Raising
scores any which-way |
Stuffing
the scores and nixing the nappers
By
Jim Trelease, © and
updated:
1/27/08
Pre-test
'carbo-loading' in Virginia
And finally,
in yet another weird angle on how desperate some administrators
are to raise scores, there is this story out of Virginia
where a few years ago more than 90 percent of the schools
failed that state's Standards of Learning. Some researchers
must have remembered the still prevalent practice among
cross country coaches and triathletes called "carbo-loading" — eating
large pasta dinners high in carbohydrates on the evening
before their contest. The supposed effect is greater energy
and higher performance. Could the same practice be used
with students before they were to take high stakes tests?
Might districts possibly be feeding students special lunches
on the day of the test in hopes of higher scores?
As Gerald W. Bracey reported in his Phi
Delta Kappan research column (Sept. 2003, pp.
88-89), that's exactly what researchers David Figlio and Joshua
Winicki found when they examined 23 school districts in Virginia.
Some schools even gave their students a "pre-test snack." [Figlio,
David & Winicki, Joshua, "Food
for thought: The Effects of School Accountability Plans on School Nutrition," National
Bureau of Educational Research.]
Of course there is nothing wrong or illegal in such practices,
unless it is restricted to only certain schools of children (the Virginia
finding). In such instances, it's also not entirely truthful to claim that
scoring improvements are entirely attributable to better teaching practices —
unless you have comparison studies from the years in which
there was no carbo-loading or from classes who received
no special meals.
To the credit of the Virginia districts, they did advise
parents to give all their children a full breakfast on the day of the test,
although at-risk children would be less apt to receive such a meal or be too
nervous to consume it fully. Conversely, advantaged students would be more
apt to receive a full breakfast and not be too nervous to eat it, thus giving
them yet another advantage over at-risk classmates. Figlio and Winicki didn't
explore such an advantage but it might make a good research paper for someone
looking for one: Caloric differences in pre-test meals between high and
low achievers.
'Hot-housing' the kindergartners in Alabama
Not everyone sees "carbo-loading" as
the solution to state mandates. In Gadsden City,
Alabama, the school district's hierarchy saw "recess" as
the route to higher scores for primary graders. As education
writer Susan Ohanian notes at her wonderfully
documented Web
site,
"Gadsden city schools have eliminated naptime for
kindergartners so children will have more time to prepare
for new, mandated standardized tests. Wynell Williams,
elementary education director for the Gadsden school system,
said she and elementary school principals decided in June
to end naptime. 'If the state is holding us accountable,
this is the way we have to do it,' Williams said. 'Kindergarten
is not like it used to be.'"
Now
isn't that the understatement of the millennium!
But where are the educators in Gadsen willing to stand
up to the state when it is obvious they're mandating
practices that are developmentally inappropriate? True,
you can hot-house plants to force them to blossom early.
And if Alabama legislators want to treat five-year-olds
as though they were potted plants, is there no one ready
to stand in defense of the innocents? Is there even one
legislator in Alabama who has read David Elkind's The
Hurried Child? Doesn't anyone there know Atlanta public
schools already tried the recess ban, even building schools
without playgrounds in case teachers try to sneak in the
recess time — all to no avail.It
began with the now-former Atlanta schools superintendent
Benjamin O. Canada declaring,"We are intent on improving
academic performance. You don't do that by having kids
hanging on the monkey bars."
If any
of them think this will produce students with scores
more like their Japanese counterparts, they may be dismayed
to discover the Japanese rule is: For every 50 minutes
of instruction time, there are 10 minutes of mandated
recess. To further undermine these school efficiency
theories, the Japanese just lopped 30 days off their
school year in hopes of making their students less stressed.
(For details, see: "A
Reporter Abroad: Safety Concerns Up, Classtime Down in
Japan," by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, Education
Week, July 4, 2002;
and "Japanese
Schoolchildren 'Cram' to Boost Achievement," by
Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, Education Week, Aug. 7,
2002)
I guess if the "no recess" rule doesn't work, the
next step will be to withhold snacks and lunches. How about Gadsden Weekend
School? Why not? They'd just be sitting around watching cartoons or playing,
and we all know that if there is anything that will rot the mind of a five-year-old
it's playing. Related children's picture book that should be required
reading for all administrators in Gadsden: A
Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech.
No Child Left Untested
There are many eloquent and qualified critics
of the current testing mania and here are links to samples
from two of my favorites:
- There isn't a keener mind on the hunt
for fools and misinformation in education than Gerald
W. Bracey, associate professor at George Mason
University, and author of The War on America's Public
Schools and Put to the Test: An Educator's and Consumer's
Guide to Standardized Testing. Many is the politician,
writer,and educator who has regretted fudging his facts
after Bracey has skewered him/her in his research column
appearing monthly in Phi Delta Kappan. A large
catalog of Bracey's research and essays can be found
at his Education
Disinformation Detection and Reporting Agency Web
site. To read a brief excerpt here from his "Just
Say No"
essay on NCLB or link to the full essay, click on Bracey.
- Here is the lead from an
October 29, 2007 Page One article from The
New York Times. It describes perfectly the atmosphere
that is producing the most stressed-out and
suicidal generations in American academic history.
Here is how some are trying to defuse that time bomb:
Less
Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress
By SARA RIMER,
The New York Times, Oct. 29, 2007, p. 1
NEEDHAM, Mass. — It
was 6:30 p.m. The lights were still on at Needham High School, here
in the affluent Boston suburbs. Paul Richards, the principal, was meeting
with the Stress Reduction Committee.
On the agenda: finding the right time to bring in experts to train students
in relaxation techniques.
Don’t try to have them teach relaxation in study hall, said Olivia
Boyd, a senior. Students, she explained, won’t want to interrupt
their work. They were already too busy before or after school for the
training.
No one is busier than Josh Goldman. Captain of varsity tennis, president
of the Spanish club and a member of the student council and the Stress
Reduction Committee, Josh was not able to squeeze in the meeting at all.
Mr. Richards noted his
absence wryly. “Josh is a perfect example,” he
said. “He’s got a hundred things going on.”
Here is the high-powered culture that Mr. Richards is trying to change,
even if only a little.
The rest of the article can be found at The
New York Times site at: www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/education/29stress.html
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