Illinois High Schools - Standard testing scores drop to all time low

[tornado]

someone send a memo to Arne Duncan and the prez and let them know their plan is NOT working...

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/education/illinois-high-school-standardized-tests-students-fail-flunk-half-psae-20111020

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-20/news/ct-met-state-test-scores-1020-20111020_1_statewide-test-results-psae-scores-isat

Here is their answer to this debacle...
"... the PSAE (standard test) is too hard"


then the most amazing irony of this all...
"In the meantime, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
happens to be in Chicago Thursday to
recognize excellence in Chicago's after school programs.

...great - the after school snacks and hop-scotch are going great while the kids are flunking!!!!

[Future Walk-On]

I thought the PSAE was easy.....

[Da Coach]

Dunlap High School is one of only 8 public high schools out of 656 in the state of Illinois that showed Adequate Yearly Progress, based on standardized test results in 2011.

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x804699073/Dunlap-High-in-elite-group

Sounds like pretty miserable results statewide.

[tornado]

but their solution will be to make the test easier so the scores look better

[Da Coach]

I was talking to a teacher who administers standardized tests. Things have changed a lot since some of us were in high school and took these tests.
Students now can use calculators for these standardized tests. And since small devices that look like calculators can now contain cell phones, have vast memory storage, and also access internet search sites, the students have to get their "calculators" preapproved by the schools administering the tests. These techers must make sure they are simple calculators, and not devices with stored memory caches with reference databases that could be used for cheating, or with phones and internet access that can be used for calling or searching for correct answers. That puts an additional undue responsibility on these teachers, since many of them are not electronics experts and could easily be fooled. I suspect that kids that are smart enough can get their smart phones and web devices past the monitors. But probably if they are that smart, they would pass the test anyway.

[BuB]

but their solution will be to make the test easier so the scores look better

Correct. Everyone will be better off when they learn to spread the good grades around.

[tornado]

Correct. Everyone will be better off when they learn to spread the good grades around.

the final nail in the dumbing down coffin will come when it becomes accepted to give wedding vows just by texting .....
"i <3 u, LOL"

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

I was talking to a teacher who administers standardized tests. Things have changed a lot since some of us were in high school and took these tests.
Students now can use calculators for these standardized tests. And since small devices that look like calculators can now contain cell phones, have vast memory storage, and also access internet search sites, the students have to get their "calculators" preapproved by the schools administering the tests. These techers must make sure they are simple calculators, and not devices with stored memory caches with reference databases that could be used for cheating, or with phones and internet access that can be used for calling or searching for correct answers. That puts an additional undue responsibility on these teachers, since many of them are not electronics experts and could easily be fooled. I suspect that kids that are smart enough can get their smart phones and web devices past the monitors. But probably if they are that smart, they would pass the test anyway.

I graduated quite awhile ago, but people would load the graphing calculators with "cheat sheet" data.

I didn't take standardized testing seriously in high school. There's zero motivation for a student to do well on the vast majority of standardized tests with the big exceptions of PSAT, SAT, and ACT. I should add that I always did very well on those tests.

[Future Walk-On]

the final nail in the dumbing down coffin will come when it becomes accepted to give wedding vows just by texting .....
"i <3 u, LOL"

^^^^ LOL


I did good in school because my parents made it known I needed to. I also had a twin sister who I HAD to beat in grades....

I am 22 and I look at some parents and just want to yell at them to get their kids in gear.....seems like that would be easier than the teachers having to.

[tornado]

the problem isn't $$ - some schools fund $10K per student the problem is parent involvement and teacher adequacy

[Buesch N Chips]

There's zero motivation for a student to do well on the vast majority of standardized tests with the big exceptions of PSAT, SAT, and ACT.

That's one of the problems. The kids have no motivation to do well, yet the school is evaluated on the results of the test. And small school do not have enough students to really have valid data when comparing ACT scores, which the PJS loves to do. One score is too powerful.

And the problem with only 8% of school meeting AYP is that last year it was something like 85% of your students had to meet standards, and this year is it something like 92%. Not every student in a school can or will perform at their grade level on a test where they have no motivation to do well. It is simply impossible, regardless of the teachers. Think of some of the goofs and screwballs you went to school with.

What ends up happening is teachers/schools teach strictly to the test, and not to taking an interest in a subject, developing it, and creating well rounded members of society. There is too much that could be on the test, and it all needs to be covered.

When the levels of meeting AYP reach 90+%, I can guarantee you that schools will not even make it a priority, because it simply won't happen. That is why there is possible change on the horizon.

[CubbieBear]

but their solution will be to make the test easier so the scores look better

Sad but true...although in defense of our Illinois schools...2 years ago my cousin and his family re-located to Utah. He has 7 kids...at that time, 2 in high school and 3 in grade school/junior high. When his kids started the school year...ALL of them were WAY ahead of what the were being taught in Utah...he said his son in 6th grade was studying things he had done 2 years earlier (in 4th grade) here in Illinois...and the high school classes were much easier than Illinois too

[tornado]

Yet another front page story on the failures of the Illinois High Schools - specifically Peoria District 150

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x251091028/Central-Illinois-schools-fall-short-of-increasing-No-Child-Left-Behind-standards

"Every high school in central Illinois - with the exception of Dunlap, which is one of only eight high schools in the state to make Adequate Yearly Progress -
has been labeled a "failure," according to standards .."

but here's the answer from the people who run this failing system...
"We are not failing. The system is failing us"

http://www.pjstar.com/topstories/x251091034/We-are-not-failing-The-system-is-failing-us

That seems a little like losing a basketball game by 50 points are then saying "we are not losing - the game is losing" or "the system we're using is losing"..
...although I fully agree that it is not the school personnel's fault entirely -- the lazy parents who do nothing but let their kids watch MTV and eat Twinkies & the outside special interest groups who make their endless demands are partly to blame as well.

The print copy of the paper has an exhaustive list of the test scores of every area public school DISTRICT - which encompasses 250 different schools...
and only 16 public school districts out of the 74 listed - ranging from Macomb to Henry to Eureka achieved passing scores.



Lastly -- the social engineers in and outside of government have been tinkering with the public school systems for decades -- banning anything that remotely resembles faith or religion - even teaching morality and right-and-wrong - encouraging promiscuity, softening anything that actually resembles discipline, and dumbing everyone DOWN & discouraging achievement, so the slowest students don't feel so bad about not passing...
I just wonder if those social engineers whose ideas have caused this failing mess (many of whom run teachers' unions and minority focus groups) will step forward and take responsibility...


Lastly - I have mentioned it before - there are schools - large & small - that are major successes and that get recognition nationally! And yet we mention them only in passing instead of looking closely at them and maybe modeling the rest of the failing districts after the ones that succeed. They mention Dunlap as a success but it isn't the only one locally --
Not surprisingly - most of the people who run or support the failing system claim that the answer is MORE MONEY -- when the facts prove otherwise as those local systems that are succeeding actually run their schools on LESS money per pupil than the failing public schools do....some on as little as HALF the funding as the public schools!

[Da Coach]

I don't live in District 150, but we all have a stake in the success of our public schools. I know people on the 150 school board, and it seems most of the problems there are the result of poor management and negligence by past administrations. With the new superintendent and new board members things will turn around.

[patrick_o'brian]

the problem isn't $$ - some schools fund $10K per student the problem is parent involvement and teacher adequacy

This is the REAL TRUTH! Great observation T!