We’re closing out the year at Molina High School, and it’s busier than a blogger wants it to be. I’m way behind on blogging. Among notable things I’ve not written about:
- Students at Molina made dramatic gains in scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). In fact, our kids jumped, from “academically unacceptable” to “recognized,” according to preliminary indications (Texas Education Agency (TEA) will post official results later in the summer). In any case the gains should be enough to get the school off of Texas Academic Death Row. Way to go, students.
- We graduated the seniors last Saturday. Nice bunch of kids, really. Now we just have a couple of days of finals for the non-graduates left.
- Dallas ISD is working to cut the funding for magnet schools and learning centers. Remember this kid? They want to cut his school. Why? Some wag thinks that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires that no school spend more per pupil than any other school. These magnets and learning centers were created originally to aid in desegregating Dallas schools. Nasty board meeting last week.
- Dallas ISD is working to get rid of teachers with a rating system no one can explain. My 90%+ passing rate for students on the TAKS doesn’t count for squat. What does count? I have to keep my door unlocked, among other things. No kidding.
- Dallas ISD needs money. So the district officials propose to charge PTAs for use of school buildings.
Perhaps fortunately, the State Lege died yesterday, at least in regular session. Alas, they didn’t get all the state programs funded. Special session is likely. No man’s life, liberty or property, etc.
You couldn’t make this up if you were trying to write a humor column.
More soon, I hope.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Thanks, Ed. My only contact with anything along these lines is occasionally having to deal with state standards for teacher education in social studies. At least here in Michigan that’s always a depressing experience (apparently I’m supposed to teach college kids doing teacher ed 3rd grade social studies). It always makes me aware of how little the state bureaucrats seem to know about what people ought to be taught, consonant with your penultimate paragraph.
Keep up the good work, though. I shudder at the thought of trying to teach any of the K-12 levels, but I know my life is made a lot easier by those who do a good job of it.
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I think there was some real improvement, but chiefly they tested better. Among other things, we offered full-scale practice exams so students would not enter testing without having experience at it. We lost at least a full week of instruction, but it paid off on test results.
I think standards in Texas are low, though not always adequate (testing to the wrong low standard doesn’t do a lot, and can’t be taught in a good course).
Texas TEKS help standardize courses a lot. However, the body of knowledge tested is small, relatively. Teachers know they will be judged on how their students do on the tests, and a teacher might be crazy to teach what students should know rather than what will be tested.
In social studies, students can ace the geography questions without being able to determine east from north, south or west. Students can pass any question on Paul Revere without ever having heard or read Longfellow. The curriculum stresses arcane information about the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, but leaves the Gettysburg Address almost untouched.
I think the Texas test, TAKS, can be coached easily, more easily than improving courses. The test measures how well students are coached in the test more than what they learn in school. It’s a test of skills, purportedly, and not of knowledge. That’s another gripe I have. Skills are necessary — skills without knowledge are dangerous.
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As a college prof who looks at standardized testing in K-12 with a sceptical, but rather ignorant, eye, can you tell me what you think about it? Was there real improvement among your school’s students educationally, or did they just test better? Do you feel you must spend time (too much of it?) teaching to the test? Or does having the objective standard push schools to improve their performance (as it’s supposed to do)?
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