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We will meet on Wednesday, Jan. 20th at 4pm at Manny’s Coffeeshop, 1141 South Jefferson St.

Our first task will be to encourage teachers that they are not alone in their feeling that tests are terrorizing students, parents, teachers and entire schools. The current testing regime replaces the joy of learning with the bureaucracy of learning.

We know that good schools:

• encourage joyful learning,
• value exploration, wonder and awe,
• have students that are interested and actively engaged,
• address students’ concerns,
• have teachers that work together to address students’ needs and character,
• support students beyond the school walls,
• have the ability to abandon the lesson plan and follow teachable moments,
• build on student and community strengths,
• have practicing student citizens.

The current testing mania interferes with each of the points above. We will examine how.

In addition to giving voice to what schools could and should be, we will look into alternatives to tests that can better provide “accountability” and equity. We will look into misuse of test scores for promotion, school closings, and “bonus” merit pay in the TAP program.

There will be a testing workshop at the Jan. 9 Malcolm X meeting. In addition, please save March 4, the National Day of Action in Defense of Education for potential action.

Hope to see you there!

Karen Lewis, Norine Gutekanst, Wade Tillett

In addition to teaching for Chicago Public Schools, I teach Curriculum and Instruction in the Middle School through UIC to mainly Chicago Public School teachers. We came up with the above list of things that have inherent value at school: what they love. It shows that what’s important at school is a lot broader than the “content”.

• those you have to apply to
• and those you don’t.

Most students go to those you don’t have to apply for - their neighborhood school. But they go there feeling like they weren’t “good enough” to “get into” one of the “good schools.” I’ve been trying to encourage my eighth graders to see their neighborhood school as a good option, as an option that still leaves their future college and career paths open. Still, students read the action louder than the words and the reality of Chicago Public Schools is this, according to our counselor:

• To even take the high school application exam, you must get a stanine of 5 or more in math and reading on the state standardized test in 7th grade. This eliminates 4 of 10 students.
• If all 6 of those students apply to the selective enrollment schools, only 1 is accepted.
• Thus, 9 of 10 students feel they have been told they are “not good enough”.

Before a student even walks into a neighborhood high school, she feels like she is going to a place for leftovers.

http://pureparents.org/data/files/prompolproprev10-15-09.pdf

That was one third-grader’s response to her parents’, teacher’s and principal’s disbelief that she had to attend summer school based on the results of a state test. Never mind that Christine* was enrolled in a gifted program, nor that she got A’s and B’s, nor that she had near perfect attendance, nor that she did fantastic projects, nor that she had an intense interest in learning. Chicago Public Schools’ promotion policy throws all that out the window if either the math or reading test score of a student comes back below the 24^th percentile.

Christine’s did.

Her self-confidence was blown. She came to hate school because of a terrible experience in a summer school program that focused on test preparation. Her parents moved so that she could attend a new school in the Fall.

When Christine’s parents got another printout of Christine’s scores from her new school last Fall, it said she should have passed.

Chicago Public Schools bases their promotion policy on the Illinois Standardized Achievement Test, despite warnings sent with the test that explicitly prohibits such a policy. Because of that policy, Chicago Public School students were hit hardest by erroneous test scores sent back by the state on June 2, 2008. After Chicago Public School students had already been sent to summer school on the basis of those scores, the state had subcontractor Pearson re-equate and re-score the tests. After the re-scoring, 8,514 students in 3^rd, 6^th and 8^th grade moved from below the CPS cutoff point of 24^th percentile, to above the cutoff point, according to a Freedom of Information Act response obtained by Parents United for Responsible Education. Not all of these students were subject to the promotion policy. And 6^th and 8^th graders are allowed two years of tests to determine promotion, while 3^rd graders are allowed only this one. However, it is safe to say that thousands of students were erroneously sent to summer school based on a combination of faulty test scores and a CPS promotion policy that uses those test scores to override all other considerations.

A petition to change the CPS promotion policy has been started at:

http://bubbleover.net/cps-promotion-petition/

*Name has been changed to preserve anonymity.

This article previously published on Substance News.

According to the Chicago Public Schools Elementary School Promotion Policy any student in 3^rd, 6^th or 8^th grade who scores below the 24^th percentile on one or two of the SAT-10 portions of the state test automatically attends summer school. CPS sent 26,992 students in those “benchmark grades” to summer school in 2008. However, 1,412 of those same students who scored below the CPS cutoff point in math were also found by the state to meet the standard in math. And 13,071 students who scored below the CPS cutoff point in math were also found by the state to fall in the state’s below standards category rather the lowest category termed academic warning. The state found only 3,430 students to be at the academic warning level in math, and even less in reading. The difference in results were similar in 2006 and 2007, according to information received from CPS by Parents United for Responsible Education in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The discrepancy occurs because CPS bases its promotion policy on only two small subsets of the overall test (30 or 40 questions each) that are graded quickly to determine who must attend summer school. These scores don’t necessarily match with the scores received after the state scores the entire test. When asked about the correlation between CPS cutoff score and the state standard levels, CPS responded that the correlation “is an ISBE matter.” ISBE, on the other hand, stated in a related FOIA request that “Using ISAT scores as the basis for student promotion and retention is not an ISBE policy or practice.” In fact, it is Chicago Public Schools, not the Illinois State Board of Education, which has established the 24^th percentile mark as the determinant for promotion. Since that mark does not relate to the state standard levels, it seems reasonable to wonder, on what basis was it chosen?

Since 1996, CPS has flunked hundreds of thousands of students, with a total actual cost of about $1.2 billion, and with unimaginable fallout costs to society. Our entire society loses out when we tell students they are failures. Why does CPS continue to spend $100 million a year on a policy that annually hurts 10,000 children academically and emotionally? There are real interventions that could help. See reports and alternatives at PURE. And if that’s not enough, here’s a report from 1998 entitled the Predictable Failure of Chicago’s Student Retention Program.

CPS must stop flunking students.

Following is my analysis of CPS’ flunking policy’s disparate impact on African-Americans.

Enrollment, Summer School, and Retention by Race in 2008 for 3^rd, 6^th, and 8^th Graders

The pie charts show that African-Americans constitute 48% of the CPS student population in 3rd, 6th and 8th grades, but 68% of those required to attend summer school, and 74% of those retained.

The bar graph above shows what percentage of each race subgroup was required to attend summer school. For example, 40% of all CPS 3rd, 6th and 8th grade African-American students were required to attend summer school.

The bar graph above shows what percentage of each race subgroup was retained. For example, 16% of all CPS 3rd, 6th and 8th grade African-American students had to repeat the grade.

Here are some of the questions we should be asking as Mr. Duncan takes his turnaround policy nationwide. What studies have been done and what efforts have been made by Mr. Duncan or the Chicago Public Schools to avoid the disproportionate effect of the school probation policy on schools that serve minority communities? Does this turnaround policy unfairly punish schools and staff who serve low-income students of color? Is a policy that consistently tells predominantly minority students and their teachers they are failures the best way to encourage a passion for education? What lesson will students of color take from this approach? What efforts have been made to find the positive assets in each community and build on those? What degree of participation and democracy have been used to determine if a school is successful? How could school reform be done with a community, instead of to them? Do test scores determine whether an educational environment is relevant and empowering to a student’s  life, present and future?

For the full-length version of this article, please visit Substance News.

Soon scores from a small portion of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) will come back.

• The booklet sent out with ISAT says “No person or organization shall make a decision about a student or educator on the basis of a single test.” (1)
• Despite this, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) trusts this test to override our own teachers in deciding the future of our children.
• For third, sixth and eighth graders, our promotion policy automatically flunks at least one in four children based on a thirty or forty question test. (2)
• At the end of summer school, CPS is five times more likely to retain a child for the next year if they are African-American than if they are white. (3)
• By retaining a student, CPS increases that child’s chance of dropping out by 29%. (4)
• Chicago Public Schools spends $100 million dollars every year on this policy. (5)
• Extensive research shows that it DOES NOT WORK. Repeating a grade does not help children succeed. (4)

Why do we continue to threaten eight-year-olds and tell third-graders they are failures? Why do we make students cry, throw-up, and finally quit?

Chicago Public Schools should use the $100 million it spends every year on holding back kids to instead provide what students really need: caring professionals with the time and resources to find out what works for each of them. Our children need advocates, not inflexible policies spit out of a machine.

CPS should stop using standardized test scores to override all other considerations in making student grade promotion decisions. I encourage anyone who agrees to sign the petition. And I encourage other parents to contact Parents United for Responsible Education if your child is forced to go to summer school.

1. 2009 ISBE ISAT Professional Testing Practices for Educators booklet

2. CPS policy sends any student below the 24^th percentile to summer school.

3. http://pureparents.org/data/files/retentionreport09.pdf

4. http://www.fairtest.org/chicago-research-criticizes-retention-test-driven-improvement

5. $10,000 per student per year times approximately 10,000 students retained

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