Sunday, March 4, 2007
The principal of Earle B. Wood Middle School in Rockville gathered
teachers and handed out a list of all the black, Hispanic,
special-education and limited-English-speaking students who would take
the Maryland School Assessment, the measure of success or failure under
the federal No Child Left Behind mandate.
Principal Renee Foose told teachers to cross off the names of students
who had virtually no chance of passing and those certain to pass. Those
who remained, children on the cusp between success and failure, would
receive 45 minutes of intensive test preparation four days a week, until
further notice.
...That is what some teachers say has happened at Wood. Their accounts and
interviews with Foose offer a glimpse at a kind of test-prep triage that
analysts think is increasingly common at many schools but is rarely
discussed in public...
...Test preparations began in earnest, the staffers said, on the day
faculty returned from winter break. In separate meetings with the
English and math teachers, Foose handed out lists of "subgroup" students
and outlined her plan:
"We were told to cross off the kids who would never pass," one staffer
said. "We were told to cross off the kids who, if we handed them the
test tomorrow, they would pass. And then the kids who were left over,
those were the kids we were supposed to focus on."
The next week, teachers regularly began pulling selected students from
social studies, science, gym, art and other elective classes to work in
small groups to prepare for the test. They used test-prep workbooks and
sample material from the state education department's Web site.
The principal and some employees disagree on how often students were
removed from classes for test-preparation. Foose said that many teachers
delivered extra instruction in the classroom.
Employees say that Foose and one of her administrators added to the
urgency by telling students and parents that those who failed the
assessments might be held back. The principal said the comments came
from an assistant principal and were more about students' long-term
academic prospects...
... Others, inside and outside the school, said they thought the exercise crossed a line.
"They're not teaching the material," Cullison said. "They're teaching
them how to take a test, which is a huge disservice to these kids."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/03/AR2007030301372_3.html
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