Pulse of the School: Assessment Fatigue!

So, it's that time again! The end of the school year is in sight! I have less than 2 weeks left, which means...there's a lot of work to get done, and most of that work, for a Reading Specialist, entails end of the year assessments.  I've been at it for a few weeks now, and I'm so ready to be done assessing. Honestly, I miss working with students. Assessing is essential to guide instruction, but sometimes it's pretty draining.

We've already conquered the ominous CSTs (California State Testing) as a school! Yeah for us! But now, with our spiffy new RtI intervention model, we are giving DIBELS, DRA, Words Their Way Spelling, and CORE Reading Vocabulary to the entire school. These reading assessments will help gauge student reading growth over this school year, and will help us to help us plan for the first round of interventions at the beginning of next year.

The teachers and students are eagerly awaiting vacation (it's a little disheartening that in bloglandia I keep hearing that folks are already out of school- what's up with that?). At least the weather is cold and unwelcoming, which makes it easier to focus on all the work that still needs to get done before school's out for summer.

I'm wondering, if you're a teacher, what kind of assessments does your school do every year? Is your list similar?

East Oakland's Baby College

As I was browsing my facebook updates, I was intrigued by Oakland Local's article on the Baby College early-childhood intiative in East Oakland. OUSD, Alameda County, and Safe Passages are working together to bring a program akin to Harlem Children's Zone Baby College to Sobrante Park and Havenscourt neighborhoods in East Oakland. This 6-week program provides parents with much needed support and information as they raise their kids in the toughest neighborhoods in Oakland. Oakland's new major, Jean Quan, supports the collaborative initiative, and hopes that its success will bring more funding for the program in the future (as do I).

We need more programs like this in Oakland. Hear, hear? Research time and time again says that early childhood education is pivotal for student success later in school. The charter system I belong to focuses on college readiness, which is a noble aspiration, however, I feel like we need to put more effort into preventative solutions to our students' struggles with academics.

Currently, more than 60% of my school's student body is reading below grade level (probably more- that's a guesstimate). Our students, their families, and most-certainly our teachers are hard-working. Everyone wants the students to succeed. We give students a bucket full of support in the classroom and provide a buffet of research-proven reading and math interventions. But it's just not enough. Our students make a ton of progress, but many of them still enter middle school below grade level.

Our students NEED preschool, and they NEED pre-pre-school.

95% of our student body are English Language Learners, and as you might assume, most of our students come to kinder with little knowledge of the English language. If we gave the families more support in the early years (like baby college), the kids would be ready to enter kindergarten.

I know I'm preaching to the choir. But how do we make the system change? How do we get entire communities the early childhood education that their children desperately need? I love these small-scale initiatives, they do so much to help...but we need change on a larger scale. Am I right?

I think we need a charter system that is eager and willing to tackle this issue!
Baby college leads to real college.

School Reform with Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch, author of the book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, is pushing back against the charter school movement, especially those schools that invest so much into high-stakes testing. I work for a charter school system that she probably would have plenty to rail against. I agree with her on many points: I do feel like we need to support our teachers, give them due process, along with good curriculum. However, I have never been a part of a union, which she seems to support, and I am also really content teaching at my charter school(non-union), and I see that the teachers and the school are doing a lot of good for the students.

I plan to read her book soon, and after I understand where she's coming from, I'm sure I'll have a more developed opinion about her position on school reform. 

For leisure reading, check out this article she wrote on CNN.com about education reform in light of the recent protests in Wisconsin.

What do you think of charter schools? Unions? High-stakes testing? Does Ravitch have it right?