At a meeting in June my principal discussed the efforts of our school in narrowing the achievement gap (such a cliched term nowadays). Specifically, the gains of the lower end students were highlighted. An obvious upward trend could be seen. But, the high achievers basically showed no change. I mentioned at the meeting that this should [...]

A new requirement in California forces every 8th grader to enroll in Algebra and take a proficiency exam. This will be the first time students must take an upper-level math test prior to entering high school. The hope is that “the new policy will push school districts to ensure that eighth-graders are ready for the demands [...]

One of my criticisms of NCLB is that it causes too many schools to focus all of their attention on the bottom 25% of a school’s population while ignoring the middle- and upper-level students. Some of the effects of this focus in my school are: fewer upper-level course choices in order to create more lower-level courses, larger [...]

Washington State’s mandatory test, which needs to be passed to receive a diploma, is called the WASL. Recent articles have noted the recent announcement that 91% of the students passed—if you do not count the students who dropped out. By my figuring, this means about 68% of the original class of 2008 passed the state test. [...]

It’s state testing day number 6 today! Woo-hoo! I’m amazed how much time it takes to give our state test, the WASL. Just reading the scripted introduction and providing the instructions can take ten minutes. Then, the exam itself takes 2-3 hours per test. Yikes! Those poor kids. On the bright side, I love proctoring the WASL. ...

A while back I had a student, Davy, reach the final week of his final semester in high school, and he had a 40% in my senior Mythology course while maintaining an attendance rate of 60% (and I think a blood-alcohol level of 2.0 most of the semester). I wouldn’t budge on giving “extra credit” [...]

According to a new study in a Washington Post article: At a time when more authors are writing more books for young people, fewer children are reading for pleasure. A recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts showed that the percentage of 13- to 17-year-olds who read daily for fun dropped from 31 percent [...]

I sometimes feel this way about standardized testing and class sizes in my school.

I read an article today about high school seniors who are trying to pass the WASL in order to graduate. While I believe a minimum standard is acceptable for students to reach, I also feel that the credits earned should be the standard. However, that is not really my comment for today. I find it odd [...]

This week is my state’s standardized testing week. David Horsey (in a March 5, 2004, cartoon) and I feel quite similar when it comes to standardized testing, especially as indicator of school and student success. Here is his great cartoon: