High school graduation goals do not include getting students ready for college

Sadly, I was not surprised to learn that our local high school does not include “college or career ready” as part of its goals for graduates.

The district has adopted graduation goals. A graduate of the Eastchester Schools will be:

• A respectful individual
• A life-long learner
• An effective communicator
• A complex thinker and problem solver
• A competent and responsible user of technology

Words have consequences.

At our local school only 59% of high school graduates are  “college or career ready” *.  This at an annual  cost of about $23,389 per pupil.

I prefer the Obama administration’s articulation of goals – much more specific, concrete, and measurable.

The goal for America’s educational system is clear: Every student should graduate from high school ready for college or a career.

Different school, similar problem
At a nearby school district, some parents are advocating that college preparation has to be front and center as goals, instead of  other squishy priorities like global awareness, global responsibility, and 21st century skills.

* UPDATE:  I changed “college ready” to “college or career ready” to accurately reflect what was measured.  In other words, 59% were not prepared for “post-secondary” success as determined by New York’s Aspirational Performance Measure (APM).

New York teachers will no longer grade their own students’ standardized tests

Teachers in New York State will no longer be grading their own students’ standardized tests.  This is a welcome change, considering that New York has a long-standing problem with inflated state test scores and a history of teacher intervention skewing the normal statistical distribution of grades.

The ban, which will go into effect in the 2012-13 school year for all elementary school, middle school and high school standardized exams, will reverse a longstanding practice that State Education Department officials say is inappropriate in an era when student test scores are used to evaluate teachers and principals. It is also a move to avoid the kind of cheating scandals that have erupted in cities like Atlanta and Washington….

Teacher intervention inflates New York Regents exam scores

New York has a long-standing problem with inflated state test scores, including repeated citings of questionable grading practices but no concrete action to address the problem.

In 2003-4, the testing company CTB/McGraw-Hill rescored a sample of Regents exams and found that its scores were generally lower than the scores awarded by the schools, a sign that score inflation was taking place, according to a 2009 audit of Regents scoring by the state comptroller’s office….

… 2004 e-mail in which a state education official cited statistics that showed how teachers statewide appeared to be helping some students over the bar….

And in 2005, a team of the State Education Department’s own experts rescored some June Regents exams and found a “significant tendency for local school districts to award full credit on questions requiring scorer judgment, even when the exam answers were vague, incomplete, inaccurate, or insufficiently detailed,” the comptroller’s audit reported, adding, “These inaccuracies have tended to inflate the academic performance of students and schools.”

Teacher intervention is skewing the normal statistical distribution of grades

… about three times as many students scored exactly at the passing mark than at each one of the scores below it, a result not in keeping with a standard statistical distribution.

A New York State deputy commissioner of education:

“Obviously, teachers look for points to get kids to pass.”

Despite concerns about conflict of interest, teachers still score their own students’ or school’s test.

“We are relying more than ever on state exams — to measure student achievement, to evaluate teacher and principal effectiveness, and to hold schools and districts accountable for their performance,” Merryl H. Tisch, the Regents chancellor, said last month, in support of tightened grading practices. “If we’re going to use the tests in these ways, we need to be absolutely certain that our system is beyond reproach.”

High school online classes expand in Westchester County

Eight school district in Westchester County are participating in a pilot program offering BOCES-sponsored online classes to their high school students.  The courses were designed by local teachers and make use of  ”blended” learning, including both virtual and in-person experiences.  Initially limited to four elective courses, plans call for expansion in future years.

Although this might seem like a low-risk way for the schools to try online learning, I am left with some questions about this initiative.

• What are the costs, both in terms of money and lost opportunity?
• How will results be assessed?  Is saving money the main criteria?  Will the outputs be measured in quantifiable ways?
• Although it seems like a good idea to try online teaching with what appear to be relatively light-weight electives, are there plans to go online with core courses also?  What about AP courses, where offering students more options could be a real way to take advantage of the efficiencies of technology?

It turns out that New York lags behind some other states in K-12 online learning initiatives, which actually could be an advantage if it means that we will learn from the experiences of other states who have taken a leading position in this area.

A reason for New York’s relatively slow start in online learning

Nationally, online learning is taking off. As of late 2010, online learning opportunities were available to some students in 48 states and Washington, D.C., according to the nonprofit International Association for K-12 Online Learning. Twenty-seven states plus Washington also had at least one full-time online school operating statewide. New York was one of the last states to finalize a set of distance-learning standards in 2011.

Martabano said that as a result, students in New York have had limited access to online courses compared with their peers around the country — though there have been recent advances.

You can read the article after the jump.

New York public schools face a 29% increase in pension costs

School districts are being socked with a 29 percent increase in their pension costs this school year.

The increase means schools will pay 11.11 percent of their payroll toward retirement costs in 2012, up from 8.62 percent in the prior school year, which ended June 30, the teachers’ retirement system announced this week. It’s the first double-digit rate in 22 years….

School officials said growing pension costs were equal to the total increase in school spending this year, up about 1.3 percent. The increase caused homeowners’ tax levies to grow on average about 3.4 percent this year.

This is not new information  - I learned about this last spring when we voted on school budgets.  In my local school district, taxpayer-funded pension costs will increase about 37% over last year’s, representing more than 50% of the total budget increase.  Pension/health/salary costs went up, while the total of all other school expenditures had to be cut as a way to keep the total budget increase to a manageable 3.9% that translates into an estimated 7% tax levy increase.

The pension expense comes as schools in July 2012 will have to abide by a property-tax cap.  The cap will limit tax increases to 2 percent a year or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower….

Pension costs are expected to grow further. In a memo to schools this month, the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System said it expects next year’s costs to exceed this year’s rate. It won’t have those estimates until November….

The Empire Center For New York State Policy, a conservative think tank, estimated in a report last year that taxpayer-funded contributions to the teachers’ retirement system will more than quadruple over the next five years. The group estimated pension costs for state and local government workers would more than double over the same period.

“It’s something everybody has to get ready for,” said E.J. McMahon, the group’s senior fellow.

School boards should provide taxpayers with longer-term budget projections

Mahon questioned why the teachers’ retirement system doesn’t provide districts with long-term outlooks on pension costs.

“You have districts that are negotiating contracts for three or four years, so why not tell them?” McMahon said.

Cardillo said they give districts about 18 months’ notice and can’t project rates further because economic conditions could change.

Multi-year projections are the norm in the business sector, for good reason.  Most taxpayers understand that  ”economic conditions could change” and deserve to have this type of critical information when voting on budget issues.  Chappaqua Central School District is one that does a good job offering five-year budget projections.

Also, New York urgently needs to rein in its “skyrocketing” public employee pension costs.

Related:  Passing the pension time bomb in New York State

You can read the entire LoHud.com article, which received 119 comments from readers, after the jump.