--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "Jack Pitzer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Test scores fall in Asbury
> BY NANCY SHIELDS COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU OCTOBER 29, 2008
>
> As in other school districts, the number of students deemed
proficient in certain areas went down after the state Department of
Education raised the achievement standards in July.
So lower them so everyone does well and we hide the truth.
> On the eighth-grade math test, for example, students had to answer
at least half the > questions correctly to be considered proficient
and the new test was more stringent than a > previous test, said
William Shannon, the district's director of pupil personnel services,
on Tuesday.
Let's blame the test. If I go to a store, I want to know that If i
give someone money, I get back my change correctly 100% of the time.
If I hire someone and tell them if you screw up 1/2 the time or 50%
of the time, you're fired, I don't want to get sued because the
person didn't understand it. They should know that 50% = 1/2 and 50%
right is failure. Like I said before, I got a 98 on a tax test and
the professor said there is no such thing as 98 when you are doing
someone's taxes (even though we know the truth).
> It was the report last week by Cynthia O'Connell, supervisor of
guidance, that the eighth-
> grade math test took a hit from 22.3 percent proficient to 14.6
percent proficient, that caused some board members to express anger.
that's a 65% drop, not 8.3 right? It took me two times to get the
right %.
> The eighth-grade language arts, for example, stayed fairly much the
same after jumping up two years ago. In 2006, 22.3 percent of
students were proficient. In 2007, the number was 28.5, and in 2008,
29.5 percent.
Good Job. That's not the same, that's a big improvement.
> In the 11th-grade language arts test last spring, the percentage of
students deemed proficient fell from 45.6 percent to 25.2 percent.
Math proficiency dropped from 30 percent to 14 percent.
That makes the stock market look good. Those numbers are ugly.
>
> Shannon said that testing in the spring of 2008 included larger
numbers of students with limited English proficiency than in 2007.
For example, 23 of 119 students had limited English proficiency in
2008 compared with 10 of 103 students in 2007, and that is
> believed to have contributed to the lower scores.
Ok, so you have 1/5 of the students have limted English skills. Are
they in a block education system or in general population? You
identified what the problem MIGHT be. ARe those the students that did
poorly?
> District officials are working on intervention measures to improve
scores. In the high school, for example, all students switched to
smaller learning communities or academies this year. There's a new
math curriculum and a proposal for after-school instruction.
Reading specialists have been hired for all the schools, although the
high school position is not yet filled, said Donna Muzzicato, the
district director of curriculum, on Tuesday.
All good things and costly. Ot has many of those same issues.
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
