On Sunday, June 19, 2005, at 02:49 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
We had already restored the curriculum and instruction department
several years before, so with the
best of intentions, we put together a very focused summer school
program and
invited/urged low-performing students to attend. As Ross Taylor said,
"They
stayed away in droves." After a couple of years of struggling with
that we
wanted to know why fewer than 4 out of 10 low-performing students were
participating.
This is very useful and interesting information. Thanks Ann. The older
methods prompted re-mediation based on teacher recommendations. Using
standardized tests to sort out students is not that old. Then of course
followed teaching to the test. I think part of the deeper issue that we
have to discuss and come to terms with in our district is what good we
are doing with this reliance on standardized testing as a measure of
performance success per school. Fast as we get with testing and
reporting out results, we cannot be as fast as a teacher at identifying
gaps an individual student needs to fill to be successful.
One of the disconcerting Peebles things that happened in our family is
that our grandchild brought home "homework" over the winter break. We
sat down to help her with it and the examples were very poor. The
instructions were missing. Neither our granddaughter nor us could
figure out what was being asked. Still, she completed the work to the
best of her ability, turned it in, and we heard nothing for quite a
long time.
However, we knew that our grandchild's teacher knew far more about
where she was in her learning goals for the year and what she needed
and what she excelled in. The winter break homework showed nothing and
provided her with nothing. She received exactly the same homework
everyone else in her grade group received, regardless of ability.
In my opinion the missing link is not closing the time gap from testing
to reporting. It is closing the relationship gap between parent and
teacher.
Best,
Laura
Laura Waterman Wittstock
Candidate for Minneapolis Library Board of Trustees
DFL and Labor endorsed
Minneapolis, MN
612-387-4915
www.laurawatermanwittstock.com
http://laurawatermanwittstock.blogspot.com/
Wittstock for Library Committee
913 19th Avenue SE, Mpls, 55414
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