Why, after two and a half years of blogging, it’s practically a tradition! Yes, it’s time for my annual post (or two or three…) about the kick-off to the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) prep season. And this year brings a stunner. You can read for yourself:
Eastern Families,
I am very excited to share that beginning Tuesday, January 26, 2010 Eastern will implement a minor schedule modification. This modification is the addition of a daily 27 minute MSA practice session. This session will occur between 2nd and 3rd period each day. In order to dedicate this time each of the seven periods will be shortened from 49 to 45 minutes. We will return the original schedule at the conclusion of the MSA (March 22, 2010) .
The MSA practice time we be used as follows:
1 day each week of testing strategies.
2 days each week focused on the reading standards.
2 days each week focused on the math standards.The MSA practice groupings were formed based on the students predicted MSA performance. Each group has been assigned a minimum of two staff coaches. Almost every adult in the building including teachers, counselors, administrators, secretaries, and building services staff have committed to working with students during this MSA practice time.
Eastern Middle School has administered two MSA practice tests (October and December). The data from the practices was analyzed to determine areas in need of additional support for each English class and each Math class. The MSA practice time will be used to provide structured practice on those cotent indicators that our students showed as areas in need of improvement.
Some of you may ask… my child is in advanced classes and does not need MSA prep — why do they have to do this? First, this is a whole-school initiative. Offering this preparation opportunity for some students and not for all conflicts with our philosophy that we are one school that provides equitable opportunities for all students. Second, the MSA focuses on grade level content. Our advanced students are working beyond their grade level and may have not practiced the tested skills for quite a while. All students will benefit from the structured content review — particularly in math.
Thank you in advance for your support of this MSA preparation plan.
Please feel free to contact me directly via email or 301-650-6650 if you have any questions or concerns.(name removed)
Proud Principal
Predictably–and justifiably, in my opinion–there have been howls of protest on the school’s listservs. As one parent commented “lumping all magnet students (for the purposes of a “whole-school” approach) into what is essentially remedial instruction for six weeks is completely inappropriate – and yet another symptom of what is going wrong with this program and this school.” Others chimed in that this much test prep is inappropriate for any child who is solidly “proficient” or “advanced.” Yet another posited that her child would get more benefit from an additional 27 minutes of sleep a day.
Bottom line: You can wrap it in all the “excited” and “opportunity” and “proud principal” you like, but it’s still a perfect illustration of the misguided, “one size fits all” approach on which MCPS is hell bent. Yikes. And sorry to go all “red zone” on you again, but I would guess that kids in Potomac aren’t losing 11 hours of instructional time in the coming weeks to prep for the MSAs (or are they??).
The principal responded…and just seemed to dig herself in deeper.
I do not disagree with any of the points that were made in these emails. The amount of energy and time that is dedicated to one single assessment – the MSA – can be extremely frustrating. It is the current state of public education in the US as mandated by NCLB that each state implement this type of test. The performance targets for these tests increase each year.
As you know, Eastern MS did not meet the targets for the 2009 MSA. It is my charge as principal to ensure that our instructional programs and MSA preparation and planning were reveiwed [sic] and modified in a effort to meet the 2010 targets. While some may feel that our the test preparations initiatives are not necessary for thier [sic] child I beleive [sic] that a whole school approach is appropriate for Eastern Middle School. The groupings and instructional strategies have been differentiated based on predicted MSA score and every effort will be made to make the time meaningful for every student.
I recognize that using any time for anything other than instruction may not be a desired state, however, there are activities, events, and opportunities that arise that require use of class time. These include guest speakers, field trips, required testing, and in this case MSA preparation.
There are students, humanities nad [sic] comprehensive, that have demonstrated advanced level academic ability. This being said I repeat that I beleive [sic] that a schoolwide MSA prep initiative is appropriate for EMS. Again, we are committed to making this MSA prep time beneficial for all. I ask this of you and your students…. give us two weeks to implement this plan. We will monitor the effectiveness carefully. If there is evidence after this two weeks that a test prep group has demonstrated advanced level abilities on the prep items then we will consider alternative use of this time for these students. Evidence will include performance data and student feedback.
A PTSA meeting is scheduled for Feb. 2.
My child in a 4th grade GT Center is also having to prepare for MSAs — an absolutely ridiculous waste of time.
That said, is it possible that the Eastern principal is giving himself an out (albeit a typo-ridden one)? A way to do this for two weeks and then cut out the kids who don’t need it?
My brother loves to tell the story of how in 6th grade he got hit with a one-week suspension for refusing to participate in the test prep the school was doing. After a heated discussion with my parents, the principal and the teacher agreed to take the suspension off his permanent record and just informally allow him to watch videos in the school office for the week. The kicker of the story is that my brother received the highest score of any kid in any grade, not only in that school but in the entire district
Some of you may ask… my child is in advanced classes and does not need MSA prep — why do they have to do this? First, this is a whole-school initiative. Offering this preparation opportunity for some students and not for all conflicts with our philosophy that we are one school that provides equitable opportunities for all students. Second, the MSA focuses on grade level content. Our advanced students are working beyond their grade level and may have not practiced the tested skills for quite a while. All students will benefit from the structured content review — particularly in math.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This is egregious. We saw this in our GT Centers too. The elementary principal was obsessed with scores (the school failed to make AYP) and the music teacher told me off the record the GT teachers were under enormous pressure to knock those scores out of the ballpark. To mask the failing kids, of course.
I find this practice reprehensible and am surprised that in my county, there is barely a howl of protest. I’m so glad we use class time so efficiently. No matter. Waste precious class time and then send all the work home to the family. Yes, our gifted kids don’t need our help much but when they are overloaded with after school work, the entire family is affected.
I’m outraged. This is unacceptable.
last year my 5th grader was sick with the flu through a good portion of the MSA prep time. He went into the MSA without that. BUT, his school had made the MSA prep count as a high percentage of his grade so he had to do the practice MSAs AFTER the MSAs were done. We were both highly annoyed.
BTW it was the first time my 2e gt-but-dysgraphic son scored advanced for reading.
As far as I can tell it has become standard operating procedure to devote class time to test prep. Additionally, my kids have had buckets of test prep homework.
The most egregious experience we’ve had with test prep was actually in second grade for the Terra Nova. In addition to doing test prep at school, they were sent home over Christmas break with a lengthy video to watch and voluminous booklets of test prep material to complete. What outraged me though was the story related to me by my child. She explained that one of the topics to be reviewed was multiplication. She said that she understood it because she was in the high math group, but a lot of the kids had no idea what it was and her teacher had told the children to have their parents explain it.
As I understand it, the whole point of the high stakes testing is to make sure the schools are doing a barely adequate job of educating the children. Here we have a school asking the parents to educate the children so they will be ready for a test (the Terra Nova) which is administered primarily to make sure they will be ready for the MSA. Aaagh!
“Offering this preparation opportunity for some students and not for all conflicts with our philosophy that we are one school that provides equitable opportunities for all students.” Using that logic, all students should be attending remedial tutorial sessions in all subjects, all students should receive free or subsidized lunches regardless of financial need, and all students should be on varsity sports teams regardless of ability and interest. When did schools decide that equity means pretending that students’ needs are identical?
I may have posted this before but it bears repeating. My son, now at a Center but at an immersion program last year, was so stressed out by the MSA prep at his school that he was frequently in tears, with stomachaches, etc. (He’s normally a confident kid who doesn’t worry a lot about school work.)
Finally, he confessed that the kids were told that if they didn’t do well on the MSA, their teachers would be fired. He really liked his teacher, and — as one of the higher performing kids in the class — felt like the entire responsibility to do well fell on his shoulders. He was a THIRD grader.
Now, I would be surprised if someone got up and explicitly said this to the kids, but he certainly got the message that the test was important for the school and staff. I complained to the principal but got a lukewarm response.
Another, can you see why some of us choose to homeschool? We ARE homechooling, may as well make it official. That whole business of sending everything home under the guise of teaching responsibility and practice is what kitchen table math (great blog, check it out) calls “outsourcing to parents.” And every level is affected. Your child struggling in math? Hire a tutor! Your PG/ADD girl having trouble with the homework load? Get a coach! Your child is brilliant in a gifted program? Do the work at home, teach it to yourself.
Switched on, I remember you liked my comment a while ago regarding that whole “guide on the side” when I said, “our homeschooled children teach themselves, we are the facilitators.” I have no problem with that because we were very child led and used a mix of CTY courses and a lot of self direction. I just don’t want my kid to be in school all day, only to come home and begin the second shift.
Our mission as parents of gifted children is to challenge and enrich them but still allow them to be a child. I have to laugh at the paucity of recess in today’s kindergarten. My daughter got far more outdoor play in 8th grade!
West Coast, it’s like some utopian society gone completely awry (don’t they always?), where everyone must be the same. Stamp out creativity and initiative because in an egalitarian culture, we cannot allow some to have it and some not.
Has anyone else noticed that the word “EQUITY” has now become the MCPS code word for “we can do whatever we want and if you don’t like it you are elitist/racist.”
I thought “equity” meant fairness. In MCPS, instead, it means they get to do whatever they want to do, and hang a label on it to prevent questioning. After all, who is against “Equity?”
And calling this “equitable” mandatory test prepration an “opportunity?” Give me a break! How is forcing kids who have patently already mastered the material to spend 27 minutes a day on test prep an “opportunity?” Oops, there I go being “inequitable” again.
Remember Alice in Through the Looking Glass, Lyda, when she meets Humpty Dumpty and, talking with him, she expresses surprise at the way he assigns meaning to words? Here’s part of their exchange:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
Jerry “Humpty Dumpty” Weast plays master – that’s all!
I’ve rarely seen a principal be so blatant (and so stupid) about test prep. It is usually disguised in some more educationally acceptable language.
You should feel lucky that you have such a stupid principal, as it is much easier to fight blatant stupidity in the press than it is to fight covert undermining of education.
Amen, Kevin!
Outrageous. The principal is wrong to blame her decisions on No Child Left Behind.
High stakes testing exists, and are a part of her reality. The time to practice those test taking skills should be every week or so, integrated into regularly scheduled math and language arts assessments.
Tests be written, at least occasionally, in the same form as the tests students will need to take for the MSA. If higher order thinking skills are to be evaluated (and one would hope they would be) part of the test could be written in MSA style, and the rest in a style the teacher prefers.
Students should NEVER spend time doing anything that can be called “test prep”. They should prep for the test by learning the material, and by being tested routinely every chapter or unit, in a format that is similar (at least occasionally) to the testing format that will be used. These tests should not take up a lot of time, and the results should be used to inform instruction.
You commenters rock! As Kevin observes, this principal merely had the misfortune to be so frank about what they are doing–and to be in a school community with a gifted magnet.
See this short article by Roy Gamse of Imagine Schools Foundation, on the importance of “Not Tutoring to the Test”
http://www.imagineschools.com/uploadedFiles/Learn_More/May%2008%20newsletter.pdf
“This modification is the addition of a daily 27 minute MSA practice session. This session will occur between 2nd and 3rd period each day.”
Hey, who needs science when you can have a test prep session every day?
“High stakes testing exists, and are a part of her reality. The time to practice those test taking skills should be every week or so, integrated into regularly scheduled math and language arts assessments.”
Some of the schools in our county do something like this. I checked my son’s grades and it looks like about 7 times per qter in each of about 3-4 classes. And it is math related in science and math, language arts related in english, sometimes even geography related in social studies. He never talks about them so I don’t think it takes much of the class time. We haven’t gotten to MSA time at this particular school but so far seems better than taking a week or more of straight practice right before MSA time.
“High stakes testing exists, and are a part of her reality. The time to practice those test taking skills should be every week or so, integrated into regularly scheduled math and language arts assessments.”
I’ll take it step further. I hear you but I’d like to eliminate the prep entirely, particularly for gifted kids, hidden or not. I can’t stop thinking about this blog because it is such a red hot button issue for me. I see no justification. Learning yes, endless high stakes test prep for gifted kids, no. Yes, gifted kids need grounding in basic skills too, no argument there. But that can be achieved without relentless test prep. As long as NCLB is around, it changes the entire landscape of schooling. And not for the better. Testing drives everything, whether covert or laid bare such as the tactics of said stupid principal (thanks, Kevin, for telling it like it is).
My daughter managed to learn the basics in private school without test prep. If parents of gifted children complain, they are accused of being “elitist.” Equity now means equal opportunity mediocrity. If my daughter’s magnet school were ever allowed to chuck the tests, there’d be howls of protest about those rich snotty kids (not us!). If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander, today’s conventional wisdom goes. So we waste their time too so no one all around feels bad.
I was extremely reticent to pull my daughter out of private and put her in a public GT Center because of concerns about a test driven culture, and my feelings have not changed in the seven years since we switched.
It’s a waste of time. It sends almost all of the work home that should have been done in school. When I want to know what got done in school that day, the answer I’m not looking for is, we spent a half hour each day on test prep. It teaches kids early on that you learn for a test. It is not about the kids. It is No PRINCIPAL Left Behind. Let’s not kid ourselves. A little bit of prep is too much if gifted kids don’t need it. Heck, I don’t think anyone needs it. Respected educators such as Deborah Meier and Susan Ohanian have demonstrated for years how everyone, rich or poor, can get a dynamic education without test prep. Let’s be honest. The principal desperately needs those high scores to keep her job.
I remember this great exchange on Gifted Exchange. I laughed wryly because I had an identical conversation. Mother is talking to the principal. “What are you complaining about?” the principal asks incredulously. “Your child has monster test scores!” “Um, an education would be nice,” replies the mom.
Exhibit A: I took my daughter out of school for 8th. In 7th, she took the SAT, like so many here, for continued CTY eligibility. She could have taken the SAT test again in September of her 8th grade year. We didn’t, no reason to.
But had she and continued to produce very high scores before the school year even began, does that mean she no longer needed an education that year and we could just skip the whole darn thing? After all, a good bit of 8th grade was going to be test prep, had we left her in school. Well, no (actually yes, if you unschool but our unschooling was chock full of learning).
State test prepping gifted kids amounts to the same thing. It is wasting precious time and limited resources better spent elsewhere, focused entirely on achieving what you’d get without any prep at all and not giving these students what they truly need and crave — an education to meet their unique needs. In the end, isn’t that what every child, gifted or not, deserves? An education?
J-
What I mean by integrating test “prep” into regular class assessment isn’t what I think you may be envisioning.
The best “prep” of all is simply to teach the material. Even gifted kids sometimes need to learn grade level material, if they don’t teachers should find out quickly at the start of each unti of study with an assessment of skills. So, they should make sure at least one page of this assessment is written in the same format as the state mandated test. Usually that means multiple choice questions, in MD it includes a “brief Constructed Response” i.e. show your work using words or numbers.
So if your child’s third grade class is starting a unit on telling time, the teacher should sit down with the third grade “time” objectives, give a pretest with one page looking just the like MSA math test section on time, and let kids show what they know. A good teacher would go above and beyond just that, because the MSA is a test of very low-level skills. So she should include harder and more meaningful questions on the pretest; and certainly on any post test. But always she should make sure that one page is written in basic multiple choice format with some Breif Constructed Responses. Now, most math textbooks don’t have unit tests that are written like this, so the school district should provide these designed for each math unit, if it hasn’t already.
IMO these pretests aren’t just “meaningless test prep”. It gives the teacher meaningful information as to what her kids know and what gaps may exist; and it was a very quick way to be sure all her kids know how to anser the BCRs and use process of elimiation , etc.
That should be it. You should never need to do a weeks worth of “test prep”. And anyhow, what schools REALLY mean when they say they are practicing test preparation is, they are RETEACHING the material using as many tricks and mnemonics as they can. They are helping kids cram for the test — that shoudl NEVER be allowed, certainly not the month or so before the actual test. The time to teach the material is in September.
I am disgusted to announce that Eastern recently completed the MSA Show-What-You-Know Pep Rally. We engaged in a variety of earsplitting activities that ate up half of today’s instruction. We missed several periods worth of class. I am insulted that my school has altered the schedule for MSA remedial lessons. It is also disappointing that we received FREE t-shirts that say SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW ON THE MSA! How many of you are happy for that usage of the schools already-small budget?
I thought so.