The state has released the passing rate numbers for 10th graders in the class of 2008.
One thing is certain .... Math is not getting better....
Things are not getting better.... As more districts have adopted reform math texts largely because it was the politically correct thing to do in the land of WASL alignment... In Math the only thing showing improvement is likely the bottom line for publishers. Seattle's adoptions of Everyday Math and Connected Math Project2 stand out as crowd following moves for no improvement. 80% of middle school students in the State now use Connected Math Project at the middle school.
It is time to end the Reform Math debacle. Unfortunately that would mean admitting that a lot of people goofed... None of the current decision makers appear to be willing to take any accountability for the goof so how will correction occur?
Anyway here are the scores for reading math and writing at grade 10. 2006 was supposed to be the year of the big improvement as that was the first class that the WASL counted for graduation... Supposedly even Math counted... well we know where that went...
... Year...... Read ...... Math .... Write ..
... 2005 .... 72.9% .... 47.5% ... 65.2%
... 2006 .... 82.0% .... 51.0% ... 79.8%
... 2007 .... 80.8% .... 50.4% ... 83.9%
... 2008 .... 79.6% .... 49.7% ... 84.0%
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net change .. +6.7% ... +2.2% .. +18.8%
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Look at what is happening in Georgia HERE.
Poor test results land many students in summer school
More students in Georgia and elsewhere will return to school this summer for extra help in passing standardized state tests. Nearly 38% of Georgia eighth-graders and 28% of fifth-graders -- roughly 82,000 children in all -- failed the state's math test. Students are being encouraged to enroll in summer classes in anticipation of retaking that exam, while some districts hurry to hire more instructors to teach the summer courses.
It appears that Georgia is passing more kids than Washington, wonder what the Georgia test looks like?
From an Aggrevated Math-minded Mom in Georgia:
ReplyDeleteGeorgia is changing the entire State High School curriculum to Integrated Math. UGA Dept of Ed is in charge (Georgia Tech does not have a real voice at the State Dept. of Ed.). This past year's 8th graders will be the first to go to HS with the new standards and were apparently using the new State standards/curriculum, this year. Our rural Georgia school system uses Connected Math for Middle and Everyday Math for Elem, with dismal results. A small group of parents in the north Atlanta suburbs are fighting the new HS Integrated standards - asking for a traditional math path, as well. There has been no change. The Georgia standards were already very low, my kids typically only miss one to five questions on the State administered CRCT math, while scoring perfect occassionally on other sections. Georgia schools are definitely at the bottom of the barrel, as it is. The graduates of 2012-2017 are being used as guinea pigs with the new curriculum and will not take algebra 1, geometry, etc. Instead, they will be taking MATH 1, Math2, MAth3, and MATH4. Very few kids will be grouped by ability for math. Math 1 will consist of a little of this and a little of that. The UGA Dept. of Ed is tickled pink with the experiment. One of their profs spoke to our school (parents) and explained that the kids can arrive at more than one answer and there will be lots of group work with the new spiraling state standards. One parent asked, "what if our children want to attend school out of state, will the other colleges understand what MAth 1, Math 2 mean?" The prof (who helped devise the new standards) replied "Well, they can understand a homeschooler's transcript, can't they?" Our current DOE is the result of a generation of math-minded people chosing not to become educators, letting a bunch of language-arts "types" run the entire education system into the ground, because "no one really likes math, anyway." (Direct quote from the same prof. at the meeting.)
I propose a misery index, much like the one used now in economics which is something like 22. The sum of the inflation rate plus the unemployment rate. Journalists started it (I'm not sure who originated) during an inflationary recession around 1974 and it didn't make Carter very popular.
ReplyDelete____________________________
Baseball has a misery index -
Historic despair: How many seasons have left fans chanting "Wait until next year!" the day after pitchers and catchers report to spring training?
Recent despair: In addition to fitted and adjustable caps, does the team store currently sell officially-licensed paper sacks for fans to wear on their heads?
Historic pain: How many autumn memories leave fans shaking worse than a Bill Buckner bobblehead?
Recent pain: Is the anguish so recent that most fans haven't repaired the TV screen yet?
Intangible misery: While subjective, this category takes into account misery (as well as apathy) not necessarily reflected in the won-loss record or in ESPN Classic reruns. For instance, a loss in Texas just simply doesn't provoke the same level of misery as a loss in Boston. Especially once the Cowboys report to training camp.
Misery outlook: Are fans looking forward to the current and near-future seasons or are they looking forward to their Fantasy Football draft?
___________________________
So why not education....I'll make it simple
Bergeson's misery index =
%Students that don't pass the Math WASL + Achievement Gap between whites and minorities.
I apologize for using "curriculum" and "standards" interchangeably in the post, above, but essentially, the new standards are "reform math," which follows a typical curriculum found in any "reform math" text. Garbage.
ReplyDeleteNo harm taken, the terminology is intentionally misleading for the interested public and we're glad you pointed it out because we know then we're helping to educate everyone about all the lies packed into our education realpolitik.
ReplyDeleteIf Bergeson wants to be made into a golden asse that's her problem.
I'll be happy to write the story.
ReplyDeleteCan't you do the math Dan? ;)
ReplyDeleteIt looks like 75775 students are in the class of 2010, and .497 have passed ...
WHICH MEANS 37660 HAVE FAILED!
http://www.k12.wa.us/resources/pubdocs/2008/Classof2010SLIDES.pdf
So, do we go with OSPI's glib
"Nearly 50 percent of this year’s 10th graders in the Class of 2010 have passed the math WASL." from their press release, OR
let's try some other approaches to disseminating information
- 15 years AFTER the passage of WASL,
- 3 Years after having a Requirement WASL to graduate,
- 2 YEARS AFTER dropping the MATH requirment due to SYSTEMIC Leadership failure,
FOR THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW
- over THIRTY THOUSAND of our 10 graders have flunked an 8th grade Math Test!
Now, we return to our regularily scheduled programming where we have spinning spirals of group work called curriculum, which looks like pandemonium, and we blame the teachers for pandemonium being pandemonium.
rmm.
Hey Check this from my latest post..
ReplyDeleteThe government has failed to grasp the nettle and replace methods of teaching which have failed with tried and tested methods used in countries that have much higher levels of maths achievement.
Except that is not the USA or Georgia or Washington State. We are talking England and they are actually discussing real change.
Sure we have the NMAP and look how far that is going to take us...
Let us watch that wonderful OSPI selected IMR criteria crew now referencing as secondary sources all the literature that produced the current disaster.
From an Aggrevated Math-minded Mom in Georgia:
ReplyDeleteI just saw a great chart at http://maththatworks.blogspot.com/
showing the ACT scores of kids (over 4 years) in regular algebra, honors algebra, Integrated math (as in 'spiraling'), and honors Integrated math (as in 'still spiraling'). Great chart, IF you aren't in integrated classes. It is from active parents in Columbia Missouri public schools and compares the change in ACT scores in each group of kids from 9th to 12th as they take the ACT each year.