It is important to note that the latest news on the MCAS scores do not make any mention of drop out rates. Having worked as a teacher in the Springfield public schools for a few years, I noticed a real desperation in their efforts to raise scores, and extensive use of policies, such as long term suspensions, that increase the dropout rate. (I've even heard rumors that Springfield wants to make Calculus mandatory for graduation.)
One of my principals, (I had 4 in 3 years) seemed to believe that if students that are disruptive and unmotivated drop out, the benefits to the schools will be substantial. However, there are a number of problems with this theory.
First, the students who are alienated by the harsh policies, such as long term suspensions, are often good students. I can think of many examples, one of which was documented in my local paper.
Second, irreparable damage is done to the student and the community when a young person is forced out of school.
Third, both teachers and students loose heart when they see others hurt by their institution.
I've seen many, many methods to game the MCAS system, and harassing low-scoring students so they drop out is one such way. It does real damage to the child, but it makes the district look better. Our current system instructs everyone that such a trade-off is not only tolerable, but beneficial.
I did not realize that if a student drops out, then they are no longer “part of the count” – I think drop outs should count as a nnon-proficient, or maybe even as two, to avoid that kind of damage.
That's nuthin'. Small time. Here's the real way to take students off the books:
Contact other towns/districts that are having trouble in your region. Agree to open up a special “academy” intended for students who are struggling with the MCAS. Except don't label it that way — use it for “attendance problems”, “social adjustment”, “career focus”, “alternative setting”, etc. Incorporate the school as a special district.
Then start sending over the struggling kids. Better yet, send over a disproportionate number with IEPs, so as to bring your district close to compliance. The kids bomb the MCAS, but since the school is counted separately by the state,it doesn't come back on the district. This type of school will have such a high turnover rate that the threat of the state stepping in isn't the effective. Problems solved: MCAS scores, IEP compliance, discipline problems.
There are dozens of such schools in the state, Deborah. Not a couple are set up as charters.
If the MCAS is the NFL, every school is the Patriots. Except the schools don't get draft picks — they get whoever shows up at the door.
Oncde again, Sabutai, this SHOULD HAVE ITS OWN POST! Folks – even educated folks do not know – but it sure puts a different spin on some of the “alternative schools” the kids I represent as wards of the state – or check on as their guardian – are placed in.
do so on their own as soon as they are able to dropout. There are many children whose parents have never attended a PTO or parent teacher night in their lives. There are young adults who disrupt their classes, ignore their teachers and basically just use school as a place where they can act the gangsta role. There will always be a group of children who will never become proficient students.
Gaming the MCAS? How about dropping a town's METCO program to exclude lower performing urban (BLACK and HISPANIC) students? Now that is a rotten thing to do.
…encouraging students to drop out, to raise schools’ test score passing rates was noted in Houston TX a number of years ago. When Roy Paige (I think I have his name correct, but it might be Rod) was superintendent. He went on to become the first Secy Education in GWBush’s malAdministration.
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It is, of course, a cynical way of “gaming the system” but if a school district wants to tout its high passage rate, they will do that. It doesn’t serve the students, of course, but it does serve the administrators.