Wednesday, October 4, 2017
The results are in. The Arizona Department of Education published a list of all the schools getting results-based funding for the 2017-18 school year. There aren't any real surprises for those of us who have been paying attention since the bill passed during the last legislative session. As expected, the list is heavy with schools filled with students from well-to-do families.
But, as skewed as this year's funding is toward more affluent Arizonans, this is likely be the most equitable spread of results-based money ever. Indications are, things will get far more inequitable starting next year. Hold that thought while I go through this year's numbers.
Just under 300 schools will receive results-based funding—about 17 percent of the state's district and charter schools. Between 35 and 40 percent of them have fewer than 30 percent of their students on free or reduced lunch even though only 18 percent of the state's schools fit into that category. On the other end of the economic spectrum, about 10 percent of schools on the list have more than 80 percent of their students on free or reduced lunch, even though over 30 percent of the state's schools fit into that category.
That means, if you're in one of the schools in the highest rent districts, you're far more likely to reap the benefits of results-based funding than if you're in a school in the poorer parts of town. You're also far more likely to be white and far less likely to be struggling with the English language or have learning disabilities.
That's what things look like at the economic extremes. If we look at all the schools on the list, the story stays pretty much the same. A majority of the state's schools—about 57 percent—have more than half their students on F/R lunch, yet they make up only about a third of the schools on the list. The other two-thirds are drawn from the 43 percent of schools with fewer low income students.
But wait 'til next year. As I said earlier, the numbers will only get more skewed toward the well-off and white.
Those are the basics for this year. Now, let's look at what results-based funding means in dollars and cents, then why the funds will favor schools in high rent districts even more in following years.
But, as skewed as this year's funding is toward more affluent Arizonans, this is likely be the most equitable spread of results-based money ever. Indications are, things will get far more inequitable starting next year. Hold that thought while I go through this year's numbers.
Just under 300 schools will receive results-based funding—about 17 percent of the state's district and charter schools. Between 35 and 40 percent of them have fewer than 30 percent of their students on free or reduced lunch even though only 18 percent of the state's schools fit into that category. On the other end of the economic spectrum, about 10 percent of schools on the list have more than 80 percent of their students on free or reduced lunch, even though over 30 percent of the state's schools fit into that category.
That means, if you're in one of the schools in the highest rent districts, you're far more likely to reap the benefits of results-based funding than if you're in a school in the poorer parts of town. You're also far more likely to be white and far less likely to be struggling with the English language or have learning disabilities.
That's what things look like at the economic extremes. If we look at all the schools on the list, the story stays pretty much the same. A majority of the state's schools—about 57 percent—have more than half their students on F/R lunch, yet they make up only about a third of the schools on the list. The other two-thirds are drawn from the 43 percent of schools with fewer low income students.
But wait 'til next year. As I said earlier, the numbers will only get more skewed toward the well-off and white.
Those are the basics for this year. Now, let's look at what results-based funding means in dollars and cents, then why the funds will favor schools in high rent districts even more in following years.
Tags: Results-based funding , AzMERIT scores , Educational inequity
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
It's something of an obsession with me, writing about AzMERIT scores. A new set of scores, a new use of the scores, a new news story about the scores, and there I am with another post or two or three. So here's yet another post, a rambling discussion on why the tests, the way they're reported on and the way they're used drive me nuts.
Let me start by getting something out of the way. The tests in and of themselves aren't bad. They give a reasonably accurate reflection of students' abilities in reading, writing and math. During my last few years teaching in a district outside of Portland, Oregon, I had to give the Oregon version of the high stakes standardized tests to my sophomore English classes. I did a pretty good job of predicting what my students' scores would be based on what I had learned about their reading and writing abilities during the eight months before the tests, which means the test scores generally reflected the students' skill levels. There were a significant number of exceptions, where students got higher or lower scores than I thought they would, which tells me the tests aren't always accurate on an individual level. But when you're looking at large numbers of students, and assuming everything is on the level—no "helpful encouragement" from teachers during the tests, no erase-and-replace of students' answers by staff after the students hand in their tests — their average scores tell you something about their skill levels relative to other groups of students.
Now, with that out of the way, the problems. The first is, the high stakes nature of the tests distorts the schools' curriculum and, sometimes, the test results. Since teachers, schools and school districts are judged by their students' scores, they're compelled to do everything they can to get the best results possible. That means teaching to the test, which means spending inordinate amounts of time and energy giving students the narrow skills needed to fill in the right bubbles. The give and take of loosely directed discussions is a luxury only to be indulged in when time allows. Creative pursuits, long term projects, even time on the playground are secondary to the central focus of the classroom: preparing students for test day. Teachers become mechanical skill-and-drill sergeants, which is not what they thought they signed up for when they decided to join the teaching profession. Students are encouraged to become robotic, learning how to be successful at performing variations of one repetitive task — answering short questions by picking the right answer from a short list of possibilities. The classroom is a different place — I would say a worse place — thanks to high stakes tests. And, sad to say, all that sweat, toil and tedium generally only adds a few points to students' scores and even less to students' actual skill levels, and since pretty much everyone is doing it, it's a wash. Every class, school and district's ranking in the state stays pretty much the same as it would have been if no one paid any attention to the test until test day.
And sometimes, the pressure to raise test scores leads individual teachers, or whole schools and districts, to cheat. Some schools and districts have been caught at it. Teachers and administrators in Atlanta went to jail for changing answers on student tests year after year. Others do it but haven't been caught. A series of articles in USA Today a few years back talked about a nationwide analysis of erasures on student tests and found that in many schools, including in Arizona, the number of wrong answers erased and replaced by right answers was as likely to be random as it was likely that the school be struck by lightning on test day. Though state departments of education rarely look deeply into suspicious scores, Arizona's ADE found nine schools where the evidence is strong enough, it's highly probable students' test papers were altered. Most likely, those schools are the visible tip of a larger problem. And that's just the most easily detectable form of cheating. There are lots of undetectable ways to boost scores without increasing the students' skill levels.
Cheating can become addictive, and additive. If a teacher cheats one year, how does he/she go back to being honest the next year without having to explain the drop in scores? If third grade teachers cheat, fourth grade teachers look bad if their students score lower than they did back in the third grade—and so on, up the grades. Educators are basically an honest, moral, but not necessarily courageous lot. If you put their salaries and/or their jobs on the line, many of them are liable to do what it takes to push those scores up.
Let me start by getting something out of the way. The tests in and of themselves aren't bad. They give a reasonably accurate reflection of students' abilities in reading, writing and math. During my last few years teaching in a district outside of Portland, Oregon, I had to give the Oregon version of the high stakes standardized tests to my sophomore English classes. I did a pretty good job of predicting what my students' scores would be based on what I had learned about their reading and writing abilities during the eight months before the tests, which means the test scores generally reflected the students' skill levels. There were a significant number of exceptions, where students got higher or lower scores than I thought they would, which tells me the tests aren't always accurate on an individual level. But when you're looking at large numbers of students, and assuming everything is on the level—no "helpful encouragement" from teachers during the tests, no erase-and-replace of students' answers by staff after the students hand in their tests — their average scores tell you something about their skill levels relative to other groups of students.
Now, with that out of the way, the problems. The first is, the high stakes nature of the tests distorts the schools' curriculum and, sometimes, the test results. Since teachers, schools and school districts are judged by their students' scores, they're compelled to do everything they can to get the best results possible. That means teaching to the test, which means spending inordinate amounts of time and energy giving students the narrow skills needed to fill in the right bubbles. The give and take of loosely directed discussions is a luxury only to be indulged in when time allows. Creative pursuits, long term projects, even time on the playground are secondary to the central focus of the classroom: preparing students for test day. Teachers become mechanical skill-and-drill sergeants, which is not what they thought they signed up for when they decided to join the teaching profession. Students are encouraged to become robotic, learning how to be successful at performing variations of one repetitive task — answering short questions by picking the right answer from a short list of possibilities. The classroom is a different place — I would say a worse place — thanks to high stakes tests. And, sad to say, all that sweat, toil and tedium generally only adds a few points to students' scores and even less to students' actual skill levels, and since pretty much everyone is doing it, it's a wash. Every class, school and district's ranking in the state stays pretty much the same as it would have been if no one paid any attention to the test until test day.
And sometimes, the pressure to raise test scores leads individual teachers, or whole schools and districts, to cheat. Some schools and districts have been caught at it. Teachers and administrators in Atlanta went to jail for changing answers on student tests year after year. Others do it but haven't been caught. A series of articles in USA Today a few years back talked about a nationwide analysis of erasures on student tests and found that in many schools, including in Arizona, the number of wrong answers erased and replaced by right answers was as likely to be random as it was likely that the school be struck by lightning on test day. Though state departments of education rarely look deeply into suspicious scores, Arizona's ADE found nine schools where the evidence is strong enough, it's highly probable students' test papers were altered. Most likely, those schools are the visible tip of a larger problem. And that's just the most easily detectable form of cheating. There are lots of undetectable ways to boost scores without increasing the students' skill levels.
Cheating can become addictive, and additive. If a teacher cheats one year, how does he/she go back to being honest the next year without having to explain the drop in scores? If third grade teachers cheat, fourth grade teachers look bad if their students score lower than they did back in the third grade—and so on, up the grades. Educators are basically an honest, moral, but not necessarily courageous lot. If you put their salaries and/or their jobs on the line, many of them are liable to do what it takes to push those scores up.
Tags: AzMERIT test scores , High stakes standardized testing , Cheating , Results-based funding
Monday, October 2, 2017
A human Pink Hard Hat Ribbon was created by over 525 people on the Banner Health construction site on Friday, Sept. 29, launching Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The ninth annual event was run by EMCOR Group Inc. to promote their "Protect Yourself. Get Screened Today," campaign.
The 525 people were made up by construction workers and employees from the major companies working on the construction of the Banner Health hospital: EMCOR/University Mechanical & Engineering Contractors, Inc. (UMEC), Banner Health, and Sundt/DPR Construction.
They join thousands of other EMCOR employees around the U.S. who will wear pink hard hats in October to promote getting screened.
Speakers at the program all urged people to let everyone know to get tested, especially because of their personal connection to someone who had cancer.
"For me personally, my wife was diagnosed with cancer in the early part of this summer," DPR Construction Project Executive Brian Brown said. "We went through the process of doctors, biopsies, surgery and radiation treatment all summer long and now she's cancer free. If she had not done her annual breast cancer screening she would not be a breast cancer survivor."
Brad Thornton, President/CEO of UMEC, stressed early screening, especially because he saw both sides of what happened if the disease is caught early and late.
"My sister wasn't as proactive; her road was devastating," Thornton said. "She survived it, but it was very difficult for her. My mother-in-law attacked it, and she had the early detection and it made all the difference."
Besides getting the message to people who could be at risk of cancer, this event also helped the construction workers realize how important their work is.
"We had 500 people out there today that were working on this building," Thornton said. "For them to understand that the quality and care they take in installing their work in this building is going to make a huge difference. It's great that they can take away from this event and go up there and apply it to their work."
Thornton was also excited to be able to take new discoveries in medicine and put them to use to help people in the community.
After the event, construction workers were allowed to keep the pink hard hats to use as they built the new branches of the Banner University Medical Center.
"Many of our employees wear hard hats on a daily basis for personal protection, and we're proud of their commitment to wear an EMCOR/University Mechanical Pink Hard Hat in October to raise awareness for breast cancer, reminding women and men they can help protect themselves by getting screened," Thornton said.
The 525 people were made up by construction workers and employees from the major companies working on the construction of the Banner Health hospital: EMCOR/University Mechanical & Engineering Contractors, Inc. (UMEC), Banner Health, and Sundt/DPR Construction.
They join thousands of other EMCOR employees around the U.S. who will wear pink hard hats in October to promote getting screened.
Speakers at the program all urged people to let everyone know to get tested, especially because of their personal connection to someone who had cancer.
"For me personally, my wife was diagnosed with cancer in the early part of this summer," DPR Construction Project Executive Brian Brown said. "We went through the process of doctors, biopsies, surgery and radiation treatment all summer long and now she's cancer free. If she had not done her annual breast cancer screening she would not be a breast cancer survivor."
Brad Thornton, President/CEO of UMEC, stressed early screening, especially because he saw both sides of what happened if the disease is caught early and late.
"My sister wasn't as proactive; her road was devastating," Thornton said. "She survived it, but it was very difficult for her. My mother-in-law attacked it, and she had the early detection and it made all the difference."
Besides getting the message to people who could be at risk of cancer, this event also helped the construction workers realize how important their work is.
"We had 500 people out there today that were working on this building," Thornton said. "For them to understand that the quality and care they take in installing their work in this building is going to make a huge difference. It's great that they can take away from this event and go up there and apply it to their work."
Thornton was also excited to be able to take new discoveries in medicine and put them to use to help people in the community.
After the event, construction workers were allowed to keep the pink hard hats to use as they built the new branches of the Banner University Medical Center.
"Many of our employees wear hard hats on a daily basis for personal protection, and we're proud of their commitment to wear an EMCOR/University Mechanical Pink Hard Hat in October to raise awareness for breast cancer, reminding women and men they can help protect themselves by getting screened," Thornton said.
Tags: Breast Cancer , Breast Cancer Awareness Month , Health , Banner , EMCOR , Hard Hats , Pink , Ribbon , construction
Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' statement on last night's mass shooting in Las Vegas:
I know this feeling of heartbreak and horror too well. The massacre in Las Vegas is a grave tragedy for our nation. This must stop - we must stop this.
I am praying for the victims of this shooting, their families and friends. And I am so grateful for the heroism and professionalism of the first responders who acted so courageously to bring this horror to an end. I send the injured all my strength: you have a long road ahead. Be strong. You can do it. My heart is with the city of Las Vegas and all who were touched by this tragedy.
But I am praying for my former colleagues, our elected leaders, too. I am praying they find the courage it will take to make progress on the challenging issue of gun violence. I know they got into politics for the same reason I did—to make a difference, to get things done. Now is the time to take positive action to keep America safer. Do not wait. The nation is counting on you.
