The fact is that there may be some poor students who need help paying for the AP tests. But there are not likely to be many of them. Fee waivers from ETS used to pay for up to two tests for students.
I used them without having to prove that I was indeed financially needy. But let me put this into perspective. The counselor asked me to use them ... even though I had not taken AP courses ... even though there was only one AP course taught in my high school: AP Spanish Language. [I didn't take the course only because I had just spent a year in Spain doing all my work in Spanish.] I did take AP Spanish Lang and European History. I scored a 5 and a 3 ... without stepping foot into a course.
But what use would these waivers be for the majority of students in my high school? What counselor might approach those students, with no access to AP courses, and say, here, you can take a test for something you are utterly not prepared in for a reduced cost?
I hope that there are students out there who are able to make use of this benevolence, but I wonder just how many there are.
And where is the money and the incentive to offer those poor students the courses to prepare them for such a test? And where is the pressure to offer these students just plain old college prep courses?
I am righteously bitter about this issue ... and as a taxpayer, you should be, too. It is a terrible idea -- and the opposition will use its failure to help poor students get college credit (for these will be underused) as the rationale for not funding other initiatives that might.
---------------------
Here's another example:
In Texas, they are rightly working on issues of college readiness. However, rather than read the research on the issue, and tap into the folks in their own state that have already spent enormous energy and time on the problem, they are contracting with a company to create a TEST.
In the first few paragraphs, the reporter makes the point that isolating "college readiness" is one of the key challenges. Even though this is true, they are contracting for a test... what will they test? How do we know that another test by the College Board is what will fill the void? I am truly skeptical about the process and disappointed about the decision to spend money in this way. Ugh.
On the other hand, though, I am pleased that they are planning to implement this TEST as the only placement test taken by all students across institutions across the state. That is certainly a step in the right direction, but will this test be useful in all states, or is it somehow going to be Texas specific. If so, then we are right back where we started -- testing companies using our issues in education as money makers rather than actually helping us get somewhere... Ugh, again.
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Then, again, there are useful ways to use money, and this article demonstrates a more effective way to get students through third grade than just holding them back [so you can look like you're tough ... scary how ed policy looks a lot like crime policy when Republicans get their hands on it -- I am not holding back]
Study: K 3 Plus Boosts Student Scores
Hailey Heinz / Journal Staff Writer
Published: 8/6/2012
From left, Damian Chavez, Sadie Zamora and Erick Martinez work as a team to answer math questions. The Kirtland Elementary students competed to be the first team to correctly answer questions projected on the board. (Adolphe Pierre Louis/Journal)
A program that extends the school year for low income students is getting positive results, and researchers say it could be a cost effective alternative to mandatory retention policies advocated by Gov. Susana Martinez.
A report by the Legislative Finance Committee's research staff examined data on about 26,000 New Mexico students who finished third grade in 2011. They looked at a number of questions related to early literacy, and one key finding was that students enrolled in the "K 3 Plus" program had higher test scores in reading, writing and math than students with similar demographics who were not enrolled. They also found positive results for students who took state funded preschool.
The K 3 Plus program gives parents of kindergartners through third graders the option of signing up their kids for an extra five weeks of classes before school starts.
At the same time, researchers found that only 12 percent of students who were held back at the end of third grade moved up to the "proficient" level during their second year of third grade.
State education chief Hanna Skandera has advocated for a law that would require retention of third graders who had not learned to read. Lawmakers refused to pass such a law in the past two sessions.
Skandera said the LFC report is "incomplete," since it only examined the effectiveness of retention the way New Mexico currently does it. The bills she has advocated would require early intervention, to try to avoid holding students back.
"I 100 percent agree that retention as we do it now has not been successful," Skandera said. "I agree the research is mixed on 'does retention work?' Retention by itself is not a solution."
She said the LFC report fails to look at the interventions that are built into a good retention program.
The report describes K 3 Plus and preschool as programs that make a difference in student performance, and describes retention as having "mixed" results.
This summer, K 3 Plus is offered at 75 schools in 20 districts across the state, serving about 9,300 students. To be eligible, at least 85 percent of a school's population must qualify for free or reduced price lunch, which is a measure of poverty.
The K 3 Plus portion of the LFC report was based on research at Utah State University, which examined data on New Mexico's program to see if it should be replicated elsewhere.
Kirtland Elementary School in Albuquerque has offered K 3 Plus since the program was launched in 2007. Alene Hardin, who has been teaching second grade for 20 years, is in her fifth year of teaching K 3 Plus.
"Personally, I think it's money well spent, because most of these kids would be doing nothing," Hardin said. She said many of her students get little enrichment over the summer, and starting the school year early helps them get ready for second grade curriculum.
"It keeps them from regressing so far," she said. "They're much more ready to start second grade."
Wednesday was the last day of K 3 Plus at Kirtland. Students started classes June 27 and have a break before school starts Aug. 13.
In Hardin's class Wednesday, students were divided into teams and competed to quickly and accurately answer math problems that dealt with telling time, adding the values of different coins and identifying number patterns.
The Utah State report found that students who had at least one year of K 3 Plus got significantly better scores on the state Standards Based Assessment than similar students who were not in the program. They also found that students who had two years of K 3 Plus outscored those with just one year.
The LFC report also looked at the effects of preschool and found that it makes a significant difference in New Mexico. Among the third graders included in the study, those who had attended New Mexico Pre K had test scores that were essentially identical to the scores of non Pre K students. That is remarkable, according to the report, because more of the students enrolled in Pre K are low income, Hispanic and learning English than in the overall third grade population.
The report said a student could attend Pre K and four years of K 3 Plus for a cost to the state of about $7,000, which is roughly the cost of sending a student through third grade a second time. The report suggests this might be a better use of the money, since the intervention programs show proven results, while retention has a spottier record.
In the current budget year, the state appropriated $19.2 million directly to preschool programs, and roughly another $41 million flowed through the state funding formula for school districts to provide services to 3 and 4 year old students with special needs. The federal government also spent about $57 million on Head Start in New Mexico, bringing total preschool spending in New Mexico to about $117 million.
For K 3 Plus, the state budgeted $11 million this year, enough to cover costs for up to 9,600 students.
The LFC report recommends the PED increase oversight of K 3 Plus, to make sure the program's quality is consistent statewide. It also recommends better coordination, so more students get the full benefits of preschool and an extended school year.
This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
---------------------Study: K 3 Plus Boosts Student Scores
Hailey Heinz / Journal Staff Writer
Published: 8/6/2012
From left, Damian Chavez, Sadie Zamora and Erick Martinez work as a team to answer math questions. The Kirtland Elementary students competed to be the first team to correctly answer questions projected on the board. (Adolphe Pierre Louis/Journal)
A program that extends the school year for low income students is getting positive results, and researchers say it could be a cost effective alternative to mandatory retention policies advocated by Gov. Susana Martinez.
A report by the Legislative Finance Committee's research staff examined data on about 26,000 New Mexico students who finished third grade in 2011. They looked at a number of questions related to early literacy, and one key finding was that students enrolled in the "K 3 Plus" program had higher test scores in reading, writing and math than students with similar demographics who were not enrolled. They also found positive results for students who took state funded preschool.
The K 3 Plus program gives parents of kindergartners through third graders the option of signing up their kids for an extra five weeks of classes before school starts.
At the same time, researchers found that only 12 percent of students who were held back at the end of third grade moved up to the "proficient" level during their second year of third grade.
State education chief Hanna Skandera has advocated for a law that would require retention of third graders who had not learned to read. Lawmakers refused to pass such a law in the past two sessions.
Skandera said the LFC report is "incomplete," since it only examined the effectiveness of retention the way New Mexico currently does it. The bills she has advocated would require early intervention, to try to avoid holding students back.
"I 100 percent agree that retention as we do it now has not been successful," Skandera said. "I agree the research is mixed on 'does retention work?' Retention by itself is not a solution."
She said the LFC report fails to look at the interventions that are built into a good retention program.
The report describes K 3 Plus and preschool as programs that make a difference in student performance, and describes retention as having "mixed" results.
This summer, K 3 Plus is offered at 75 schools in 20 districts across the state, serving about 9,300 students. To be eligible, at least 85 percent of a school's population must qualify for free or reduced price lunch, which is a measure of poverty.
The K 3 Plus portion of the LFC report was based on research at Utah State University, which examined data on New Mexico's program to see if it should be replicated elsewhere.
Kirtland Elementary School in Albuquerque has offered K 3 Plus since the program was launched in 2007. Alene Hardin, who has been teaching second grade for 20 years, is in her fifth year of teaching K 3 Plus.
"Personally, I think it's money well spent, because most of these kids would be doing nothing," Hardin said. She said many of her students get little enrichment over the summer, and starting the school year early helps them get ready for second grade curriculum.
"It keeps them from regressing so far," she said. "They're much more ready to start second grade."
Wednesday was the last day of K 3 Plus at Kirtland. Students started classes June 27 and have a break before school starts Aug. 13.
In Hardin's class Wednesday, students were divided into teams and competed to quickly and accurately answer math problems that dealt with telling time, adding the values of different coins and identifying number patterns.
The Utah State report found that students who had at least one year of K 3 Plus got significantly better scores on the state Standards Based Assessment than similar students who were not in the program. They also found that students who had two years of K 3 Plus outscored those with just one year.
The LFC report also looked at the effects of preschool and found that it makes a significant difference in New Mexico. Among the third graders included in the study, those who had attended New Mexico Pre K had test scores that were essentially identical to the scores of non Pre K students. That is remarkable, according to the report, because more of the students enrolled in Pre K are low income, Hispanic and learning English than in the overall third grade population.
The report said a student could attend Pre K and four years of K 3 Plus for a cost to the state of about $7,000, which is roughly the cost of sending a student through third grade a second time. The report suggests this might be a better use of the money, since the intervention programs show proven results, while retention has a spottier record.
In the current budget year, the state appropriated $19.2 million directly to preschool programs, and roughly another $41 million flowed through the state funding formula for school districts to provide services to 3 and 4 year old students with special needs. The federal government also spent about $57 million on Head Start in New Mexico, bringing total preschool spending in New Mexico to about $117 million.
For K 3 Plus, the state budgeted $11 million this year, enough to cover costs for up to 9,600 students.
The LFC report recommends the PED increase oversight of K 3 Plus, to make sure the program's quality is consistent statewide. It also recommends better coordination, so more students get the full benefits of preschool and an extended school year.
This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
One last article on education in NM:
It turns out that I am not the only one that thinks that the "grading" system NM is using for its AYP waiver is confusing...
Group: Grading System Too Complex
Hailey Heinz / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Jul 31, 2012
A nonpartisan group of scientists and mathematicians says the state's new A F school grading system is too complex for most people to understand, including principals and superintendents.
The group also believes the system adds elements together that aren't compatible, and that the formula's sensitivity to small changes results in unreasonable grade changes from one year to the next.
State education chief Hanna Skandera said the system must be complicated to capture all the elements that make a quality school. She also said her department will release a grade calculator application, which will allow schools to see how fluctuations in test scores translate to letter grades.
The group, called the Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education, is a nonprofit with several hundred members. It has been active in New Mexico since 1997, and its mission is to "improve science education and science literacy for all citizens," according to its website.
M. Kim Johnson, past president and an author of the report, said Rep. Rick Miera, D Albuquerque, asked the group to examine the A F school grading system and try to replicate it. Johnson said the group has testified before the Legislative Education Study Committee in the past and did so recently to present its findings.
The group said it was not able to replicate the school grades but added that it did not have all of the Public Education Department's original data.
Those findings were cited by Democrats in the Legislature, who sent out a news release last week expressing "deep concern" over the credibility of the A F grades. Those quoted in the news release included Sen. Linda Lopez, D Albuquerque; Sen. Howie Morales, D Silver City; and Miera.
"The methodology and process of the reform models are severely flawed, with no scientific or educational findings proving their worth," Lopez said in the release.
The release urged the PED to adopt the group's recommendations, which include simplifying and seeking an independent review of the formula and providing grading data and software to districts.
Johnson, a retired physicist, said the coalition began its work by looking at the technical manual the PED provided to districts.
"We looked at it, and said 'This a big complex mess.' I mean in terms of being able to understand it. It lacked the definition you expect to see in a manual."
Johnson emphasized that just because his group could not replicate the scores doesn't mean it can't be done. But he thinks it does mean the formula is too complex to be very useful.
"We're not talking about a bunch of schmucks here who haven't seen this stuff before," he said. "We think it's all probably aboveboard, but we don't think the average person, school principal or superintendent could conceivably follow it."
Skandera said the calculator application, expected to be released at the end of September, should help make the grades more useful to principals. The application will allow principals to see how test score changes affect their grades.
For example, if a principal wanted to see how the grade would be affected by a two point increase in the average scores of low performing students, she could put that in the calculator for an answer.
"I think that will be a real step toward equipping our principals in a more meaningful way," Skandera said.
She said the formula is complicated, in large part because people around the state wanted a school grade that would capture all the nuances of school quality, and would control for demographic differences such as poverty.
"I think it's really important that we remember, everyone asked for a complete picture. And that's exactly what we delivered: a robust view of what's happening in our schools, with multiple measures," Skandera said.
She said she has heard educators debate the system.
"I've heard lots of educators going back and forth, saying, 'Until I know how it's calculated, I can't improve my letter grade.' And someone else will say, 'I know exactly what I need to do.' ... You can create a bogeyman out of this word 'complication.' "
She also said some of the people criticizing the system's complexity are the same ones who requested nuance. She said Miera, for example, was adamant about including five and six year graduation rates in the calculation. She said that makes it more complicated.
The coalition's report also questioned whether it is mathematically appropriate to add different measures together. Specifically, the A F grades use simple measures of how many students are scoring at the "proficient" level, which are added to measures of how much students are improving. The "improvement" scores control for demographic factors, like poverty.
The coalition contends it is mathematically inappropriate to add these measures together. According to the report, such addition is "something like adding oranges and cows to derive pickup trucks. The result is not obviously meaningful."
Johnson said each measure serves a separate purpose, and that it makes sense to calculate them both. But he said adding them together results in a measure that reflects neither growth, nor current standing. Doing so also is part of the reason for dramatic changes in grades.
Those changes have come under scrutiny, as some school grades went from "B" to "F," and vice versa, between preliminary January grades and final July grades.
"Schools don't do that in one year. It doesn't happen that way," Johnson said. "And so a lot of that is an artifact of adding things together that really don't make sense to add together."
Johnson said he does not think the grading system should be dumbed down to a basic level, but does think it could be simplified without losing its meaning.
"That still may require that there's math in there that's complex, but make that executable -- something that people can put on their computer and run, especially superintendents and principals," he said.
This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal
© 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.The Journal's plea to the State of NM ... be less obtuse:
Editorial: Simplify A F Grading Formula To Get Buy In
Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board
Published: August 4, 2012When a group of scientists and mathematicians are left scratching their heads, it's unlikely parents and some educators will be able to decode the state's new A F grading system, either. The nonpartisan Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education has been promoting science education and literacy in New Mexico since 1997. It recently undertook the challenge of trying to replicate the grading formula designed by the state Public Education Department [PED] to rank schools. It couldn't, partly because it didn't have all of the data the PED used, but the group concluded the formula is too complex, adds together incompatible elements and is so sensitive to small changes that unreasonable grade swings from one year to the next can result. "We're not talking about a bunch of schmucks here who haven't seen this stuff before," said M. Kim Johnson, a retired physicist and an author of the report. "We think it's all probably above board, but we don't think the average person, school principal or superintendent could conceivably follow it." While Johnson said he doesn't think the grading system should be dumbed down to a basic level, he thinks it could be simplified. PED Secretary designate Hanna Skandera defended the system, saying it is complicated because it attempts to capture the many elements that make a high quality school. She said people around the state wanted school grades to reflect issues such as race and poverty. Skandera said the PED will release a grade calculator in September that will allow schools to see how fluctuations in test scores translate to letter grades. Democrats in the Legislature including Rep. Rick Miera, D Albuquerque, who chairs the House Education Committee and who asked the group to review the system, urged the PED to adopt the group's recommendations. Those include simplifying and seeking an independent review of the formula and providing grading data and software to districts. If the PED wants buy in from the folks who are tasked with educating New Mexico students and from parents who want to see their children succeed, then it should make the formula behind the grades more understandable - and not just to policy wonks. That doesn't mean throwing the baby out with the bath water, but getting everyone on the same page might go a long way to real education reform in New Mexico.This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
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