On the site you can go directly to the discussions or check out the participants and read what each wrote or didn't write. There were a few from W.C.C.U.S.D.
Achieving Success For All Students: Eduardo Martinez: "Personal Dialogue Statement:
I used to be a teacher that kept my interest and concern centered strictly to the classroom. Only after I realized that what happened outside my classroom seeped into the psyche of my students and curtailed my ability to teach to the needs of my students, did I begin to invest time in making my school environment a better place. When I saw that decisions made at the school board affected the school environment, I began to attend school board meetings. When I understood that outcomes at school board meetings were determined by legislation made at the state level, I began to lobby in Sacramento. I now realize the interconnectedness of the educational community and am willing to work in as many venues as necessary to make education a tool for creating citizens for a democratic society, not merely products for the workforce. I know that in all large communities, the voice of the ones in need is often lost. I hope I can be that voice."
The questions to which I am referring in the following entries are under this focus point.
FOCUS POINT: Expectations set by California’s accountability system:
One way the expectations of the education system are communicated to students, teachers, parents, and the wider community is through the state’s accountability system. In California the state has developed the Academic Performance Index (API) to measure student progress. Does this system reflect high or low expectations for all students? How might the API be modified to reward schools and districts that are successful in closing the achievement gap?
COMMENT: Wrong questions asked
Submitted by Eduardo Martinez on 10/31/07 10:30 AM
When questions are based on questionable assumptions, the answers derived lead us further astray from a solution to the problem. These are the wrong questions; the question that should be asked is, “Does the API measure students’ achievement?”The API does measure students ability to take a multiple choice test and they get better at it with all the instruction on test taking techniques and the “teaching to the test” done in classrooms throughout the state. But is this an accurate measure of where the student actually might be in his academic development?
COMMENT: Wrong question asked
Submitted by Eduardo Martinez on 10/31/07 10:31 AM
I find that my students do 20% better on multiple choice tests than they do on open question tests covering the same lesson. It does not matter which test is given first; the difference is always the same. If a student cannot translate information into his own words, the student does not own the information. It is a fruit that he sees hanging on a limb but cannot reach. Only when he can explain the color, the texture, the taste, shape and feel of the fruit, or do better that guessing whether it is an apple, a pear, or a pomegranate, will we be able to know that he has mastered it. Does this imply that we should raise the expectation? Or does it mean that we should change the way we measure achievement?COMMENT: Wrong questions asked
Submitted by Eduardo Martinez on 10/31/07 10:32 AM
Better questions might be, "Do we need to redefine the meaning of achievement? Does 'academic' only entail how much one can remember of facts and figures? Of isolated reading prompts? How do we measure the extent the information the students are tested on actually becomes meaningful to their lives? Is the basis of a students success dependent solely on how much they can remember of what the state has deemed important? And do these tests engage the students in such a way they can incorporate their personal knowledge?" I have had students who have been able to plan class parties in complete detail, computing the amounts of decorations and refreshments needed, but still “bomb” on the state tests.COMMENT: Wrong questions asked
Submitted by Eduardo Martinez on 10/31/07 10:33 AM
How do social and physical skills enter the matrix of achievement? When I get sixth grade students that cannot handle compasses or protractors because they have not developed the fine motor skills necessary to use them, I wonder how this is measured in the tests they are to take. I do know how this discrepancy is created: through the extra focus on test preparation and “testing” robbing time from the students’ ability to engage in art and other projects that develop physical and social skills.COMMENT: Students at Basic
Submitted by Eduardo Martinez on 11/1/07 4:34 AM
Every year my list of students who need intervention has constantly been changed from the students who need intervention to the students who have the best chance of raising the schools AYP. Of course these students can also use the intervention, but with insufficient resources, the question always returns to who benefits. Do we allow the students in the lowest quartile to suffer so we can look better on paper?COMMENT: Accountability
Submitted by Eduardo Martinez on 11/1/07 5:11 PM
What bar has been raised? The bar representing how well students can take tests? Raising the bar on test scores has done the opposite of focusing instruction on assisting all students; we now focus on the students who will raise out scores most expediently, leaving the far below basic students waiting for the help they need.I do agree that we need to engage the parents and students. Many of the "accountable" parents are flocking to private or charter schools, leaving the public schools with a more problematic population. Teachers need more tools to hold students accountable, for instance, keeping students after school for extra instruction. And yes, how to hold parents and students accountable... "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".
COMMENT: Underlying beliefs
Submitted by Eduardo Martinez on 11/1/07 6:20 PM
"Quality" professional development is the key, but before we begin influencing educators' beliefs, we need to enable educators to discover what their beliefs might be. It is amazing to see that many of us operate from "unconscious belief systems" that can come to light through guided honest dialog. Only after a staff reaches this level of understanding and trust, can they begin to construct a coherent climate and culture of achievement.I was once at a school that had gone through this process of self discovery and had begun to develop a collaborative environment, but had it replaced by a new principal, instituting policies dictated from the administration above her, destroying any sense of trust that had been cultivated.
