The focus on low test scores runs counter to the city’s high-stakes testing culture, where admission to everything from gifted-and-talented kindergarten classes to the prestigious specialized high schools is gained by top scores.
another plan emerged that would first screen students by whether they qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, and then give priority to those with low test scores and low grades....
.....a diversity initiative by the city Department of Education set aside between 10 percent and 62 percent of their seats for applicants who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches; one of the schools also considers “a diverse range of learners” in the admissions process.
-----The idea, proponents of the District 3 plan say, is to provide opportunities for more students, including those at the very bottom who are not only poor, but also failing, and may need the most help.----they say that it would prevent the top middle schools from simply siphoning off poor students who earn high test scores and grades, and would instead redistribute both high-performing and low-performing students among more schools.
Bingo --- read the last statement and you see exactly what charter schools are doing --- they are siphoning off poor students with high test scores and tossing those low-performing students who may slip through the lottery net. (The parents of poorer performing students are less likely to enter or even know about the lottery.)
This article is about District 3 using test scores to take the poorest performing students and put them in higher performing schools, a risky undertaken unless those students get a serious amount of support -- which given the DOE is also an iffy proposition.
Now my pals in the anti-testing movement always point out that tests don't really measure a student. True. But I would say that generally, reading tests do measure a level of student literacy - the ability to decipher tricky language often used in test questions. THey do not measure intelligence, etc as I often found low scoring kids quite bright but often frustrated at their reading problems and thus considered themselves not smart. There are exceptions but I am talking in general terms. Breaking through that literacy barrier is so tough as it has so much to do with out of school issues.
Anyway, read the article and a note to the racists who read this blog and want to leave their snide comments -- don't even bother.
The NY Times has an interesting article published today: In a Twist, Low Scores Would Earn Admission to Select Schools - The ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/nyregion/middle-school-admission-desegregation-nyc.html
Students with low test scores are usually shut out of New York City’s best public schools.
But
next year, such students could be offered a quarter of the sixth-grade
seats at even the most selective middle schools in Manhattan’s District 3
as part of a desegregation plan being debated in the district, which
stretches from the Upper West Side to Harlem.
The
plan is unusual because it focuses explicitly on low-performing
students, and seeks to achieve “academic diversity” across the
district’s middle schools. School desegregation efforts around the city
have mostly been centered on students who qualify for free or
reduced-price school lunches, a widely accepted measure of poverty,
which has generally been correlated with race in the city.
For instance,
six of the seven middle schools taking part this year in a diversity initiative
by the city Department of Education set aside between 10 percent and 62
percent of their seats for applicants who qualify for free and
reduced-price lunches; one of the schools also considers “a diverse
range of learners” in the admissions process.
The
idea, proponents of the District 3 plan say, is to provide
opportunities for more students, including those at the very bottom who
are not only poor, but also failing, and may need the most help.
And
they say that it would prevent the top middle schools from simply
siphoning off poor students who earn high test scores and grades, and
would instead redistribute both high-performing and low-performing
students among more schools.
“Within
the system we have, it’s the best way I see to move forward because it
can help all of the schools and a wider range of students,” said Kristen
Berger, a mother of a fifth-grade student who is the chairwoman of the
middle school committee for District 3’s Community Education Council, a
parent group that advises on admission policy.
The
focus on low test scores runs counter to the city’s high-stakes testing
culture, where admission to everything from gifted-and-talented
kindergarten classes to the prestigious specialized high schools is gained by top scores. It has drawn criticism from some white and affluent parents — captured in a viral video
— who believe that it is unfair when the top middle schools do not have
enough seats for all the qualified students as it is, and say that it
could water down instruction and lower the quality of education. Other
parents see it as a superficial stab at a complicated problem, while
still others say that it does not go far enough to help students in
struggling schools.
Even parents who
support the broader goal of desegregation have raised concerns about
placing students who score a 1 or 2 — the bottom half on a scale of 1 to
4 — into rigorous middle schools without adequate preparation and
support.
“There is a huge disparity
between 1s and 4s,” said Joe Fiordaliso, a consultant with a daughter in
seventh grade at West End Secondary School, which would be affected by
the plan. “And we need to make sure that those kids are being given all
the tools and resources that they need when they get into a school to be
properly educated.”
Decades of educational research have shown that mixed-ability classrooms can raise achievement especially for low-performing students, providing the impetus for many schools to move away from tracking, though some studies have also suggested that it can adversely affect high-achieving students.
Amy Stuart Wells, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University, said that all students
can achieve at a higher level if teachers are well-trained and use an
approach targeted to each child’s level of achievement, among other
things.
“When
schools think of ‘academic diversity’ as an academic reform that
includes these components, they will be better preparing all students
for a global society,” she said.
At
the high-school level, the city has been pushing for greater academic
diversity, almost doubling the number of what are known as Educational
Option programs, which aim to replicate an academic bell curve, with 16
percent of the offers going to applicants who score the highest on state
English tests, 16 percent to those who score the lowest, and the
remaining 68 percent to those in between. Next year, of the city’s more
than 400 high schools, 264 will use the Educational Option model, up
from 142 schools this year. Still, many of these so-called Ed-Opt
schools have struggled to attract high-performing students, who often prefer the selective schools, and ended up with mostly lower-performing students.
In
District 3, scars remain from a battle over redrawing school zones two
years ago to increase diversity and reduce crowding at a group of
elementary schools. At the time, district leaders also considered a plan
to integrate middle schools by requiring them to give priority to
students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches for 30 percent
of their sixth-grade seats. The most sought-after middle schools, which
have a screening process to admit students, have long been criticized
for being mostly white and Asian, and more affluent, than the district
as a whole.
But that plan foundered
after principals voiced concerns that it would not do anything for
low-performing schools, many of which already had far higher percentages
of poor students. Many parents also saw it as increasing competition
for the remaining seats at the top schools.
This
spring, the district tried again with the new plan, which would require
every middle school to give priority to students who average a 1 on
state tests for 10 percent of their sixth-grade seats, and those who
average a 2 for another 15 percent of their seats. “As a district, we
value diversity, equity and access for all our students and across all
our schools,” said Ilene Altschul, the district superintendent, who
proposed the plan, adding that educators and parents “have been working
together this school year on changes that can help us support these
goals.”
But that plan raised
questions about whether it was legal to rely solely on scores on state
standardized tests, which many educators and parents say do not
accurately reflect students’ abilities. State education law prohibits
officials from placing students “based solely or primarily” on their
performance on state English and math tests; some city schools can and
do use other tests to admit students. State education officials declined
to comment on the issue.
So
the district has offered alternatives that would still focus on helping
low-performing students but also consider other factors. One plan would
use low test scores in combination with low grades, while another would
use low test scores along with the poverty of the students at their
elementary schools. And last month, yet another plan emerged that would
first screen students by whether they qualify for free or reduced-price
lunches, and then give priority to those with low test scores and low
grades.
Sharon Parker, an arts
educator and parent in the district, said that including poverty and
grades along with test scores was a good compromise that would draw
students with a broader range of ability levels — and be more palatable
to some parents. “If a 1 and 2 kid comes into the school, they’re going
to worry, ‘Is this going to bring the school down?’” she said. “It’s
hard to get people to be removed from that thinking because everything
is about test scores.”
Mayor Bill de
Blasio recently unveiled a plan to change the admissions process for the
city’s specialized high schools, and the new schools chancellor,
Richard A. Carranza, has signaled his support for more desegregation efforts. Ms. Altschul is expected to move ahead with a desegregation plan in the coming weeks.
District
leaders have said they would work with schools to ensure they get the
support they need under whatever plan is adopted. The plan would apply
to admissions offers starting in 2019.
Ms.
Berger, of the community education council, said that she hoped the
desegregation plan would lead to more middle school choices for all
students.
“Eventually, everyone should feel confident in sending their student to any middle school in District 3,” she said.
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