Hot Fun in the Summertime
“Always trust strangers, it's the people you know that let you down.”
― Andrew O'Hagan
Last week the Tennessee Department of Education released the data from this year's state standardized testing.
They always do this in mid-June, long after students are gone and teachers have finished planning for next year. Families are at the beach, and teachers are finishing summer school or deep into their summer jobs.
Mind you, these are just scores showing results for districts and schools. Individual student data will arrive even deeper into the summer when there is really nothing you can do with it.
That's my opinion. One not shared by Tennessee's Commissioner of Education. She maintains:
“Our annual TCAP assessment provides valuable data to inform strategic decision-making to best support Tennessee students,” said Lizzette Reynolds, Commissioner of Education. “Through the dedication of our teachers, schools, and districts, we are pleased that student performance continues to build on a strong foundation, improving outcomes for future success.”
But what is she going to say?
You see, it's a money thing. A lot of people make a lot of money off of testing. Tennessee pays Pearson roughly $40 million a year for a test that produces results of a limited benefit and is largely ignored by the public. That doesn't sound like a prudent use of taxpayer money to me.
I heard this weekend that an MS is projected to house 400 students. employs a full-time testing coordinator. Think about that for a minute. Do we really need that many assessments that we require an FT position for 400 kids?
Of course, these days the stakes are higher. Based on their TCAP results, third and fourth-graders could be looking at repeating a grade.
Well maybe, though not likely based on past results, but always a possibility.
I think last year, after all the exit ramps provided by the state were utilized,1.2% of students were retained. About 900 kids. That's not more than in an average year. So while the hyperbole may be higher, I'm not convinced that the actual threat is any greater.
This year, according to the TDOE:
English Language Arts (ELA): Overall, 39% of all students are meeting grade level expectations, with proficiency gains in most tested grades, and elementary and high schools continuing to out-perform pre-pandemic levels.
Math: In grades 3-8, 40% of students are meeting grade level expectations in math, with a nearly three percentage point gain for 5th and 7th graders.
Science: Overall, proficiency rates held steady for science, with an increase of one percentage point in overall student proficiency.
Social Studies: Results show a one percentage point gain for all students tested in social studies, showing continued improvements over the last three years.
Of course, the press jump all over the results, producing headlines designed to feed the flames. Depending on who you believe, Tennessee students are either slowly heading in the right direction, or still failing miserably. Neither of which is accurate.
In the case of the former, we are talking about growth rates between 2 and 4 percent. To get to a place where a majority of students score "meets expectations" we are still talking 15% to 30% points. That's a long journey.
I liken it to me weighing 250 pounds and trying to get to 200. Losing 2% would be 5 lbs a year. Going to take maybe 10 years to get to 200 and that doesn't take into account that the last pounds are the hardest to lose. Sure, 5 LB a year is worth celebrating, but it ain't the whole story.
On the flip side. headlines screaming that 60% of kids can't read is disingenuous as well.
First of all, TCAP is not a reading test. Let me say it again for those who didn't get it the first time, TCAP is not a reading test. It's a literacy test that gives indications about reading ability, but not a final pronouncement.
Spelling is included in the testing. A low score on the spelling portion will lower a student's literacy grade. Does an inability to spell correlate to an inability to "read"?
Yeah, I don't think so. Or else, I'm in a lot of trouble.
So which is it?
Using the link provided in the TDOE press release, I opened up the spreadsheets provided by the TDOE to decipher the trends. Five minutes later I shut the spreadsheet down, proclaiming, "This is bullshit."
And it is.
The biggest sin baked into the data dump is that it makes it easy to forget that each piece of data represents an actual living, breathing, functioning being with a higher purpose than justifying our tax dollars and policy choices. Each of those lives comes with its own set of variables and each year those variables change.
PET Director JC Bowman likes using the illustration that these test scores serve a similar function as your school photo. Both are snapshots of a student on one given day. Nothing more, nothing less.
The school and district scores are averages, One demographic overperforming or underperforming drags the whole entity in that direction. Without a much deeper dive, it's virtually impossible to gain an accurate picture. Ain't no parents got time for that, thus is born the need to bring in the "experts".
Scores are divided into 4 categories - failure to meet expectations, approaching expectations, meeting expectations, and exceeding expectations - and results are delivered as the percentage of students falling into each category. No indication is given where students fall within each of the categories. Could be more limped over the line this year into the "meets expectations" category than last year, or less did. It's impossible to know.
It's one of the reasons why tutoring for bubble kids was always such an enticing strategy for goosing the outcomes.
Public education policymakers love to paint a picture where all public schools are identical. They are not. Nor are the families and living situations of individual students.
How do we separate all the variables out to draw a direct line between policy and results?
Data wonks say you can, but I remain skeptical.
I'll never forget how the scores went up at the kids' elementary school the year after they moved from a run-down school with 28 portables to a brand-new building. But it must have been the new literacy curriculum that did it, or was it the extra tutoring. Maybe it was the change in teachers? The truth is, it could have all of those including that some parents got new jobs, or Johnny and Mary got their own rooms.
You have to take all of it with a grain of salt, and a recognition that it is all about more than just student results.
There is not a professional test that I take as an adult that I don't have the results back in three to five days. Yet, individual student tests are still not available until three months after the administration of said tests. That's lunacy. We are not talking administrators in a cave grading tablets, we need to make a concentrated effort to make them available quicker.
In a world that demands immediacy in every facet, we somehow remain content to get student results a quarter of the year later. Why?
Hell, math EOC data, won't be available until later in the fall pending the standards-setting process. That's three more months away. That data will be about as useful as teats on a boar.
Maybe the adults are being fooled by our testing policies, but the kids see right through the canard. They know all of this is meaningless, and they approach the tests in a fashion that reflects that knowledge.
We are basing teacher and school futures on an exam that kids care less and less about every year.
This is where some well-meaning expert chimes in with, "That's not true. Kids love an opportunity to show how much they know. They love to do well."
I don't know which kids you are talking to, but the ones I know, love to play video games. They love to play sports. They love to hang out with friends. Some like to sleep. I don't know any, given a choice, who would choose to take yet another meaningless test over any of the aforementioned activities. Yet we cling to that canard like it's rooted in reality.
Stupid, and it's long past time we re-evaluate how we evaluate student learning and school performance.
In a recent editorial, Bowman draws our attention to Singapore and its shift in testing policy.
The most significant change in Singapore's education system is its adaptability. It has evolved from a system focused solely on achieving exam results to one that fosters development and personal growth. Standardized testing has become deeply ingrained in our education model. In Singapore, the emphasis is on promoting exploration, learning, and personal growth among students to create a positive learning environment.
In Singapore, math and science are taught hands-on, focusing on conceptual understanding and real-world application. The teaching workforce is high-quality, and small classes provide more individualized attention. The primary goal is to free up more curriculum time for teachers to focus on the quality of teaching rather than just teaching for exams.
I've yet to see a study that shows a correlation between doing well on TCAP and having a successful career. Life ain't that simple.
Hopefully, we are producing lifelong learners. If there is a weakness in one aspect, there is usually a strength in another that serves to balance each other out. At some point, people learn stuff that qualifies them for the job they want, or for the opportunities presented to them.
This goes hand in hand with our conversations that portray school as the only place where children learn.
You may hate phones. You may have the internet. But I'll tell you, as the parent of two teens, both provide double the information we were privy to as kids. Kids are using that information to build a world that meets their expectations and needs, with little concern for how their elders feel about it. The same way that it's been done for centuries.
Past studies have shown that despite our concerns, kids in a peer group where some read, kids will learn to read based on a desire not to be excluded. Phones and the internet provide the means for kids to learn the things that are important to them.
I remember all the outcry over how television warps kids' brains, and how viewing time needs to be closely monitored. My response was to watch even more television. Efforts to limit internet access for this generation are likely to produce similar results.
Bottom line, Tennessee spends 40 million a year on a testing program that continues to deliver increasingly irrelevant results. That fact is recognized by a growing number of people.
Isn't it about time we did something about it?
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This month a new law designed to protect Tennessee teachers goes into effect. Under the new law, students who assault a teacher at school are mandated to receive a one-year suspension.
In the past, a student who assaulted a teacher, even if convicted by the juvenile court, could receive a three-day suspension and then be back in the teacher's classroom. Such was the case with Mark Hayes, a veteran teacher who taught for 24 years at Maplewood High School.
Hayes and I have talked in the past, and I'm well familiar with his story. In December of 2021, he was shoved to the hallway floor by an 18-year-old student.
“I didn’t see it coming, so I didn’t even brace for it or anything. It knocked me off my feet on my back on the floor in the hallway on the concrete,” Hayes told The Tennessean in an interview. "In 24 years I never had an incident close to resembling this."
Despite charges filed by Hayes, the student was returned to his class after a three-day suspension. That was too much for the veteran educator. He left the building that day. After months on leave trying to find a solution with the district, Hayes eventually resigned.
"I just cleaned out my desk, my filing cabinet, my room, packed it up, and left. That was my last day at school — 24 years in the same building," Hayes said. "It was either do what I did and walk away or continue to teach a person that assaulted me and be face-to-face with them when there was pending legal action."
District leaders may not recognize it, but this was a huge loss. You don't teach in a high-needs school like Maplewood for 24 years without a deep sense of commitment and sacrifice.
In 2009, a former student was killed by gunfire at the school's graduation ceremony. Guns continue to be an issue at the school despite a dedicated administration and teaching staff.
Hayes is just one of a growing number of teachers and administrators who have been assaulted while at work.
In the past, MNPS has soft-counseled assaulted employees against pressing charges. I remember one story from a couple of years ago where a teacher was in the middle of receiving treatment when a district supervisor urged them to consider the ramifications of pressing charges. While they never came out and said it, it was clear that the district did not support the teacher pressing charges and favored the student's well-being over the teacher's safety. Message received.
When reached for comment by The Tennessean, MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted said in an email that the district has invested in social-emotional learning supports "to help students experiencing emotional dysregulation," and has added "restorative practices assistants" at the middle and high school level.
"Each situation involving a disciplinary referral must be reviewed and investigated by school administrators to determine the appropriate course of action as outlined in the disciplinary policies of the district, with due process being applied to disciplinary investigations and consequences," Braisted told The Tennessean. "We encourage any staff member who feels a situation was not addressed appropriately within the code of conduct guidelines by school administrators to reach out to their school’s Executive Director (Principal supervisor) for further review.
It's a nice word salad but will hold little weight going forward.
In addition to the mandatory one-year suspension, the law requires districts to assist teachers if they choose to press charges, no ifs, ands, or buts.
How big an issue is this?
According to data from the Tennessee Department of Education, there were 1,918 assaults of teachers and staff reported by schools across Tennessee during the 2022-23 school year. That is the highest number of incidents in the last five years and up nearly 700 from the 2021-22 school year.
At MNPS, there were 325 incidents of assault on a teacher or staff member across the district during the 2023-24 school year, according to Braisted, including 11 incidents at Hillsboro High School and 15 at Antioch High School. The majority of the incidents occurred in elementary schools.
Elementary School students might at initial blush seem relatively harmless, but it's not uncommon to find fourth-graders that weigh in the 100 lb range, and now MNPS includes 5th graders in elementary school buildings.
Special education students are exempt from the mandatory suspension rule, and the district's director of schools can grant further exemptions.
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MNPS has announced 15 new principals for the 2024-2025 school year. Congratulations to all of them. Though one is not new to the principal job.
Mathew Portell previously served at a Nashville high-needs school. While leading that school, he became an advocate for trauma-informed teaching. In his own words:
In my tenure as the principal of Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, TN, we utilized the most current neuroscience to transform the school into an international model school for trauma-informed practices. My interest in trauma-informed education led me to start the Trauma Informed Educators Network, a global network of over 31,000 practitioners, which I support with a weekly podcast and yearly conference.
Portell is the lead author of a book being published by Harvard Education Press in the fall of 2024! The book is focused on the impact and strategies to mitigate trauma and stress in schools.
Previously, the decorated administrator left Fall-Hamilton in the middle of the school year to pursue opportunities in the private sector. It appears he still has a lot going on outside of the school building.
Hopefully, this time he'll finish the full school year, as he tends to form lasting and impactful relationships with teachers, students, and families in a beneficial manner.
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Per usual, I need to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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