The Results are In
Well, test scores were distributed yesterday, delineated by teacher, school and district. What did we find? First of all, school-wide, our 7th grade math scores went down from last year. But that’s an apples to oranges comparison. Last year we had a school of 400 kids total, and a population of more “haves” than “have nots”. As we opened the new school this year, we gained three new feeder schools and a total of 700+ kids. The new feeders are more predominantly “have nots”, so we knew that there would be some decline in scores based on their scores from their elementary school patterns. They came to us at much lower levels than the kids we had previously.
I will not fib here and say that when given the overall scores for the department, I was not more than a little apprehensive about our program causing the lion’s share of the decline. So, I took a deep breath when the assistant principal sat in on our department meeting and asked if anyone was uncomfortable sharing the data with our personal scores on it. “No,” we all said, and I prepared for the worst.
As it turns out, my teaching partner and I had the HIGHER scores in the 7th grade department. Compared to the district as a whole, we were slightly above the average in every category. Not way above the average, but enough to be significant. And compared to our fellow teachers’ kids, we were significantly higher in several areas.
Because we started the model in the second quarter, mandating that some students start back at square-one, we didn’t get as far in the curriculum as we were “supposed” to, but we felt we got through the stuff that was most important for the Algebra I concepts they needed as fundamentals. It was another reason to expect that we might be the cause of the decline in scores. To our surprise, the “Honors” Pre-Algebra class, which was whole chapters ahead of where we were all year, had the LOWEST scores on the state tests. We were floored.
On a personal level, my individual kids did OK. Almost all of them remained at the level they came in at, meaning they learned a year’s worth of material in the year that I had them. I had about a dozen who went up a level, and one kid went up two. I had 2 who went down one level, and I’m not sure why, as they were excellent students during the year. Four others went down, but I know why – they didn’t do a lick of work most of the year. My partner had very similar results for his class. Our collegues had fewer moving up a level, and a few more moving down.
While it’s really too soon to make definitive statements, we feel like we did what we set out to do. We are still fine tuning the system (more on that later) and are hoping that starting off at the beginning of the year will show more dramatic results on this year’s tests. Plus, we are anxious to see how our kids adapt to the Algebra I curriculum and if they were prepared enough to be successful as 8th graders. So while the jury is still out on that, we are thrilled that our kids didn’t go down, or cause the majority of the decline department-wide, and it has strengthened our resolve to continue improving how we teach and how kids learn.
