Klarinet Archive - Posting 000148.txt from 2006/04

From: o4rmondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: [kl] To Dee ---- (was: Business aspects of music performance &
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 13:46:04 -0400

Anne Bell wrote:

> [Some exceptions- IEP students do portfolio
> assessments rather than take the state
> standardized test.]

No. Just for the record, Anne, this is *not* true in all states. It
is not true in California, for example.

Karl has mentioned this illogic several times already.

Try to imagine yourself as a statistician or policy maker who says "The
actual failure rate in <name of state> was 27%.... except that they say
it was 11%, and therefore they satisfy the national criterion."

Many (most?) California schools dragged their feet in applying the
standardized test results, as opposed to "portfolio assessment" to IEP
students until one year or two years (I forget which) beyond the
mandated deadline. Eventually they had to surrender.

I said that I wasn't going to do this, but In order to give everyone
here a real taste of what I meant when I said to Dee that "It's a
different environment", I will give you one final example:

When final enforcement of NCLB was announced in my daughter's school
years ago, the principal in my school said during a public assembly for
parents *and* students (I was there, and so was my daughter):

"I'm required to announce what happens if our students fail these new
standardized tests, but you needn't worry because this school doesn't
have students of this sort."

The audience's silence was so complete that I don't think the principal
realized at the time what a stupid, uneducated statement this was.

(It happened that, months later, some teachers took the standardized
tests themselves, and something on the order of 25% of them failed.
Guess what? Some English and history teachers can't factor polynomials
(which was one of the instructions on the standardized test --- at the
time, at least). I made a point afterwards of asking my daughter's
counselor what a polynomial is. She shrugged her shoulders. "Math
isn't my topic", she replied.)

Two years later, when the cheese was really beginning to bind, the same
principal announced in another parent+student assembly (and perhaps in
print in the school newsletter, I don't remember):

"We must work harder, and especially the *students* must work harder
because THIS SCHOOL WILL NOT HAVE A SINGLE STUDENT WHO FAILS THE
STANDARDIZED TESTS." [the emphasis was the principal's, not my mine,
the principal's tone was absolute command, as though absolute command
could cause miracles]

Every IEP student in my daughter's classroom was told the same thing
repeatedly (by principal's order, I assume), and my daughter and I were
told the same thing during more than one subsequent
parent-teacher-student conference.

My daughter's response, both at home and to counselors at school in my
presence, was: "Why do you insist that I come to school? You don't
want me. I'm hurting your school."

So, Dee, try to contrast this with a handicapped student who hears: "You
didn't pass the math and English, but you sing well [she does, although
probably never at a professional level] and you did six times the
community service that is required for graduation [she did], and we know
you certainly tried your best and attended class when other
non-handicapped students cut school and smoked behind the gym while
waiting for the school year to be over. So let's focus on the things
that you _can_ do, and let's think about your employment after you
complete your senior year [in California, it's called the Bridges
program]."

Dee, can you understand the difference? The difference destroys
children.

Why do local principals and teachers do this sort of thing? If they
didn't, they wouldn't qualify to remain on the job and their schools
would receive even less funding, thereby LEAVING THE NON-HANDICAPPED
STUDENTS BEHIND! [emphasis mine].

In addition to wanting to have a voice, principals and teachers also
need their salaries.... until burnout strikes, which it did in the case
of two of my daughter's teachers during middle and high schools. So
far as I know, all three principals hung in there for the duration.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org