Link to Seattle Times article
Link to SPS community Blog posting
At New Tech Sacramento and LA Global (LAUSD), two NTN demo schools, as well as Student Empowerment Academy (LAUSD) there are no math classes taught below Algebra I. Here are the percentages of students testing at Below Basic or Far Below Basic for each of the last three years on End Of Course assessment.
Algebra I
2007 . 2008 . 2009
(77) : (70) : (57) .. LA Global*
(52) : (53) : (80) .. Sacramento*
(67) : (54) : (43) .. Student Empower
Geometry
2007 . 2008 . 2009
(55) : (94) : (84) .. LA Global*
(63) : (65) : (69) .. Sacramento*
(87) : (90) : (85) .. Student Empower
Algebra II
2007 . 2008 . 2009
(55) : (75) : (82) .. Global*
(79) : (89) : (94) .. Sacramento*; of 50 students tested:
advanced =0 proficient=1 basic=2
below basic = 18 far below basic = 29
Seattle is paying $800,000 to copy schools like this, so all the kids can take Calculus _ _ How stupid do these directors and staff think we are?
(85) : (77) : (77) .. Student Empower
NT Sacramento is the school that Directors Sundquist and Martin-Morris visited.
This is one of the 41 successful NTN schools as described by CAO Enfield. This is the one that is most demographically similar to Seattle. I congratulate Director Sundquist for keeping a straight face when he said NTN schools academic performance is mixed.... Oh Yes look at these scores and think Calculus based on Project Based Learning at Cleveland and enrolling 1000 students.
As for Director Martin-Morris very imaginative: Thornton Creek uses Project Based Learning and they do really well on the grade 5 WASL .... ergo Calculus at Cleveland using Project Based Learning is just fine.
NEWS FLASH for Harium !!!
One week ago in the HS Math adoption appeal in Superior court. The SPS attorney told Judge Julie Spector that the WASL Math was not a valid measurement of Math Skill.
{At Thorton Creek how much PBL is used for math? How many kids are Kumon Kids and Sylvan kids? How are parents doing at the dinner table math sessions? We have a public that is quite resentful that their extraordinary measures to teach math are being used by districts as validation for their crappy math programs .... so Harium will now use this to leap to High School PBL math instruction that will produce Calculus students ... Are we actually to take any of these nonsense explanations seriously?}
So let me get this straight when Harium needs the Math WASL to Flim Flam us with 5th grade Thorton Creek WASL scores to confirm PBL Calculus at Cleveland is realistic. Then the Math WASL is OK.
but when TEAM McLaren goes after the SPS for incredibly bad Inquiry Math WASL scores at Cleveland and Garfield for ELL students ... then WASL does not count.
That makes just as much sense as when the SPS attorney told Judge Spector that the inquiry stuff used at Cleveland and Garfield did not apply because the "Discovering Math Series" is a balanced approach. Why would you think that?
I guess only because Anna Maria dela Fuente kept repeating it during the adoption meetings and board meetings.
[GET A CLUE: the book is called "Discovering" it is not called "Balanced". There is a reason for this. It is on page four in each book.]
Attorney for TEAM McLaren, Keith Scully, responded with:
Judge turn to page four the publishers tell you that this is an investigative approach to teaching mathematics. If you don't believe the publisher start paging through the lessons, it is just investigation after investigation. The only thing balanced about this program is a little supplementary booklet called compact lessons, which has some "Explicit Instruction" but what is the chance a kid will ever see this? Much less use it regularly.
This district leadership is living in fantasyland. No doubt about that.
#2. New Technology High in Sacramento* is one of the older NTN schools (Sept. 2003). It has been stated that these schools get better over time. Test scores at NT Sacramento have not.
California classifies schools each year with API numbers. The API ranks are determined by academic performance standing relative to all CA schools. A 10 = highest 10% of CA schools and a 1 = lowest 10%, thus a 6 is slightly above average and a 5 is slightly below.
Here are API rankings for NT Sacramento & enrollment thru grade 11, seniors not included:
Year API ranking enrollment
2005 6 240
2006 5 239
2007 4 236
2008 3 223 -- but similar schools rank of 2
LA Global* in LAUSD began in Sept 2006.
API Rankings in both 2007 and 2008 are 1. Global also has a Similar Schools API ranking of 1 in 2008, which places it in the bottom 10% of demographically similar schools.
BizTech, Portland currently Classified by AYP as “In Improvement”:
BT is failing to make adequate yearly progress.
BizTech (an NTN school) is trying to copy NT Napa*
OAKS Results
Scale: % meeting or exceeding standards
Grade 10
Reading
43% (2009)
52% (2008)
41% (2007)
The state average for Reading was 66% in 2009.
Science
40% (2009)
33% (2008)
The state average for Science was 58% in 2009.
Writing
46% (2009)
52% (2008)
32% (2007)
The state average for Writing was 55% in 2009.
Math
32% (2009)
33% (2008)
35% (2007)
The state average for Math was 54% in 2009.
Source: OR Dept. of Education, 2008-2009
BizTech had its largest enrollment in 2005
ENROLLMENT CHARACTERISTICS
Year 9 10 11 12 TOTAL
2004 53 47 73 44 217
2005 109 68 77 43 297
2006 84 104 67 37 292
2007 66 81 80 35 262
2008 89 65 65 60 279
So there were 60 seniors in 2008 that came from 109 frosh.
That's 55% and not particularly unusual for NTN schools
The previous class started with 53 seniors and ended with 35
that is 66%
Now think about the 98% graduation rate that CAO Enfield gave out for NT Sacramento. Well she is probably not that great at math ... but I would sure love to have her explain the formula that gave 98% and then relate it to anything that means anything.
Because NT Sacramento is running numbers similar to BizTech
NT Welby* in Colorado is another demonstration school* (as in supposedly good)
CSAP Results for Welby New Tech grades 9 and grades 10
Scale: % at or above proficient
Grade 9
Reading
36% (2009)
30% (2008)
31% (2007)
32% (2006)
The state average for Reading was 67% in 2009.
Writing
14% (2009)
16% (2008)
19% (2007)
13% (2006)
The state average for Writing was 51% in 2009
Math
11% (2009)
10% (2008)
10% (2007)
7% (2006)
The state average for Math was 35% in 2009. Source: CO Dept. of Education,
2008-2009
Grade 10
Reading
39% (2009)
41% (2008)
43% (2007)
15% (2006)
state av. Reading was 69% in 2009.
Science
18% (2009)
31% (2008)
state av. Science was 50% in 2009.
Writing
20% (2009)
20% (2008)
19% (2007)
9% (2006)
state av. for Writing was 49% in 2009.
Math proficiency at NT Welby* grade 10
4% (2009)
7% (2008)
1% (2007)
8% (2006)
state av. for Math was 30% in 2009
At NT Welby* …Note that cohort math scores for proficiency actually decline from grade 9 to grade 10:
9th at 7% in 2006 -> 1% 10th 2007
9th at 10% in 2007 -> 7% 10th 2008
9th at 10% in 2008 -> 4% 10th 2009
At BizTech 10th grade math scores are not improving over time:
Math
32% (2009)
33% (2008)
35% (2007)
The state average for Math was 54% in 2009.
At the mother school (1996) NT Napa* in the Napa Valley Unified School district the district has 44% low income and NT Napa* has only 19% low income. Still mean math scores at NT Napa* are below the District mean on every math course EOC in 2008 and 2009. It would seem that with such an economic disparity that NT Napa would at least occasionally be producing more advanced students in Math course EOCs but NO that never happened. The average percentage of students placing at the advanced level on Math EOCs in 2008 and 2009 was NVUSD = 8.0% and NT Napa* = 2.2%
EOCs were given in Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra II
* indicates a New Technology Network demonstration school (a special distinction)
The Southeast families have yearned for effective efficient k-12 education the culmination of which would be a Great Comprehensive high school.
This poorly researched proposal when magnified by the Student Assignment Plan misses the real desires and needs of the Southeast community completely. It reveals how far out of touch the "Broad" Superintendent is from Seattle Families and their needs.
Proposals must Serve Seattle families NOT the "Broad Foundation".
Clearly a Comprehensive high school with improved Math and Science is needed to serve SE families a small well planned STEM academy beginning in fall 2011 and based on a solid foundation from researching effect sizes in Hattie’s “Visible Learning” would be far more appropriate than extending the failed inquiry model and attempting to replicate NTN Schools with extremely poor results with $800,000 worth of guidance over the next three years.
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