Owning Your Data

A good friend of mine served as a school board member in Houston when I was a public school educator there. She used to say, “Scott, there is only one way to know if kids are learning or not – you have to test them. If you don’t test them, then how do you know?”

Now I grew up professionally during the era of high-stakes testing, and I worked in Texas, known for its love affair with testing. So I’m partial to what my friend told me about the importance of testing.

Now I live in Iowa, and before that, Vermont. Both states brag about how good their schools are, but neither have a rigorous state-wide testing schedule.

Last week I saw an article in The Des Moines Register titled “After DMPS (Des Moines Public Schools) pushes to boost Black male students’ algebra grades, district sees them drop instead.” The Register’s report goes on to say that “The Des Moines School Board pressed school officials at a meeting earlier this month to explain why the number of ninth-grade Black male students getting a B or better in algebra dropped from 17.2% last year to just 8.3% – the lowest percentage in six years.”

Whoa! The number of ninth-grade Black male students getting a B or better in algebra was 17.2% in 2020-2021? One should wonder where the sense of urgency was back then? 17.2% is rather pathetic when it comes to any type of student achievement score, don’t you think?

The article goes on to state that “Interim Superintendent Matt Smith, who officially took over from Tom Ahart in June, told the board he took full responsibility for the drop in achievement. ‘Where I spend my time and energy is where district staff spend their time and energy,’ Smith said in a follow-up statement to the Des Moines Register.’”

“Smith told the school board this month that several factors contributed to the drop. COVID-19 continued to disrupt learning, he said. Schools also have faced staff shortages. Teacher training has not kept up. And the new math curriculum has not been put in place properly.”

The Register reports “The district’s focus on algebra grades is part of a larger effort to improve learning for the district’s Black students. The goal to boost math grades was developed prior to the 2019 school year after a series of community meetings with the district’s Black families. Black students in Des Moines have historically been suspended and expelled at a higher rate than their peers, post lower scores on state standardized tests and are more likely to drop out of high school. District officials have tried to improve learning for Black students in a variety of ways. This includes the new math curriculum – which was adopted to help students better understand how math works in the real world – and removal of police officers from schools after a study showed officers interacted with Black male students at higher rates.”

“The district has failed to meet its goals of boosting algebra grades each year. In 2020, DMPS officials aimed for nearly 27% of Black algebra students to earn a B or better. Just 16% did. The following year, when students began returning to in-person learning, 17% of Black males hit the district’s target instead of the goal of 29%. The school board has given officials until the end of the 2023-24 school year to reach the goal of 35% of Black male ninth-grade students earning a B or better both semesters.”

There is so much wrong with this story. This is another example of why I think most traditional schools are destined to end up in the junk pile.

Why is DMPS using teacher grades as the measurement whether kids are meeting goals or not? We’ve already discussed in this column how unreliable teacher grades are when it comes to evaluating student achievement.

Why isn’t DMPS using the Iowa standardized test, called the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, to measure student progress? If DMPS didn’t want to use the Iowa Assessment, there are several private companies, NWEA comes to mind, that provide testing service in math.

What is DMPS allowed to play the “excuse game” when explaining why black male students are underachievers? When I worked in the traditional system, we had a “no excuses” approach to the work of getting young learners smarter and stronger.

If you’re not going to use a multi-component learner evaluation system, then testing must be the choice over teacher grades. Teacher grades are just too unreliable for something as important as young black male learning.

Finally, I’d like to know how much time is reserved for these young black males to learn algebra. Learning theory tells us that additional time, way beyond the 45 minutes I’m guessing is the time provided for daily algebra instruction, is essential to improving learning. Maybe these young learners would benefit from a learning plan whereby algebra would be a major part of their daily work?

DMPS has some work to do, and I’m afraid they aren’t the only district that does when it comes to young black male learners.

Friday News Roundup tomorrow, and then a week of RAGBRAI (the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.) SVB