| Author |
Message |
    
John Davenport
Citizen
Username: Jjd
Post Number: 150
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 2:30 am: |     |
There doesn't seem to have been much discussion of this lately, but I am looking at the letter from Dr. Patricia Barker informing us all about this decision.
While I respect Dr. Barker and her hard work for this district, especially in the face of the new demands made by the No Child Left Behind legislation, I disagree with this decision, at least for grade two, in which we now have no other standardized test.
I'm not a person who has great faith in standardized tests anyway, and I do worry about overtesting kids, but at the same time, Terra Nova is used to compare to private schools like Lady of Sorrows, and to other districts and past years. As is discussed on another post, it is hard to compare apples to apples when the tests keep changing all the time!
The letter states that "Second grade teachers have reported that the administration of the Terra Nova, which began two years ago at grade two, is difficult for children and may not be yielding reliable information in some cases." This needs some explaining. Without another explanation, I have to assume that our district is cutting this test because they did not like the performance by second graders, and realized that is makes their current non-curriculum in language arts look bad. They may also be worried about how favorably Sorrows' Terra Nova scores compare to ours!
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J. Crohn
Citizen
Username: Jcrohn
Post Number: 953
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 12:06 pm: | |
The Terra Nova is also used at Solomon Schecter. |
Diversity Man
Citizen
Username: Deadwhitemale
Post Number: 681
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 2:19 pm: | |
"Second grade teachers" - two, three, new, tenured, union powers, admin flacks?
as to reliable information:
"may not"
"in some cases"
hmmm...
legalistic double talk.
DWM |
breal
Citizen
Username: Breal
Post Number: 301
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 3:42 pm: | |
Low Terra Nova scores are often the wake-up call parents need to advocate for resource room for their child. (And resource room remains the only place to get direct, explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics in our district, unless you count ESL.)
Even as it is, many children fall through the cracks in first and second grade and finally get help only in third grade after tanking on the second grade Terra Novas. ("Just give it time," parents are told. "Something will happen inside your child.") Without objective standardized testing in second grade, many children won't even get the help they need in third grade. That's a lot of neglect.
I am very surprised Dr. Barker has chosen "miscue analysis" over the Terra Nova. I am in fact amazed. Miscue analysis is in no way an objective assessment. It is administered by the classroom teacher herself, whose own performance will be judged by the way her class scores. Also, even if conflict of interest weren't a problem, interpretation of "miscues" is: No two teachers judge a miscue the same way. Miscue analysis is just not a good tool for judging the effectiveness of a curriculum or any other "big picture" analysis. This, of course, is exactly the reason our district now favors it.
We need to make a change.
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mimosa
Citizen
Username: Mimosa
Post Number: 99
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 10:44 pm: | |
By the way, that letter regarding standardized testing that came home with students this week states that third grade students WILL be taking an abbreviated Terra Nova in April. The state of NJ has determined that the NJASK3 will still be a field test and not count towards NCLB accountability. So district third graders have three days of testing in March and 3 more in April. |
John Davenport
Citizen
Username: Jjd
Post Number: 155
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, March 7, 2004 - 12:42 am: | |
I agree, Breal. But are you suggesting a "change" in administrative staffing? |
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