Last year we started using a new screening test for Response to Intervention (RTI). It’s quick to implement, doesn’t require me to beg for EA to be pulled from other schools (because ours has NONE!), and gives results quickly without the use of spreadsheets. Plus the company provides lots of graphs and scientific looking data charts, which is the most important factor in RTI. Especially the graphs*.
We test all 9th and 10th grade students three times a year. Then we are supposed to sit around and discuss the findings of the testing; the growth of students, what each class looks like, what needs to be focused on and all that other jazz. Exciting stuff, let me tell you. Or at least it could be if we could ever get passed discussing classroom size. But I digress.
Last winter, the principal told me that after examining all the data, everyone (administratively) was very impressed with one of my sophomore classes. The over all score for the class had jumped up about 20 points. They wanted to know what I was doing that was so obviously fantastic! I bet you’re all wondering too! So here’s the secret… I did nothing markedly different from my other sophomore class except teach at a slower pace and honestly fill out the student evaluation sheets for juvenile court every week. Nada.
Over half the students who tested in the fall, were not in my classroom by the time winter testing rolled around. Although I never had more than 15 bodies in the room at any point in the year, by year’s end my roster showed over 3ostudents who had come and gone. In September I started with a class approximately one third having significant learning disabilities, one third in the court system, one student who had been banned from every other teacher’s room (by teacher and parent request), all but one either currently receiving or in need of reading interventions. By January, all in the court system had been replaced by new court system students, lost all by one SpEd student and the banned student had been expelled. By the spring testing, I had lost all but one court system student and was puttering along with “soccer team boys” (known for their lack of academic prowess, but having a coach who will make them run miles for missing assignments). Guess who’s scores went up again? Not mine! Soccer was over by the time the test came around and to be honest, the SpEd students always tried really hard on the test. They pulled up the class growth average to counterbalance all the yahoos who sat and pushed the button 30 times.
Am I fantastic teacher? Well, I’d like to think so and I do put effort into it… but I don’t think I’m better than the guy next door to me or across the hall. They put just as much effort into their teaching and their students come out of their rooms with great skills… but judging by the testing data I was awesome until spring. Those test scores weren’t a good picture of my teaching skills, they were a good picture of what happens in a high poverty school; lots of moving from school to school.
Doesn’t mean that these student don’t deserve an excellent education or that they learned nothing all year… it just means that someone thinks that comparing apples to oranges shows my teaching ability.
*my school actually paid money for a program that created pretty graphs. Although it is possible to do the same thing using Excel (which we already paid for!), I was told that these graphs were better because they also told whether the student was “on target” or not. Literally, text was printed under the graph saying “on target”. Because someone can’t figure out that an upward trending line means they are improving… Stupid me kept pointing out the idiocy of this and in August I get to teach the RTI team all about the joys of using Excel.
We test all 9th and 10th grade students three times a year. Then we are supposed to sit around and discuss the findings of the testing; the growth of students, what each class looks like, what needs to be focused on and all that other jazz. Exciting stuff, let me tell you. Or at least it could be if we could ever get passed discussing classroom size. But I digress.
Last winter, the principal told me that after examining all the data, everyone (administratively) was very impressed with one of my sophomore classes. The over all score for the class had jumped up about 20 points. They wanted to know what I was doing that was so obviously fantastic! I bet you’re all wondering too! So here’s the secret… I did nothing markedly different from my other sophomore class except teach at a slower pace and honestly fill out the student evaluation sheets for juvenile court every week. Nada.
Over half the students who tested in the fall, were not in my classroom by the time winter testing rolled around. Although I never had more than 15 bodies in the room at any point in the year, by year’s end my roster showed over 3ostudents who had come and gone. In September I started with a class approximately one third having significant learning disabilities, one third in the court system, one student who had been banned from every other teacher’s room (by teacher and parent request), all but one either currently receiving or in need of reading interventions. By January, all in the court system had been replaced by new court system students, lost all by one SpEd student and the banned student had been expelled. By the spring testing, I had lost all but one court system student and was puttering along with “soccer team boys” (known for their lack of academic prowess, but having a coach who will make them run miles for missing assignments). Guess who’s scores went up again? Not mine! Soccer was over by the time the test came around and to be honest, the SpEd students always tried really hard on the test. They pulled up the class growth average to counterbalance all the yahoos who sat and pushed the button 30 times.
Am I fantastic teacher? Well, I’d like to think so and I do put effort into it… but I don’t think I’m better than the guy next door to me or across the hall. They put just as much effort into their teaching and their students come out of their rooms with great skills… but judging by the testing data I was awesome until spring. Those test scores weren’t a good picture of my teaching skills, they were a good picture of what happens in a high poverty school; lots of moving from school to school.
Doesn’t mean that these student don’t deserve an excellent education or that they learned nothing all year… it just means that someone thinks that comparing apples to oranges shows my teaching ability.
*my school actually paid money for a program that created pretty graphs. Although it is possible to do the same thing using Excel (which we already paid for!), I was told that these graphs were better because they also told whether the student was “on target” or not. Literally, text was printed under the graph saying “on target”. Because someone can’t figure out that an upward trending line means they are improving… Stupid me kept pointing out the idiocy of this and in August I get to teach the RTI team all about the joys of using Excel.
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