Thank you for your time and effort in serving as a scorer for Regents Distributed Scoring. Your commitment contributed to the scoring of approximately 220,000 exams across this city.
If you have any feedback about the process, please let your principal know.
Thank you.
Office of Assessment
New York City Department of Education
I'm particularly interested in that last sentence. They appreciate my commitment, but they're letting me know they don't want to hear from me. And what can I tell my principal? What difference would it make to him if the kids from school X wrote great essays, or if the kids from school Y wrote poor ones? He's probably concerned with the kids from our school.
Here's what I would tell him---the kids I know best attend our school. I've been reading their papers since the day they arrived here. I know them better than the strangers on the other side of town and I can assess their work better than any "disinterested" party ever could. If I can't make decisions about them because, yes, I care about them, then it's time to take children away from their parents.
Clearly parents care about their kids and want the best for them. By the preposterous logic of NY State, kids ought to be shuttled off to strangers who are "disinterested." And that's what I'd like to tell the DOE.
But they've clearly told me they don't want to hear about it. They're far too busy putting "Children First, Always," to bother listening to the voices of their teachers.
Yes, and these exams are of such scientific exactitude, with no margin of error whatsoever, that there is a vast statistical gulf between a 64 and a 65, so God/Tisch/Bloomberg forbid that a child who otherwise has done everything to pass their classes - especially one who has only been speaking English for 1-3 years - should have a near-passing grade re-visited.
ReplyDeleteBoy I could not agree more. What an idiotic practice, particularly for our kids, to ensure that a 64 remain one.
ReplyDeleteAs long as teachers are going to be evaluated by the Regents test scores of their students ( I know; junk science) they cannot be allowed to score their exams.
ReplyDeleteThere are numerous problems with teachers grading their own papers. For example, at my school we have a teacher known to all as the SCRUBBER BUZZARD. During the marking days he stays till after 6:00 going over as many papers as he can read, and changing the grades.
ReplyDeleteThe fairest and easiest way to mark the tests is to make the exams all multiple choice; then send the papers out to a milieu such as ETS in Princeton to grade. Obviously numerous teachers will claim, "How can we have exams where kids are not writing essays."
Well what is the value in writing so called essays which are graded wholistically; where spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc. do not count.
It's like giving an exam in architecture and being told the length and width of the walls does not count.
Last June I graded several hundred U.S. History exams from various schools and not one student was able to write a so called essay that was grammatically correct. Moreover, not one test taker was able to cite any facts whatsoever on such "difficult" topics as the Vietnam War, World War II or the invasion of Iraq.
NYC: You may be able to look objectively at your own kids' work but many teachers may not be able to do so, especially when their school may be closed due to poor scores and they end up as an ATR. The entire system was rigged to get teachers to push higher grad rates and higher scores in the service of ed deform so Bloomberg could look good. It may not be outright cheating in most cases but certainly a nudge for a kid you like, etc. The fact is we need to move towards the consortium concept that a group of schools like Urban Academy operate under where the test pressure is removed and kids and teachers can function on a rich learning environment.
ReplyDeleteI remember even back in my high school days in the early 60s when some of our teachers in regent classes would say, "I'd love to teach you this or that or go into things in more depth but we have a regent to prepare for." So some of this it not new.
RIGHT ON. Cheating is rampant throughout the system. Chairmen and principals tell teachers the schools will close and/or they will be axed if the scores do not rise. The administrators' own jobs are on the line. If scores decrease, the ratings of the school decline, potentially jeopardizing the jobs of the principal and assistant principals.
ReplyDeletei work at a public high school in an outer borough that doesn't screen kids. i have a pile of letters from my principal rating me effective and well-developed, and all of my formal evaluations have been marked S. i even have letters in my file from my principal from when he's dropped by and enjoyed the lesson, and written to point out strengths and how my students are lucky to have me as a teacher.
ReplyDeletei was required to put 30 kids up for the january exam, and only a third passed. i was crushed, as were my kids. i was told not to worry about it by my principal, because we can't all get high pass rates our first semester of teaching.
several days later i got a letter from my principal stating that i needed to reevaluate my curriculum and teaching practices because clearly i was doing something wrong, and that if my regents scores did not drastically improve by june, i would be receiving a U rating and looking for employment elsewhere. when i met with him and asked what i needed to be doing differently, i was told that a lecture format that taught to the test and emphasized heavy regents practice would be preferred and save my job, although i should go back to my "old" teaching methods when we had evaluators and observers in the building (i really enjoy doing activities, demonstrations, and 'hands-on' work with my students). i was then given overcrowded classes filled with ELLs and IEP students. (i'm not bemoaning having ELLs or IEP students - they're my favorite classes to teach, but the schedules have been shuffled so that they are the only population i work with, and other teachers teaching my subject have neither ELLs nor students with IEPs).
i guess it's time to dust off that resume.
I'm very sorry you have to go through this. It's remarkable that a principal would ask you to do tedious test prep as a regular thing but to put on a show when outside observers show up. It's kind of, "Do as I say, but don't let anyone find out about it." I wonder how kids will react to the obvious change up for an outside audience. Kids are pretty hip to blatant hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteSince you're so particular about proper spelling and usage, it's "holistically." Also, a semicolon ought to denote another full related sentence. Furthermore, it's customary to end a questions with question marks, and a question is not generally referred to as a "claim." Also, it's generally accepted that "so-called" is hyphenated.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, your blatant contempt for children, which I've seen in these comments repeatedly, is a little upsetting.
Putting aside the nitpicking, how about commenting on the more than valid points that I make?
ReplyDeleteWhy shouldn't all students be graded equally as they are on exams such as the verbal and math SAT?What you obviously fail to realize is how watered down and dumbed down the Regents exams are to begin with. The old RCTs from the 80's were more difficult than what passes forn today's Regents exams. At schools in the suburbs the passing rate on exams such as the U.S. History is 100%. A junior high student reading on grade level could pass the test without studying.
but we're talking about schools in nyc. at my school at least, i don't have a single student reading at grade level. most of my junior students are reading at 8th/9th grade level at best. that is, the ones who speak english. what about the kids who, through no fault of their own, are picked up from their home country and brought to nyc as sophomores in high school - and then asked to pass exams that are taught in english - essentially a foreign language to them - with only six months of practice or exposure to the language? who better to judge what they're communicating than a teacher who has worked with them to not only help them understand the content, but also the english language? i'm not saying teachers will give points for incorrect answers, but they will be more knowledgeable of a student's limitations with the english language.
ReplyDeletethe kids know, but they 'get it'... the school treats them incredibly well, and very few would try to sabotage an observation. it's odd, because it's getting to the point where observation days are the days that i most look forward to.
ReplyDeleteIf the kids cooperate when you're being observed, that's a great sign. Clearly they like and respect you. I'll bet you are a great teacher.
ReplyDeleteI graded at Bayside last month also-I teach there- and I got the same email from the Office of Assessment. You may remember that the principal handed out his own survey on the last day. This survey's results were published for all staff members and we had meetings to discuss what needed to be fixed for June to go better. At least somebody cares about staff feedback. I was told the survey was also sent to the Office of Assessment but they probably don't read anything. What was hilarious were the additional comments that scorers from all the schools added onto the survey. 99% were about the free breakfast that I understand my school-not the DOE- provided and about parking. These were funny as hell but also made me a little embarrassed to be a teacher- what a bunch of whiners! I hope those were not sent to the Office of Assessment with the survey- some people really have to learn how to say thank you and move on. Pleasure meeting you.
ReplyDeleteActually, the breakfast was very nice and parking was relatively easy for me. Also, everyone at Bayside was very helpful. I had no problem with Bayside--I just find it utterly demeaning that we are not trusted to evaluate our own kids. Nice meeting you too!
ReplyDeleteI've graded exams in the past, and you'd always get that exam that you scored as a 60 and the AP would come along and be like "Any way we can take a second look at this..." Not that I am blaming him, but the pressure to pass is so overwhelming some times, and while I think maybe having people who don't grade the students on a regular basis might solve the problem, there are many avenues to consider.
ReplyDeleteAmong them being that not all schools are created equal, nor are all students, nor is nothing ever equal in this system. As teachers at School X, we know what to look for because we have a general idea of the range of students. While we were not supposed to grade our own students' exams, the law of averages states it will happen. Guess what I am saying is, we know what our students essays look like, even if we have never had the student.
What many teachers are concerned with is that, what if the person grading our kids exams teaches at a place like Stuyvesant, where the standards, as well as the students, are on a much higher level. Their version of a 3 might be our 4 and so on and so forth. While I can not disagree with some of the comments here about situations where teachers might rate higher than the essay actually is, I don't know that it's actually cheating. The Regents rubric is pretty clear about what is a 3, and what is a 4 etc. While we do our best to teach students to be able to write a 5, the reality is that most students at your basic school in NYC won't, either because they lack the basic skills they should have acquired before coming to high school or refused outright to practice the skills they taught while they were here....I don't have a solution, there are strong and weak points with both situations. Perhaps there should be a different exam given based on the school. Perhaps the Regents should be differentiated based on a 3 tiered level so that the weaker students have a fighting chance to pass it without any of the unnecessary b.s. Somehow, I don't think having teachers sit in a room for hours and look at exams of kids they have never had is going to improve the situation.