About Author: Tom Staly

Posts by Tom Staly

  • For students, poor exam scores can lead to bad grades and perhaps a grounding at home. Low scores also have consequences for teachers and administrators. State and federal statutes detail what can happen if schools, specifically those with students from low-income families, fail to meet state benchmarks in reading and math. Consequences range from allowing students to transfer to other schools to replacing a school’s staff for chronically failing to meet goals. Government officials, educators and parents rely on standardized tests not only as a measure of individual student achievement, but also to gauge the success of a school, a school district and individual states. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper recently reported that test scores from hundreds of districts across the country showed the same wide discrepancies found in Atlanta public schools in 2009, where claims of cheating were investigated and...

    The Troubles Schools in Mid-Columbia Face with Testing

    Posted on May 20, 2012 | 1 Comment
    For students, poor exam scores can lead to bad grades and perhaps a grounding at home. Low scores also have consequences for teachers and administrators. State and federal statutes detail what can happen if schools, specifically those with students from low-income families, fail to meet state benchmarks in reading and math. Consequences range from allowing students to transfer to other schools to replacing a school’s staff for chronically failing to meet goals. Government officials, educators and parents rely on standardized tests not only as a measure of individual student achievement, but also to gauge the success of a school, a school district and individual states. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper recently reported that test scores from hundreds of districts across the country showed the same wide discrepancies found in Atlanta public schools in 2009, where claims of cheating were investigated and...

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  • Ty Beaver, Tri-City Herald reporter, relates discussion of Kennewick grading policies from a school board retreat on Wednesday.  Giving principals more control over how students in their schools are graded and creating a more consistent grading system were among the topics discussed Wednesday during a Kennewick School Board retreat. The board met Wednesday night to begin reviewing the school year and district policies and philosophies. No changes have been made yet, but board members voiced a desire to see a more consistent and transparent system to evaluate student performance that would hold students accountable but not penalize those who don’t grasp a subject’s concepts right away. Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/05/17/1942889/kennewick-school-board-discusses.html#storylink=cpy    

    Kennewick School Board discusses consistent grading practices

    Posted on May 17, 2012 | No Comments
    Ty Beaver, Tri-City Herald reporter, relates discussion of Kennewick grading policies from a school board retreat on Wednesday.  Giving principals more control over how students in their schools are graded and creating a more consistent grading system were among the topics discussed Wednesday during a Kennewick School Board retreat. The board met Wednesday night to begin reviewing the school year and district policies and philosophies. No changes have been made yet, but board members voiced a desire to see a more consistent and transparent system to evaluate student performance that would hold students accountable but not penalize those who don’t grasp a subject’s concepts right away. Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/05/17/1942889/kennewick-school-board-discusses.html#storylink=cpy    

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  • What Passes for School Reform: “Value-Added” Teacher Evaluation and Other Absurdities       The less people know about teaching and learning, the more sympathetic they’re likely to be to the kind of “school reform” that’s all the rage these days.  Look, they say, some teachers (and schools) are lousy, aren’t they?  And we want kids to receive a better education — including poor kids, who typically get the short end of the stick, right?  So let’s rock the boat a little!  Clean out the dead wood, close down the places that don’t work, slap public ratings on these suckers just like restaurants that have to display the results of their health inspections.

    Reasons to Oppose School Reform – for Teachers and Parents

    Posted on May 11, 2012 | 1 Comment
    What Passes for School Reform: “Value-Added” Teacher Evaluation and Other Absurdities       The less people know about teaching and learning, the more sympathetic they’re likely to be to the kind of “school reform” that’s all the rage these days.  Look, they say, some teachers (and schools) are lousy, aren’t they?  And we want kids to receive a better education — including poor kids, who typically get the short end of the stick, right?  So let’s rock the boat a little!  Clean out the dead wood, close down the places that don’t work, slap public ratings on these suckers just like restaurants that have to display the results of their health inspections.

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  • While Kennewick School District and the Kennewick Education Association continue work to resolve the KEA grievance over standards based grading in Kennewick middle schools there is no new information from district or building administrators.  A parent has contacted us regarding her experience with SBG which we are reporting here.  I have chosen to not disclose the writer’s name. I have had an issue with my kiddo at Highlands which prompted me to look closer at the grading situation. I am an educator and I have taught in an elementary which used SBG. We collected students’ work and graded it as usual. Then for our report cards we had to align the questions from our assessments with the standards on our report cards and report on how well students master the standards. All the while teaching and reteaching, monitoring student progress,...

    Standards Based Grading – A Parent’s Concerns

    Posted on May 4, 2012 | 2 Comments
    While Kennewick School District and the Kennewick Education Association continue work to resolve the KEA grievance over standards based grading in Kennewick middle schools there is no new information from district or building administrators.  A parent has contacted us regarding her experience with SBG which we are reporting here.  I have chosen to not disclose the writer’s name. I have had an issue with my kiddo at Highlands which prompted me to look closer at the grading situation. I am an educator and I have taught in an elementary which used SBG. We collected students’ work and graded it as usual. Then for our report cards we had to align the questions from our assessments with the standards on our report cards and report on how well students master the standards. All the while teaching and reteaching, monitoring student progress,...

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  • The STEM Foundation will expand this program Student test scores would rank Delta High School in 25th place among Washington State high schools if Delta was recognized as a high school apart from its feeder schools.  STEM Executive Director, Karen Baker stated this accomplishment was made with a cross section of students from three school districts selected by lottery.  Entering ninth grade students have math and language skills ranging from 4th to 12th grade and 47% qualify for free and reduced cost lunch. Operating counter to the trend of the past twenty years which has schools reducing or eliminating elective and exploratory classes in favor of doubles academic classes, Delta embraces hands-on student activities with teachers integrating academics and projects. One measure of Delta’s success is illustrated by 2011 HSPE scores.  Student growth at Delta was well above national and state norms...

    Delta High School Project Based Learning is Achieving Success

    Posted on April 27, 2012 | 2 Comments
    The STEM Foundation will expand this program Student test scores would rank Delta High School in 25th place among Washington State high schools if Delta was recognized as a high school apart from its feeder schools.  STEM Executive Director, Karen Baker stated this accomplishment was made with a cross section of students from three school districts selected by lottery.  Entering ninth grade students have math and language skills ranging from 4th to 12th grade and 47% qualify for free and reduced cost lunch. Operating counter to the trend of the past twenty years which has schools reducing or eliminating elective and exploratory classes in favor of doubles academic classes, Delta embraces hands-on student activities with teachers integrating academics and projects. One measure of Delta’s success is illustrated by 2011 HSPE scores.  Student growth at Delta was well above national and state norms...

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  • From the conclusion of Yong Zhao’s article titled Mass Localism for Improving America’s Education: For America’s education to rise to the challenges of globalization, we need to further cultivate creativity and diversity, capitalize on our traditional strengths, and locate ourselves within a global context. America already has built such an infrastructure, which many traditionally centralized systems have been trying to emulate (Zhao 2009), so we need not dismantle it. But we do need to take additional actions in a number of areas: local creativity, global collaboration, and government stimulation. First, federal and state governments must reduce their prescriptive measures imposed on schools, especially in terms of educational outcomes. The most damaging action has been the imposition of test-based quality indicators. Follow this link to the complete article: http://zhaolearning.com/2012/04/24/mass-localism-for-improving-america%e2%80%99s-education/  

    To build a better education system, America must build on what we have—differentiation, uniqueness, and diversity

    Posted on April 25, 2012 | 1 Comment
    From the conclusion of Yong Zhao’s article titled Mass Localism for Improving America’s Education: For America’s education to rise to the challenges of globalization, we need to further cultivate creativity and diversity, capitalize on our traditional strengths, and locate ourselves within a global context. America already has built such an infrastructure, which many traditionally centralized systems have been trying to emulate (Zhao 2009), so we need not dismantle it. But we do need to take additional actions in a number of areas: local creativity, global collaboration, and government stimulation. First, federal and state governments must reduce their prescriptive measures imposed on schools, especially in terms of educational outcomes. The most damaging action has been the imposition of test-based quality indicators. Follow this link to the complete article: http://zhaolearning.com/2012/04/24/mass-localism-for-improving-america%e2%80%99s-education/  

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  • Another view of a test used in Kennewick schools. The federal Reading First program has come under repeated scrutiny for corruption, exposing how individuals in charge of monitoring the program have pushed products, such as the DIBELS test, from which they have benefited financially (see “Reading First,” this issue). Complementing the financial corruption is ideological corruption. In Examining DIBELS: What It Is and What It Does, Ken Goodman and his colleagues carefully dissect the test, concluding that it is conceptually flawed and educationally harmful. Follow this link to the complete article: http://www.fairtest.org/dibels-pedagogy-absurd-hurts-children For the Reading First article: http://www.fairtest.org/reading-first-financial-corruption      

    DIBELS: Pedagogy of the Absurd Hurts Children

    Posted on April 24, 2012 | No Comments
    Another view of a test used in Kennewick schools. The federal Reading First program has come under repeated scrutiny for corruption, exposing how individuals in charge of monitoring the program have pushed products, such as the DIBELS test, from which they have benefited financially (see “Reading First,” this issue). Complementing the financial corruption is ideological corruption. In Examining DIBELS: What It Is and What It Does, Ken Goodman and his colleagues carefully dissect the test, concluding that it is conceptually flawed and educationally harmful. Follow this link to the complete article: http://www.fairtest.org/dibels-pedagogy-absurd-hurts-children For the Reading First article: http://www.fairtest.org/reading-first-financial-corruption      

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  • Bee researcher Thomas Seeley has made observations about group behavior based on his study of bees. ”Groups work well, he argues, if the power of leaders is minimized.” Follow this link to read the Smithsonian article: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Secret-Life-of-Bees.html  

    Decision Making and Honey Bees – A Lesson for Educators

    Posted on April 20, 2012 | No Comments
    Bee researcher Thomas Seeley has made observations about group behavior based on his study of bees. ”Groups work well, he argues, if the power of leaders is minimized.” Follow this link to read the Smithsonian article: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Secret-Life-of-Bees.html  

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