Tag Archive for 'social promotion'

Social Promotion? Easy as A, B, C!

Published by Robert Pondiscio on August 18, 2009 in Assessment and Testing, Core Knowledge and Educational Policy. 1 Comment

Can you earn a promotion to the next grade in New York by simply guessing the answers on state tests?   It’s easy as A, B, C according to a provocative experiment by former Core Knowledge teacher Diana Senechal.   

In a call for tougher tests in the New York Post last week, Diane Ravitch revealed that the points needed to earn a “Level 2″ — the lowest “passing” score on the state’s tests–have dropped dramatically.  On the 6th grade English language-arts test, for example, the cutoff to earn a Level 2 in sixth grade dropped from 41 percent of the points in 2006 to just 17.9 percent in 2009.  “Ending social promotion, as the [New York City] rightly wants to do, is thus meaningless, because students can reach Level 2 by just guessing,” Ravitch concluded.

Struck by Ravitch’s observation, Senechal tried an experiment to see if it’s possible to pass the test by simply guessing.  She posts the results over at Gotham Schools. 

I first tried my experiment with the sixth grade ELA test. I “guessed” all the answers on the multiple-choice portion and left the written portions blank. Or, rather, I didn’t “guess,” but filled in the answers as follows: A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D, and so on, all the way through the 26 questions. I didn’t read one of them.

Naturally, Senechal got a zero on the written portion of the test.  But her multiple choice guesswork earned 12 out of 39 “raw points” and a scale score of 622–a rock-solid “2″ on the state’s four-point system.  A “2″ is described as “approaching grade level” and good enough to earn promotion to the next grade.  “I got a 2 without looking at a single test question or writing a single word,” she writes.   Repeating the experiment with the 7th grade math test, Senechal also scored a 2 “without solving a single math problem, or even looking at one.”

While this approach does not result in a 2 for all the tests, it comes a bit too close for comfort, and another guessing system might work. A fifth grader told me that his father had told him, “Just mark ‘C’ for all of the answers, and you will pass.” On the fifth grade ELA test, this would indeed have resulted in a 2.  Yes, it is possible to guess your way to promotion. You may not even have to look at the questions or write a word on the written sections.

“It may not be called social promotion, but it amounts to the same thing,” concludes Senechal, a frequent contributor to the Core Knowledge Blog.  “You do not need to know or understand much to move along.”

Attendance Is Not On The Test

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 21, 2008 in Education Practice, Educational Policy and accountability. 8 Comments

More than 90,000 of New York City’s elementary school students–20 percent–missed at least a month of classes during the last school year, according to a new report from the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.

In the early grades, attendance is a strong predictor of long-term success. National research suggests that chronic absenteeism in the early grades sets the stage for school failure later on. Children who miss a large number of school days in kindergarten or first grade tend to have lower levels of academic achievement throughout their school careers. Sadly, there are high levels of chronic absenteeism in New York City elementary schools, particularly in low-income neighborhoods.

It’s great to see this issue getting some attention, but forgive me if I’m utterly unsurprised, and a little disgusted.  The New York Times calls chronic absenteeism an “invisible problem” but it’s anything but to teachers in New York’s most blighted inner city neighborhoods.  Frankly, it’s also another unintended consequence of system in which The Test is the alpha and omega.  In my South Bronx elementary school we regularly promoted students who missed dozens of school days, as long as they passed — or even came close to passing – a single standardized test.  In a particularly acute case, I fought unsuccessfully to have one of my 5th graders held over who missed nearly 100 school days.  He received a 1 (below grade level) on his state math test and a 2 (”approaching” grade level) on his ELA exam and was passed without even having to attend summer school.  As long as he scored a 2 or better on either of the tests, I was told, he had to be promoted.  God help that kid.  Three years later, I still get angry thinking about it.  

In theory, I asked an administrator, could a child come to school only on the day of the state test, pass, and still be promoted?  It was a rhetorical question.  The answer was sitting in my classroom.  Occasionally.

Unusual Suspects

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 24, 2008 in Teacher Training and Teaching. 0 Comments

I’m as much of a creature of habit as anyone, and my daily blog reading features a number of de riguer stops: Joanne Jacobs, Eduwonk, Eduwonkette, Fordham’s Flypaper, This Week in Education, Bridging Differences, and D-Ed Reckoning. I read each faithfully and refer to them often in this space. There are, however, many more bloggers to whom I pay attention that have done great stuff recently that merited praise and eyeballs. Better late than never:

History is Elementary, a terrific site by an anonymous Georgia history teacher, who went off earlier this month on her state’s social promotion, er, retention policy.

Over the last few years I’ve watched children progress to the next grade who rarely turned in assignments, children who rarely opened a book, children with a majority of Fs on their report card, children whose parents have been literally begged to come in and work with us on creating a plan for their student’s success (always a no show), or children who only succeeded during the school day by disrupting every lesson in some form or fashion.

Catching Sparrows is the blog of a high school English teacher who goes by Redkudu. She graces the Core Knowledge blog with her thoughtful comments from time to time. She’s also brave enough to refer her readers to things like hilarious and utterly inappropriate high school commencement speeches by minor celebrities.

I had not read Gary Rubenstein’s TFA blog until reader Brian Rude commented on it recently. If you know a first year teacher, do them a favor and tell them about this blog today. He’s been handing out pearls for the last month on lesson planning, classroom management, and common teacher mistakes. He advises new teachers what to say if asked, “Are you a new teacher?

Some kid is definitely going to ask you so what are you going to say? What most new TFA teachers incorrectly think is the best way to answer this is to exaggerate the seventeen days (or hours!?!) of practice teaching during the institute. To me, this is like bragging about your girlfriend in Canada.

“It’s not the right thing to say because when you eventually make a mistake that reveals that you must be a new teacher,” Rubenstein writes. “Then you’ll be not only a new teacher, but a liar.”

Speaking of which, here’s the piece of advice I wish I’d received in my first year: At some point, probably very late on a Sunday night, you’re going to face a choice: should I stay up and do more lesson planning? Or should I go to sleep. Choose sleep. The best plans on God’s green earth will come to no good end if you’re fried and can’t think on your feet. I always had a better day — so did my students — when I was well rested. I was at my least effective on short rest, no matter how much time I put into planning.

Social Promotion Watch

Published by Robert Pondiscio on June 30, 2008 in Assessment and Testing and Educational Policy. 4 Comments

A Georgia law passed in 2001 was supposed to stop social promotion, but state school districts are promoting nearly everyone anyway, “even if they fail a second-chance retest, or blow it off altogether” according to an analysis of 2006 and 2007 state data by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A state law aimed at stopping so-called “social promotion” says students in grades 3, 5 and 8 should repeat the year when they fail certain standardized tests. The findings show state and local educators are balking at enforcing the 2001 law — routinely resorting to an appeals process that allows schools to promote students who never pass the tests.

State School Superintendent Kathy Cox argues that retention “should be a last resort” and defends use of the appeal process, which allows promotion if the principal, parent and teacher agree.  “They’ve used that as the rule rather than the exception,” former Gov. Roy Barnes, who championed the law, tells the AJC. “Did people think that I was not serious?”

Er, apparently so Governor. 

Rarely discussed in social promotion debates is the effect of no-stakes testing and infinite second chances on the empty homily of “high expectations.”  Kids aren’t dummies.  First we narrow the curriculum to prep kids for state tests, then we teach them through our actions that the tests really don’t matter anyway.  The perfect storm of mediocrity. 

Update:  Opinion on the AJC’s Get Schooled blog is strenuously in favor of enforcing the No Social Promotion rule.