What have we done? Is testing what it's really all about?

So having gotten through all the Back to School nights, I left one of them thinking, "what have we done to education?"  Each and every teacher mentioned the STAR testing.  Most explained how they ready the kids for the testing.  But one in particular made me bristle.  Maybe I'm alone here, but when I heard a high school teacher explain their curriculum and her final comments were something along the lines of "I'll teach them everything they need to know for the STAR testing because that's really what it's all about, right?" 

Is it really what it's all about?  Curious as to your thoughts about testing in our classrooms/schools.  The Clayton Pioneer had a story about the testing, and the threat last year of putting the test scores on student transcripts seemed to create a bit of panic.  Do your children "try" to do good on the tests?  My expectation is that my kids do the best they can on all testing, but I know some parents completely dismiss the testing.  What I feel, and what I say to my kids, admittedly , are two different things - so what about you and your students?

The article discusses specificially testing at Clayton Valley High,

“I do try on the tests, but I could try harder,” said CV junior Joanna Fan. “I feel like students are only taught things so we can succeed on the STAR test, and the teachers are limited to just that.”


Fan wasn’t moved by Principal Gary Swanson’s pre-testing pep talk or the added threat of the scores being put on transcripts. “I saw it as something the school wants us to work hard on so it looks good for the school, and the students took the back seat,” she said. “If the administration really wanted to improve our learning, then maybe they should offer more challenging courses.”

This student certainly has a point I think.  And it echos how I felt at Back to School night, the testing is for the school, not the students, or is it?
 
Your thoughts?

MDUSD API scores are out!

API Scores have been released. This news bulletin, just in from the Superintendent's Office.

_________

Mt. Diablo USD News Update

Where Kids Come First

API Update

We wanted to celebrate the good news with you that 37 of our schools met their API growth targets, and as a district our API grew by 11. Though many of our elementary schools showed significant gains, Ayers, Ygnacio Valley, and Holbrook all had gains of 50 points or more. At the middle school level, El Dorado, Pleasant Hill, Riverview all gained 26 or more points. At the high school level, Mt. Diablo gained 29 points, while College Park gained 17 and broke the 800 pt barrier. The gains at all our schools were due to our teachers’, support staff members’, and administrators’ hard work, continual focus on reviewing student achievement data, analyzing and sharing best instructional practices, and supporting students who do not master a skill after the initial instruction. Attached to the bottom of this news update are the API scores for all of our non-special program schools.

We know that we need to continue to work collaboratively to analyze student achievement data and review best instructional practices to ensure that we are meeting all of our students’ learning needs. Currently, we need 56% of our students demonstrating that they are proficient or advanced on the English-Language Arts (ELA) portion of the STAR test and 56.4% on the mathematics STAR Test. District-wide 58.8% of our students were proficient or advanced in ELA and 58.5% were proficient or advanced in math. However, several of our subgroups including socioeconomically disadvantaged, English Learners, Hispanic/Latino, and African American did not meet the performance targets. Our District Goals and Objectives are critical to help continue to move forward allowing our district to meet the upcoming academic targets Not only do the District Goals and Objectives provide clear growth expectations on multiple critical measures, the document also provides strategies that we will be implementing district-wide to support every school to meet the learning needs of all our children.

If you have questions about your child(ren)s’ school’s API, I recommend that you contact the principal and discuss the school’s Single Plan for Student Achievement. If you would like to participate in the dialogue around your child’s schools plan to move forward I suggest that you join your school’s School Site Council.

In these difficult financial times, we are extremely proud of our teachers’, support staff members’, and administrators’ commitment to continually challenge ourselves to improve the learning opportunities for all our children.

	2010 Growth	2009 Base	Growth Target	Actual Growth
Mt. Diablo District	784	773		11
Elementary Schools
Ayers	834	777	5	57
Bancroft	892	903		-11
Bel Air	646	660	7	-14
Cambridge	727	686	6	41
Delta View	825	830		-5
Eagle Peak	893	873		20
El Monte	754	748	5	6
Fair Oaks	731	695	5	36
Gregory Gardens	818	848		-30
Hidden Valley	851	843		8
Highlands	856	845		11
Holbrook	777	727	5	50
Meadow Homes	648	655	7	-7
Monte Gardens	918	898		20
Mountain View	809	797	3	12
Mt. Diablo	915	911		4
Pleasant Hill	898	901		-3
Rio Vista	669	671	6	-2
Sequoia	921	917		4
Shore Acres	659	620	9	39
Silverwood	828	805		23
Standwood	917	905		12
Sun Terrace	780	759	5	21
Valhalla	878	870		8
Valle Verde	930	927		3
Walnut Acres	936	934		2
Westwood	810	805		5
Woodside	869	863		6
Wren	765	754	5	11
Ygnacio Valley	753	697	5	56
Middle Schools
Diablo View	857	858		-1
El Dorado	708	682	6	26
Foothill	900	881		19
Glenbrook	660	643	8	17
Oak Grove	646	627	9	19
Pine Hollow	788	771	5	17
Pleasant Hill	825	799	1	26
Riverview	672	645	8	27
Sequoia	867	871		-4
Valley View	828	831		-3
High School
Clayton Valley	776	771	5	5
College Park	804	787	5	17
Concord High	723	743	5	-20
Mt. Diablo	651	622	9	29
Northgate	864	855		9
Ygnacio Valley	666	677	6	-11