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By Amanda Stevens, Lakewood

Colorado has a new education ritual: the Back-to-School Scores Blitz. We devour the Rocky Mountain News’ CSAP edition every August, with shouts of praise and shivers of disappointment echoing from various corners of the state. With all these scores available, why are we still seeing so little progress, especially in the learning gaps between minority students and white students and between the rich and the poor?

The reality is that more progress in student learning is already happening.

The current reporting of Colorado Student Assessment Program test scores punishes where there should be praise. I disagree with those who see standardized tests as evil. On the contrary, CSAP helps me better understand my students and my own teaching. So what’s the problem? CSAP stops being a tool and becomes a bludgeon when it is mishandled. Consider for example my home turf.

I teach in a small town in the heart of the Denver area — sandwiched between behemoths Denver, Littleton and Englewood — that values its small size. We are neighbors from one corner of our tiny district to the other. We take the triumphs and failures of our fellow citizens personally, especially the triumphs and failures of our schools.

Under the current system of reporting scores, our district looks to be in a sorry state. As reported in the Rocky, we hold some of the lowest reading, writing and math scores in the metro area. We are categorized on our school report card as low achieving, with the minor note that we are improving. However, there is much to celebrate that is currently ignored, perhaps even unknown. Indulge me by reading a few highlights from our middle school:

Sheridan eighth-graders improved in proficient paragraph writing, from 32 percent to 42 percent, and in proficient essay writing (generally five paragraphs long) from 40 percent to 68 percent. The only information reported by the state: 21 percent proficiency overall.

In 2006, Sheridan Middle School was weak in vocabulary: 42 students with extremely low scores, and only five with advanced scores. Through hard work, we transformed our vocabulary scores: only 18 had extremely low scores, and now 18 held advanced scores — 12 of which maxed out the grading scale (the students earned every possible vocabulary point, getting no vocabulary questions wrong).

We fulfilled all requirements for annual yearly progress at all grade levels (sixth, seventh and eighth) in reading.

We actually met the requirements for annual yearly progress in math and reading in 48 out of 54 subscores.

Our minority and English-language learners grow in learning at the same rate as our white and English-only students. The gap in learning is there, but these students are not falling further behind. In fact, our English-language learners consistently grow at a faster pace than other students.

Economics is not destiny. Though 86 percent of our students receive “free or reduced” lunch status, a clear indicator that the family earns less than it needs to support all its members, our students accomplish great things.

Why are they still subject to a system that does not give them their due? They deserve better.
Successes like these — measured by CSAP — have been ignored far too long. Rather than demoralize hard-working staff members and further disenfranchise successful struggling students (no, I don’t consider this an oxymoron), let’s celebrate the movement forward that we are making. With this in mind, I have a few recommendations:

Compare students to their own performance in past years, rather than comparing one year’s eighth-graders to another year’s eighth-graders, which reveals little beyond the fact that no two groups of kids are the same.

Compare districts with similar size and makeup, not merely geographic proximity; this will enable us to recognize, celebrate and learn from districts that succeed against the statistical odds.

Report significant gains in subscores, rather than merely trumpeting failures in overall scores, which reveals the socioeconomic realities of a district more than its educational excellence or lack thereof.

Stop highlighting the “best” and “worst” scores of schools with no regard to factors like income or the number of subgroups, unfairly rewarding predominantly white, middle-class schools.

William Butler Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Scores are powerful. In today’s education sphere, statistics can be weapons that bludgeon or tools that build. Let us wield them with passion and compassion, with nuance and optimism. If you have the pleasure of knowing real students, not just their numerical representations, you too know they deserve it.

Amanda Stevens is a language arts teacher at Sheridan Middle School. She is a resident of Lakewood.

READER COMMENTS

"Gary,

It is important to remember that it is not the schools selecting the programs but the district. The district decides the books thus deciding the material I will cover in my classroom.

Also, back in the 50's there was a parent at home to help students with homework right after school not five hours later when the parent gets home from their job, fix dinner and then sit down with their child to do their assignment. In the 50's and 60' s my Mother and most of my friends Moms were at the school door waiting to pick us up and meet casually with the teacher. Not like today where most of our students go home to an empty house or to a program where they are picked up usually around 6:00 or 6:30pm. "
*****************************************
Actually my mother raising me in the 50's in Arlington County Virginia was a telephone operator for the old Ma' Bell.

I was assigned homework at school and I was a latch key child with an elderly lady next door dropping in to make sure I was okay after returning from school.

Most every mom in the neighborhood worked also...

From this life's experience Mom's being home has little to do with a child's ability to absorb and learn math tables. It's not about the nurturing of the mother, it's about discipline, expectations and setting goals...

I see this all the time too, how the parents "involvement" is now becoming greater and greater even as they teachers "blame" lack of it. My mother never had the near the volume of paperwork putting me or my brother through school.

I find the waste of material astounding. These kids now have more 'tools' than I ever hoped to have and they still get low scores...

Now it's a whole slew of papers, printed, on colored paper communicating how much they need in money or time from parents.

What am I paying taxes for if I must lead my child through new material?

Homework is meant mainly to practice or review what has already been supposedly learned in school (not just taught) and possibly a small preview of what is to come the next day...

I completely reject that "social reasons" whether it be financial or whether a mother is home or not as the reason for low CSAP scores.

You bringing up the mother reason is just another variation of pointing the finger.

The finger just changed direction but it is still why "we can't" when in reality it has been proven by some urban schools that mother's being home, or poverty has little bearing...

The attitude now is that children are "wise" and can "teach us things".

Children are mostly blank tapes. What you put in is what you get back to a great degree.

This is why these arguments fall apart. There are too many examples exposed even on 60 minutes, PBS and NPR... not even taking into consideration my four years, that prove that mom's being home or poverty is not a reason for success or failure.

Maybe in extreme cases where violence is a part of a child's life, then things for the child change.

Being in socks with holes in them is not a reason for anything other than "we can't".

As far as the "district" being the "blame", is up to your union...

Teachers have a union. I was a Union steward for over 5 years.

These school boards take input from teachers all the time on everything else...It's not about "the books". Wow, between the lack of Mom's at home when junior gets home,poverty, lousy books and a school district not taking the union's input,I might as well bring these two home too and teach them.

Also teachers getting off over 20 days a year, not including Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter (then it's 41 days), strikes me as a priimary reason for CSAP scores taking dive.... it's attitude and the attitude shows with this type of absenteeism by teachers.

This too is a 'Union' deal...

Things aren't really that different now. Our times are not that unique. Contrary to what the politically correct crowd wants me to believe... 2+2 = 4 in 1955 and it is still the same in 2007...

I home schooled my oldest children in my 30's during the 70's and 80's.

There are basic methods that have progressively been changed or dropped over the past 40 years.

I guess looking at that as the failure would place the responsibility where it belongs on the school boards and the rest of the way down.

I know there are good teachers. I know their are teachers that could and want to do better and feel restricted by the "rules". If they are there, they should write about that, not about how one sided the reporting is on CSAP..

Does this sound harsh? Does this sound "opinionated".

I've worked with the poor off and on all my life, from the homeless to slow learners. I remain after this experience unconvinced.

I simply do not agree with your reasoning for our scores being lower... I think it has more to do with the social engineering going on...

The first thing our public schools should do is make the house of knowledge, of learning, a house that every child should show respect.

You show respect by dressing respectfully. That means slacks, clean shirts, dresses, pants, blouses that show respect for the institution they enter each day....
That includes all those high school children too.

Right from the git-go children know they are entering a disciplined environment....they need that more than, "Oh, you poor darling you don't have a mom, okay you pass...

Make learning fun, but you don't sacrifice the student learning by slackening expectations.

I enjoyed youe responses though.. quick thinking, very good....

Gary,

It is important to remember that it is not the schools selecting the programs but the district. The district decides the books thus deciding the material I will cover in my classroom.

Also, back in the 50's there was a parent at home to help students with homework right after school not five hours later when the parent gets home from their job, fix dinner and then sit down with their child to do their assignment. In the 50's and 60' s my Mother and most of my friends Moms were at the school door waiting to pick us up and meet casually with the teacher. Not like today where most of our students go home to an empty house or to a program where they are picked up usually around 6:00 or 6:30pm.

I'm all for CSAP in depth coverage. But it's not about student achievement. All students that have normal cognitive skills should be "up to par" with the norm. This isn't about being too hard on "the children".

It IS about the teaching ability of those teaching. It seems that the conversation whenever it gets to be about teacher performance is swept away with "economically challenged children"..

I taught supposedly "slow learners" for 4 years at 20-30 students per class. Sixth graders that had grade 2,3 and 4 reading skills and spelling skills. Throughout those 4 years I found one student that was actually a "slow learner" and he came from a middle class family...the rest weren't "slow learners" they just hadn't been taught correctly. There were "poor" and middle class students attending. All were up to grade level reading and spelling within 10 weeks while also attending their normal school. I had them two nights a week for "extra learning".

I have two children in school now. My oldest is receiving my help in elementary math. In her class they've done away with rote memory of basic addition and subtraction tables. They place their numbers in Algebra formula format. Our schools seem to be into the concept of what makes 2+2 = 4. They expect her to re-create the wheel on every problem...

At home she is adding and subtracting in columns after going over some table memory work, then transferring that calculation to the algebra format for her teacher.... I told her teacher that yes my child was being taught the "column" method because how else is she going to balance a check book?

With the algebra format, I simply hammer repeatedly that both sides of the equal sign must be equal. In that way I teach her to prove back to herself all of her calculations. This is not being taught in her 3rd grade class.

I could go on about teaching History too, but that is another "Speakout".
(There is some real social engineering going on there)

In the 50's we had the number 1 education system in the world. By the 90's we had fallen to number 19 and have done no better since. This is not because of the economic poverty of the parents, we had more poverty then. It's not because teachers and the schools don't receive enough money, we have increased the funding by ratio of dollar to student, even compensating for inflation, and still we fell.

It is about attitude. As long as we continue to blame our failures on "social issues" and excuse those that are hired to teach our childen, we will continue to fail whether we go into "detail of the sub-tests" or not.....

I enjoyed the article and I'm very glad that Amanda shared the progress with us. Her logic about the WHY is the same old liberal mantra of class distinctions being the reason why teachers can't teach. My experience shows me otherwise... sorry...

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