Education in the District of Columbia
has improved; we have more public and charter schools providing great services
to students and families. This educational growth has brought a variety of high
stake texts for all students in DC, including Pre K3-Pre K4 pupils. The Office
of Superintend claims that they
have heard feedback from families and school community and based on that, OSSE
has recognized that they need to be more thoughtful about assessments to ensure
they provide important information to parents and to teachers and do not take
away too much time from instruction.
Based on the Assessment Task Force insights, DCPS is committed to
the following:
·
Ensure
the assessments require in DCPS are of high quality – rigorous, meaningful assessments that
are a worthwhile investment of student and teacher time
o For example, DCPS streamlined English/Language
Arts assessments in middle and high schools to focus on writing assignments.
o DCPS is working with teachers to make sure
assessments measure what is taught in DC Public Schools.
·
Improve
support to schools to analyze
assessment results.
o DCPS is building a team devoted to professional
development. This team will support teachers to use assessment data to
meet students’ needs and help them grow.
·
Improve
communication to families about
how children are doing and how parents can support their children’s learning.(1)
DC
has numerous high stake assessments, as seen bellow:
Table 1
Table 2
Besides the high stake
assessments shown on “table 1”
and “table 2,”
DC also has assessments for early childhood education students. “Teaching
Strategies Gold offers comprehensive assessment
solutions for early childhood education programs based on the latest research, these
are proven valid and reliable, and are fully aligned with
the Common Core State Standards, state early learning guidelines, and the Head Start Child Development and Early
Learning Framework.”(3)
The table shown below compares
two public schools in the District of Columbia, one of them is in an affluent
neighborhood and the other one is in a low income neighborhood.
(This information was
obtained from a parent and a child of an “affluent school” in D.C., as well as
from a parent and a student from the school where I work at, which is consider “high
need school.”)
Schools
|
DCPS Affluent School (in
ward 3)
|
DCPS High Need School (in
ward 7)
|
Parents
|
*Value
knowing that their children are held to high standards.
*Want
to better understand how their children are performing in school and how they
can help.
*Believe
that their children are being thought just enough to pass the tests, not to
think.
|
*Value
knowing that their children are held to the same standards as other students
in DCPS and beyond.
*Believe
that standardized assessments put too much pressure on students.
|
Students
|
Think
that assessments are not fair and also that each student is smart on their
own way.
|
Think
that assessments are useless for real life.
|
Teachers
|
Do
not agree with the amount of time it takes to administer assessments.
|
Do
not agree with students’ assessments’ results being part of their evaluation.
|
The
teachers, parents and students I had the opportunity to talk to in regards to
high stakes assessments expressed their dissatisfaction. They do not believe
that students need to be assessed so many times during the school year. They
consider that it should be a different route, for instance: use more project-based
learning, as well as more game-based learning. Another relevant information I
was provided by the teachers I spoke to, was the fact that students performance
and results on high stake assessments are directly related to educator’s
evaluations. They said, “When students are taking a test, specially a long and
difficult one, like PARCC, they are nervous and under a lot of pressure, which
can cause low performance.” On the other hand, I spoke to a third teacher who
likes this assessments and who thinks, “Impact is a good thing because it
motivates teachers to provide more dynamic and effective lessons that increase
students’ knowledge and subsequently, better results during assessments.”
“D.C. schools officials evaluate the
performance of all teachers through a system called IMPACT, which takes into
account student test scores. Those rated "ineffective" are dismissed;
those rated "minimally effective" have one year to improve; and teachers
rated "highly effective" receive large bonuses and the potential for
substantial increases in base pay. The system is intended to encourage
high-performing teachers to stay and to induce low-performing teachers to
leave.”(4)
To
summarize, high stake assessments provide relevant information to parents,
teachers, principals and school districts. All the parties involved agree that
assessments are extremely stressful but, as a parent and a teacher, I consider
these assessments important and all the hard work worth it. The benefit of the
assessment is reflected in the positive progression in our students overall achievement.
Resources:
(1)
District
of Columbia Public Schools. Students Assessments. (N.D.) Retrieved
from: http://dcps.dc.gov/assessments
(2) District
of Columbia Public Schools. Table 1 and 2. (N.D.)
(3) Teaching
Strategies for Early Childhood. Comprehensive Assessments Solutions for Early
Childhood Programs. (N.D.) Retrieved from: http://teachingstrategies.com/assessment/
(4) Camera,
L., Education Reporter. (Jan. 25, 2016). Students Achievements Increased when
Ineffective Teachers were Asked to Leave. Retrieved from: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-01-25/high-stakes-teacher-evaluation-system-increased-student-achievement
