Sunday, February 1, 2009

Seattle's coming PSAT Math results?
(any day now)

I received the following email from an SPS High School teacher:

"We took a day out of teaching in October to give those PSAT tests and I've seen kids with the results. Why aren't the results publicly posted with medians and percentiles?"

Let me see now.... it is February and we are into Second Semester...
(for when) I just must say ... any day now.
(For why) Maybe not so open and transparent as advertised

Not to worry because in the words of the Superintendent:
Excellence for all and Everyone held accountable.

Do you think the results will be excellent?
Do you think anyone will be accountable other than classroom teachers if the results are not excellent?

----------------------
Keep in mind ...
After the Carla Santorno led nearly autocratic adoption of Everyday Math (April & May 2007), Classroom Math time was increased to 75 minutes per day during SY 2007-2008 and coupled with big expenditures on Professional development and consumable materials.
These other interventions and expenditures should have produced improvement regardless of the curriculum.

But grade 4 Math WASL scores declined from 61.9% to 56.4% from spring 2007 to Spring 2008 (adoption year results were worse for grade 4).
................. SPS .. State
2004-05 .... 59.1% . 60.8%
2005-06 .... 59.5% . 58.9%
2006-07 .... 61.9% . 58.1%
2007-08 .... 56.4% 53.6%

But for Hispanic Students
2004-05 .... 37.4% . 35.8%
2005-06 .... 39.6% . 36.9%
2006-07 .... 43.5% . 35.5%
2007-08 .... 33.5% . 31.3%


No one held accountable for the above
in fact no one noticed.

Will the same be true for PSAT Math?
----------------------------------------
For the Future where the district might be going:

Strategic Plan "Excellence for All"
Vision

At Seattle Public Schools (SPS), we see a city where:

• All students achieve at high levels, receive the support they need and leave high school prepared for college, career and life;

• Every school is a high quality school;

• District leadership and staff model excellence and accountability; and

• The whole community is engaged as partners in supporting and strengthening the school system.
-----------------------------------------
The Immediate plans as of "Excellence for All" June 2008

• Math: A Math Project Team will develop an implementation plan and timeline for action during summer 2008. Alignment of the elementary and middle school instructional materials to the new State Performance Expectations will be completed this summer.
(the above never happened)
(EDM is followed with a pacing plan that has nothing to do with Grade Level Performance expectations)
Teacher leaders from each elementary, middle and high school will be trained during the summer of 2008 to facilitate professional development sessions for their schools around the mathematics content and the pedagogy needed to support implementation of an aligned program.

Every math teacher will be provided up to four days of professional development to learn to use the online resources included with the Curriculum Guide.
------------------------------------------------

No comments: