This morning Jay Mathews writes about standardized testing. Based on the story’s title, Improvement on Tests More Telling Than Pass Rates, I was hoping he would have something to say about kids who score “advanced” year after year on standardized tests. Instead the article focuses on underperforming students, and reveals just how out of touch he is:
I have been hearing for some time about this practice of devoting special attention to what are called the “on-the-bubble” kids. They are close to scoring proficient on the annual test, which affects the school’s rating under the No Child Left Behind law. Some schools give them extra teacher time, leaving less help for lower-performing students, such as Shawn, who have no chance of increasing the passing rate. I sometimes shrugged this off as just one more sign of poorly led schools. A good principal, I said, would put an end to such nonsense.
But Fine’s story surprised me, because she is working at one of the city’s best-led public schools. Its founder, Irasema Salcido, has made great strides with impoverished children. That Salcido and her team hired Fine, one of the best writers I have seen among full-time teachers, indicates their good judgment. So does their decision to use Fine as a department chair and teaching coach in her four years at the school. So if focusing on bubble kids was standard operating procedure at Cesar Chavez, it was a bigger problem than I thought.
Reading that, all I could think was “d’oh.” Has Jay been living under a rock? Parents…and teachers…have been talking about this for years.
Jay’s answer? Value-added assessments. I’m all for that. That’s why I’ve been a booster, for example of greater sharing of MAP-R results and increasing the availability out of level testing. The devil is in finding the way to do it. Jay goes on to tout the monitoring systems of International Baccalaureate programs. Now I’m a big high school IB fan too. But I have yet to see where the monitoring/assessment–other than the diploma exams in 11th and 12th grade–come into play. I’m particularly fuzzy on how the IB works in middle and elementary grades. I know that schools have to go through a lot of hoops to be approved as an IB school. But as a parent, again, how do I know? How do I know how my school and/or its teachers are being evaluated? Where can I see their submissions to the IB officials, and the IB evaluation of my school’s program?
“Trust us” is not enough.
Dear switchedonMom,
Jay Mathews, although a very nice man, is a media shill for the International Baccalaureate Organization. His book Supertest, was co-authored by IBO’s Deputy Director General and published by an IBNA Board member.
You say that schools have to go through a lot of hoops to be approved as an IB school. This is simply untrue. As long as a district pays the application fee ($17,000), as long as a district sends its teachers for training ($60,000 avg. before a single class is taught) as long as a district pays the annual $9150 membership dues and all of the checks are good – Voila! You are now an IB authorized school. There is no contract between a district and IBO. If you want to see your district’s application to IBO, you most likely will have to FOIA it. Be sure to ask for Apps A & B. Then be prepared to be labeled a heretic and troublemaker for daring to ask these pesky questions.
In 2007, according to IBO’s own documentation, 72 schools applied to become IB, 72 schools were authorized. Does that sound very prestigious to you?
http://www.truthaboutib.com
-Lisa
Lisa, thanks for commenting. For the high school certificate level courses one can assess the efficacy of instruction/preparation the students receive by the number who pass the exams and earn the IB diploma. And I appreciate the fact that it is an internationally recognized credential. (I’m not going to get into the whole AP credits vs. IB credits thing.)
But at middle and elementary school what I hear from MCPS is a lot of “it’s IB, ergo, it’s rigorous.” it sounded all good and multi-culti (and I’m all for that) but it also struck me as vague and squishy. Is there a curriculum? Can I see it? I want to know more about the teacher training (worthwhile?). More importantly I want to know how the schools are periodically assessed/evaluated and against what standards. Thanks for adding another “to-do” to the list!
Dear SOM,
Allow me to be the first to tell you that your blog has been featured by the editors of the Washington Post this morning: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/04/jay_on_the_web_a_debate_over_t.html
I had posted a comment after Jay’s original article regarding IB and Special Education which WAPO removed. Perhaps that was because they saw I commented over here. Whatever the case, I think it is important to point out that a 10th Grade student with a 3rd Grade reading level clearly has some sort of learning disability and should be classified as SE. Jay’s obsession with promoting IB fails to inform readers of IB’s SE requirements which do not provide SE students with the same accommodations as AP. You can find more detailed information about IB and SE on my website.
As to IB school evaluations – the following is a link to a PYP evaluation recently performed in Upper St. Clair, PA. I will let you come to your own conclusion after reading the report as to what the answer is to your very good question regarding whether there is a “curriculum” and against what “standards” the programme is assessed:
http://truthaboutib.com/images/Streams_International_Baccalaureate_Evaluation_Report_-_Mar.pdf
Please note that the Standard regarding Curriculum defines it as “A comprehensive, coherent written curriculum based on the requirements of the programme AND DEVELOPED BY THE SCHOOL, is available to ALL sections of the school community”
Every public school must write a curriculum which meets its State’s educational standards. The requirements of the IB programme involve making sure that “internationalmindedness” is incorporated into all of the lessons in addition to addressing the various IB “themes” such as “Who are we”, etc.
The other IB “requirement” at the PYP level is that the ENTIRE school should be IB. IB allowed USC to go for 5 years with a 50/50 student split (traditional/IB) due to the ACLU lawsuit and incredible controversy in the district. To date, USC has not made a decision to totally convert the Streams elementary to all IB, nor has IBO pulled its authorization.
I’m curious, does your district annually report the number of students who were full DP candidates and the number of IB Diplomas actually earned? Are you aware that a student can actually fail half (1 HL and 2 SL) of the IB DP exams and still walk away with a potential score of 28 and the Diploma?
p.s.
I didn’t mean to overlook your other important question about IB teacher training. IB Teacher training, while touted by IBO in the past as one of its assets, consisted of 3 day training sessions which were almost always held in a distant location. My own district in NY has sent teachers to NM, CA, FL, KS, etc. There are 3 Levels of training. Each 3 day session, per teacher, per level, averaged $1,500 including hotel and airfare.
In an effort to overcome district objections to this onerous expense, just this year IBO has moved some of its “training” online. These “training” sessions take the form of a message board:
http://www.ibo.org/events/onliconsum109/documents/LearningOnline.pdf
Based on today’s currency conversion schedule, online IB training costs $437.01 per teacher, per subject, per level. The “training” is offered over a 6 week period with a 4 hour commitment per week.
Thanks for your comments and additional information, Lisa. I saw the Mathews feature get posted at around 1 a.m. but at that point felt I needed to head to bed! (I approved your comments on my iPhone on the Metro and I’m at a Cosi right now, getting some coffee before going into the office.
) I’ll have to do some digging around re IB stats. I know that our district is huge on APs…but the emphasis to date has been more on participation (thanks Jay!) than scores. I think the reporting has shown kids earning a 3 or above…but a 3 isn’t that impressive, IMHO. Anyway, I need to take off my SOM blogger hat and go to work. More later.
“but the emphasis to date has been more on participation (thanks Jay!) than scores.”
Do I detect a note of sarcasm?
Here’s a sample. This is the 2008 Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School IB profile http://search.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/cs.html?url=http%3A//www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/bcchs/aboutbcc/profile/ibprofile08.pdf&charset=utf-8&qt=ib+diploma&col=&n=27&la=en
SOM,
Thank you.
I have a question. For the year 2006, how is it possible to have more diploma candidates than anticipated candidates?
Class of 2006
Diploma Candidates 84
Anticipated Candidates 81
I’m sure if you call and ask, they’ll tell you it’s just a “typo”. Your district actually gives more information than a lot of districts, but you seem like the inquisitive sort so I have a challenge for you. Try and find out what the “mean” IB Diploma and SAT/ACT scores were for those three years.