The folks managing Seattle's Families and Education Levy have finally agreed upon the long-promised accountability for results, today's Seattle Times reports : "Student achievement to dictate some funds"
The target for the 2005-06 year is that 160, or 8 percent, of 2,000 students served by family-support workers will pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning in reading and math or meet the Developmental Reading Assessment for their grade level.It's a sad day for America when an 8 percent pass rate is considered academic success. Nevertheless, the usual suspects are dismayed that there are any performance standards at all. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 26, 2005 09:29 AM | Email ThisBased on this example, if fewer than 8 percent of students pass the WASL in reading and math, Miller said, a portion of the family-support program's budget would be set aside to try something more effective.
The agreement delays for one year the expectation that the family-support and health-services programs will meet the city's academic-achievement targets.
And save money to boot.
Place the 2000 childern in Catholic schools where tuition costs are about 1/3 the cost of "public education".
Posted by: JC Bob on August 26, 2005 10:40 AMWhen paychecks are based on results, you see results. When paychecks are based on process, you see crappy schools.
Posted by: Andy on August 26, 2005 12:05 PMFrom the article:
"Here's how the new rules would evaluate the district's social workers, known as family-support workers, who historically have focused on ensuring that families have food, shelter and clothing"
These students are homeless, have addicted parents, abusive homes, or a laundry list of other problems that they face on a daily basis. These are not your average students.
Posted by: Huh? on August 26, 2005 12:16 PMFrom the article:
"Based on this example, if fewer than 8 percent of students pass the WASL in reading and math, Miller said, a portion of the family-support program's budget would be set aside to try something more effective."
The district isn't losing any money, it just goes to find something more effective. Besides, according to the state auditor's audit, it's not like the district isn't a cash cow to begin...
Posted by: Mike H on August 26, 2005 12:50 PMMy God - with such lousy performance, they should immediately end whatever this program is. Do it yesterday!
Kids naturally absorb things, so the only way they can have performance this low is if they are actually trying to prevent these kids from learning.
This is truly amazing. In fact, it seems criminal.
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on August 26, 2005 12:50 PMWhen you have people like poster Huh? chime in and tell us that, "these kids are not your average students" we learn why these kids will never have the chance to be successful. With that attitude and approach students, regardless of their background, are destine to fail before they even begin!
Posted by: Joe on August 26, 2005 12:59 PMJoe - You're right, too. We shouldn't let these students slide (from your 1st post). However, pretending they are average students (2nd post) certainly will not help. Some students need extra help, especially now that all students are expected to achieve at the same level. Maybe the SSD program isn't what these students need, but denying them resources will absolutely not raise their scores.
Iguana - I bet they would absorb if they were at school. If only you knew the attendance record of the vast majority of these students...
Posted by: Huh? on August 26, 2005 01:44 PMIf, by some miracle in this goofy state, we we're suddenly to get vouchers, charter schools etc., (or if for some even bigger miracle the feds relinquished controls BACK to towns and citys and school boards of parents) could those schools decide for themselves NOT to hire union teachers? Can they say to an applicant 'We want to hire you, we are willing to pay you according to your ability BUT our proviso is that you are not associated with a teachers union in any way shape or form'?
Posted by: Cheryl on August 26, 2005 02:07 PMWouldn't that be the greatest! Odds zero to none, unfortunately.
It would also be wonderful if all the churches, private schools, private citizens pooled resourses and contributions that in effect would allow any parent who wanted to send their kid(s) to a private school, could through private contributions. Heck, there's enough wealth in this area to do this without much pain. We could put the public schools out of business and have pick of the best teachers on our own terms.
What if....
Posted by: Jeffro on August 26, 2005 02:44 PMThat "What if" was reality in the 50's and 60's.
The real question is how did we allow it all to go so very wrong?
Oh that's right... stifling unions and the feds involvement.
We do have to help kids in these situations understand that they have to put forth the effort to "make it a great day" everyday. That just because they have it hard they can still succeed by putting forth an effort.
However you have to remember that drop outs happen. Some kids don't want to do go to school or are just not smart enough.
For them its as Judge Schmails says, "the world needs ditch diggers too!"
Posted by: Dengle on August 26, 2005 07:00 PMThe social services department in this state is so intent on keeping kids in bad situations until it is too late that we do set them up for failure. A social worker who sees no real problem with mom going on drinking binges while the kids starve is a symptom of reprehensible bureaucracy. This has got to change!
Also, we need to discard the notion that people can only adopt according to skin color or ethnicity. Children thrive in a loving, caring environment and, until some idiot makes it an issue, kids aren't really concerned about their parents' looks or ethnic background.
Quite frankly, this whole thing looks like the "family-support workers" are more interested in creating a steady paycheck instead of really trying to help the kids get out of bad situations. There will never be a perfect system. Some people should never be parents. But that doesn't mean we can't have at least a 50-70% pass rate.
Posted by: Burdabee on August 26, 2005 09:58 PMFear not! The average passing percentage in WASL is more like 30%...heh...YIKES!
Wow! That means 70% of our kids will not graduate from highschool in this state!
Who doesn't see this as a problem?
They need to scrap the WASL - go back to treaching academics instead of teaching *testing*. Every year they impose another WASL test or pre-test on another grade. That means that from first grade on - our kids are not being taught math, reading, spelling, history or science - they are wasting the school year learning how to properly fill out a WASL exam sheet!
Posted by: Deborah on August 26, 2005 11:31 PMSounds like it's time to fire all the teachers. I'm sorry folks, but if the teachers did their jobs and taught the three R's, the test should be no problem as it is only an instrument to measure the child's capability to perform those functions.
Beyond the three R's, I see a very limited role for teachers. I'm sorry if some of you have bought into the idea that your job as a teacher is fill children up with liberal, utopian, environmentalist ideology, but it is not. It is to prepare said children to compete with the vast hordes of engineers and analysts pouring out of "miserable, backwards" places like India and China. You know, like the 600,000 engineers China will graduate from universities this year as opposed to the 70,000 we will. How is our country supposed to maintain our standard of living by accepting suboptimal results from our "teaching professionals"? The short answer is that we won't.
Posted by: Aaron on August 27, 2005 12:29 AMThe problem with public education, is well, the public part. The Romans used to home school - they were the most education masses in the history of the world. Then they started the Punic Wars and other overseas adventures and with the fathers gone resorted to public schools. In the years prior to the enslavement of the populace, serfdom, the soldiers were trained with pictographs instead of Latin. Sound familar?
I am glad to say, but not pleased to say, that I have fled the People's Republic of Washington for the Prairie State - a frontpage editorial the Sunday after we rolled into our new town was themed graft is good in opposition to Chicago's new US Attorney taking on the corruption in the windy city. Interesting, being out in the sticks, I have quickly observed that 'the dark house' reaches even here - but as I said before in Illinois at least the politicians are honest about their corruption. Daley's comments about the new Elliot Ness breathing down his throat - 'for decades we've handled these things in civil court' - where the judiciary is easier to control I suppose.
Well, as for your public teachers in the Evergreen State they are neither teachers nor do they serve the public - where is the champion of the people who will cry for the wall dividing children from education be torn down? The hour is late.
Posted by: Jericho on August 27, 2005 07:24 PMA few years ago, my oldest son failed the writing portion of his WASL test. This suprised me because he had good grades in his writing classes. We were worried about how this would look on his application for colleges, so we paid to have him tutored over the summer. He forfeited a good summer job to go to WASL writing practice. It appeared to have paid off because the next time he took the WASL he passed.
Now fast forward to his first year in college. He was expecting to ace his writing class because he did everything just how his WASL tutorer had taught him. His first paper he recieved a "D". The professor did not care for this "WASL" style. So he went back to his old style of writing, and recieved a good grade in the class. We wasted a lot of time and money on WASL prep, which is being sold to us as "what businesses will expect of you" (I guess it'a a matter of opinion). We found this far from being true.
In my younger kids's classrooms, I volunteer 2 days a week. WASL prep starts in kindergarten! When I started to ask "why?". I was reminded that their school has the highest WASL scores in the district, and they are proud that they start teaching to the test so young!
The kindergarteners took a "practice" WASL test. Walls were covered, the door was locked, and they were not allowed to ask the teacher for help. This was to get the kindergarteners used to a testing environment!
In my third graders class, about 2 months before the WASL test, the students stopped going to music class, so they could spend the 35 minutes (twice a week) prepping for WASL. I witnessed the teacher teaching "the WASL way" for answering essay questions. She told them things like long answers usually get more credit then short answers, so make sure you write as much as you can!
To this day I do not trust the WASL. I have learned how it is scored. I feel that kids spend so much valuable class time prepping for this test, that they miss out on learning the basics. At this school that had high WASL scores, I felt the need to supplement my kids with the basics at home.
In high school, when the sophmores take the WASL test, the whole school almost shuts down. Non-testing students miss up to 15 hours of classtime while WASL occurs! What a waste!
So please, if you are pro-WASL, please indicate your experience in the classroom, and maybe I'll take your opinion more seriously.
Posted by: Senna on August 29, 2005 12:12 AMWell guys--you had plenty of time & new contracts---so--"Where is the beef?" Would you let your plumber do open-ended work without results? How long would you let him run up a tab? Anyone have an answer or a decent excuse?
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 29, 2005 10:05 AMAre we supplying the whole damn Third World or just local deadbeat parents who have money for kids' cell phones, gangsta-rap designer tennis shoes and X-box games yet squat for the cost of a few pencils?!
like society--the few responsible ones float the many deadbeats; and yes--i give to local charities too; so--how much giving is 'enough' before one is considered a fool?
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 30, 2005 11:49 AM
I have been following this site and others like it for some time. Until recently, I have been too embarassed to post in fear that my spelling and grammar may not be perfect. You see, my husband and I both just barely graduated from high-school. If WASL was around when we were young, we probably would be high-school drop outs. Especially my husband, who comes from an abusive and neglectful household.
Here is our story: We married young and moved into a cheap run-down duplex. I'ts all we could afford. The landlord was never around. One day a bancruptcy notice was placed on the building.
Now, my father had always taught me that most successful people have taken some risk in there lives to get that way. So I thought this was our opportunity! We looked into buying the place. My father gave me some quick lessons on financing, equity and assessing risk on paper (I am forever grateful for his lessons).
We purchased the duplex, lived on one side and rented out the other. Three years later after fixing it up we sold it for twice our purchasing price! We then put our profits into an eight unit building. Today we own eight buildings with a total of almost 300 units.
we are not rocket scientists, but we do pretty well for ourselves. The only stumbling block I have had is math and accounting. I did have to enroll in some accounting classes at the community college to help me with this.
I can commend the efforts to have all students ready for college. I strongly encourage both my kids to go to college. I believe a better society is one that has higher education. However, college is not for everyone (could the colleges even accomadate a higher enrollment?-thats another issue!).
Now students can not even make a move without passing the WASL. They will not be able to take electives in high-school, enroll in Running Start or technical school. Like I said in my ealier post, my oldest son did not pass his Math WASL. Back then WASL scores did not have as much power, so he was able to enroll in the "Running Start" program and WASL scores are not on his transcipts.
Because of Running Start he will graduate from college a year early. Today, failing the WASL would hold him back!
My younger son struggles in school, and has not yet passed all sections of the WASL. Imagine my frustration, as to not being able to view his scorred test, so I can try and learn how to help him. (I understand this is changing as schools are finally admmitting that they have been violating federal rights that allow parents to view completed tests.) Because of my older son's experience I don't put much value on WASL scores.
Now, back to answereing your question. Thw WASL does not use a "sliding" scale in scorring. Scorring is done by NCS Pearson, a company with a spotty history. In math, an essay style answer is required in addition to working it out mathmatically. More points are given to your written explanation as to how you arrived at your answer than to the correct answer itself. So it is possible to get more points for a wrong answer, as long as you can explain it well!!
This is probably why my oldest son failed the math WASL, as he is a "staight, acurate, get right to the point" type of guy. Both my boys dislike writing and the WASL requires strong writing skills.
You may want to go to curewashington.org or punch in the name "John Koudela" to any search engine. Koudela worked for NCS Pearson as a scorer, and he testifies to how silly the scorring is.