filtered into every crack and crevice of the educational community. It is up to YOU, and YOU alone, to start educating parents; to halt the downward slide of the slipper slope which has become education.
Teachers everywhere seem to excell in identifying the issues; in writing of the conditions with which you must contend. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!