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In the News
Educators weigh in on school testing
Baltimore Community Times
September 19, 2007
By Baxter Smith
Rarely in remission, the tug of war over educational accountability remains as fierce as ever given the latest round of state test results and a congressional debate over reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law.
State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick's surprise announcement in late August of a Bridge Plan alternative for the state graduation exam was accepted by some but fueled criticism from others about a lessening of standards.
With the superintendent expected to provide fuller details within a week on her plan for struggling high school seniors, the governor and a prominent business group weighed in.
Last week as part of preparation for the kinds of jobs expected to come to Maryland with the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) initiative, they took an opportunity in Harford County to highlight a project that involves vigorous academic study and shows promising results with minority and lower-income students.
Known as Maryland Scholars, the program encourages high-schoolers to take three lab sciences, Algebra 2 and a foreign language.
"It is above and beyond what the state requires them to take," said Kathy Seay, Maryland Scholars project director for the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education. She noted that Maryland is among the states the U.S. Department of Education has selected to conduct the scholars program.
Harford County school officials have several years' experience with Maryland Scholars. They report that it has worked by encouraging minority students to aim high.
Seay said her organization is involved in the program because businesses require better-prepared graduates for today's workforce and tomorrow's jobs in a global economy.
"We did an analysis with entry level jobs," Seay said, citing the former Bethlehem Steel and other local corporations, and the required math was "much higher than you would expect."
She added that McCormick spice company in Hunt Valley has found only one out of 100 applicants to be mathematically prepared.
"A lot of kids want to design computer games but they don't realize the math involved in it," Seay said about the rigor of computer-aided design courses.
Anecdotal evidence such as that bolster research studies, Seay said. She pointed to one which found that students are twice as likely to finish college if they've had Algebra 2 in high school. Yet none of the Maryland school districts require Algebra 2 for graduation, she added.
Students who complete the Maryland Scholars coursework become eligible for federal grants to pay for college.
Corporate leaders insist that adequate preparation for the global economy is key. Business managers and education leaders repeatedly made that point at the recent congressional hearing on reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law.
Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond testified Sept. 10 that United States students ranked 19th out of 40 countries on reading, 20th on scientific literacy and 28th on math.
"Only about 17 percent of African-American young people between the ages of 25 and 29 - and only 11 percent of Hispanic youth had earned a college degree in 2005, as compared to 34 percent of white youth in the same age bracket," she said the Census Bureau reported in 2005.
She wants the new legislation to contain "multiple measures of assessment and multiple indicators of school progress, which I believe are essential to raise standards and strengthen educational quality in ways that are internationally competitive."
The Maryland State Teachers Association also wants multiple measures in the new federal law and "not just one day of testing," said spokesman Daniel Kaufman.
"Rather than just punishing educators and schools," he added, MSTA wants "more rewards and a focus on providing teachers and staff with the support they need."
Kaufman agreed that Grasmick's senior-year project is an example of what he said are necessary alternatives to testing because "you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket. It's a general proposal and at this point we need to see specifics."
The National School Boards Association welcomed some of the proposed changes to the federal law.
Reggie Felton, a spokesman for the group, said in the association's latest newsletter that it is "pleased with the direction of the committee proposal to shift away from punitive sanctions and a one-size-fits-all approach."
Transforming education and community
Professional basketball player and community activist Kevin Johnson poses with students from his St. HOPE program, which currently educates around 2000 students in the Sacramento area. The program also includes a cultural center and an after-school facility.
Photo: Shams Shaikh (Stanford Daily)
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