Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning January 2007 » DPS and the MME « Previous Next »
Top of pageBottom of page

Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher

Post Number: 904
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 10:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

OK, I have some "news" that is going on in DPS 11th grade English classes. DPS has brought in 3 companies to teach ACT test taking to Juniors. All well and good, but I have been doing that very thing since Sept (not teaching the test, but teaching test taking strategies and giving them plenty of practise). The "paid folks" who come to my room twice a week (ALL 11th grade English classes in DPS have to have these folks...not just my school) get 40.00 an hour to do what I've been doing all along. There are 10 11th grade classes in my bldg alone so that equals 400.00 per day x twice a week until March 30th...not to mention what they've shelled out for ACT Victory books and the services of the companies. My students are BORED and not engaged with this method of instruction. They skip class on the days these people come in. In addition to that, they have me teaching kids how to write a persuasive essay (also something we've done and continue to do, already) until March, 3x week. They have a scripted set of lesson plans. NO READING of novels, no research papers, no nothing...must not deviate...except this ACT and persuasive essay. Have they given me the books they demand I use? NOPE! I am out here on a wing and a prayer while my supervisor came to my class and asked why I wasn't using the required workbooks. When I said I didn't have them, didn't know where to get them and seriously doubted they'd be delivered...(Only one teacher at the school knew anything about this program and she knew only because she is licking the ass of the admin in the bldg and won't share her info or workbook) my supervisor told me to "make copies" for everyone. Keep in mind, even I don't have a single copy of what they want me to do.
Prior to this fiasco, my students were working on research papers, reading novels (that I purchased), creative writing, and critical thinking (all at the same time).
This test taking business is killing the real learning going on (or what is supposed to be going on) in public schools. What was to be a 2 day testing situation has turned into 2 weeks...plus regular classes. I am given a directive to teach to this test (the MME) and forget everything else. What kind of crap is that? Anyone have any thoughts on this? I am trying hard to get my kids to be critical thinkers, be creative and to connect real life issues to literature (modern and the classics) and then DPS comes in with this hairbrained scheme. The program was thrown together in 20 days and the people who are "teaching" the ACT prep are untrained and have never been teachers. The woman in my class is nervous (she is out of her element and it's obvious to the kids and to me) and does not know how to deal with teens.
I welcome suggestions, thoughts, or whatever else you'd like to throw my way in terms of what DPS is doing to our kids.
Top of pageBottom of page

Milwaukee
Member
Username: Milwaukee

Post Number: 692
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 10:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"My students are BORED and not engaged with this method of instruction. They skip class on the days these people come in."

That's a good reason to skip class.

Sorry, I thought that was a little ridiculous.

It seems like a waste of money, what do they pay teachers to do? They pay teachers to teach. Teaching someone how to take the ACT isn't like teaching someone to do brain surgery. If the teacher doesn't know how to take or teach how to take the ACT, then fire them.

Best of luck to you and your students. I hope they do well on them.

Knowledge is power! :-)
Top of pageBottom of page

Charlottepaul
Member
Username: Charlottepaul

Post Number: 363
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 10:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Maybe in the DPS, most teachers aren't as engaging as you are. Therefore, to that average student these forty dollar per hour test taking teachers are an asset and worth the expenditure.
Top of pageBottom of page

Milwaukee
Member
Username: Milwaukee

Post Number: 693
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 10:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

ACT is a fair way to grade kids. Its hard to tell the quality of student by grades alone.

A 3.5 student at Cranbrook is far different than a 3.4 at some DPS school. Different curriculum, different grading scale.

Standardized tests seem to be a fair way to test everyone.
Top of pageBottom of page

Milwaukee
Member
Username: Milwaukee

Post Number: 694
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 10:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"most teachers aren't as engaging as you are"

No kidding, most of these poor urban school district teachers are the worst of the worst.

Catagories of teachers
1. The heroes, the ones who make a difference. They never leave, they love their jobs, they love the kids. Sounds a lot like Detroitteacher.

2. New guys. bad students in college, need experience before teaching at a better school district.

3. Babysitter. Incompitent boob, no mission, just there to pick up a paycheck. Possibly an internet college grad.
Top of pageBottom of page

Hysteria
Member
Username: Hysteria

Post Number: 2347
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 10:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

Maybe in the DPS, most teachers aren't as engaging as you are.


quote:

1. The heroes, the ones who make a difference. They never leave, they love their jobs, they love the kids. Sounds a lot like Detroitteacher.



Exactly.
Top of pageBottom of page

Barnesfoto
Member
Username: Barnesfoto

Post Number: 2989
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 10:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Key words: "The test taking business"

The underlying message is that public schools are failing, so they'll bring in private contractors who really don't know what they are doing, but have some business connection with someone.

Regardless of whether the students learn anything
(What teenager wants to learn how to parrot phrases? That's little kid stuff)
the contractors get paid (if the visitors get 40 bucks an hour, imagine what the people in charge are getting)
Sounds about as sensible as the "private contractors" sent into the Iraq fiasco...

Evidence that NCLB is a scam designed to fail, don'tcha think?

What to do? Can you get one of the local papers to do a story on this? Who owns the firm that sends in the nervous lady who is out of her element? How did they get the contract?
How much are they being paid?
Is the failure being well documented? Can you shoot some video or pics?
Top of pageBottom of page

Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher

Post Number: 905
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - 6:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cambridge is the company (yes, I know...great reputation) that sent the lady in my room. She admitted to me that she had little training, Grammar is her specialty and she has little knowledge of science and math. She said they went to a day-long workshop on how to do these "classes". She has never been in a classroom or taught the Cambridge method before. She is off the streets (no experience).

The odd thing is, another teacher and myself offered to stay after school 3x per week for a few hours (FOR FREE) to do ACT Prep to whomever wanted to attend. They turned us down.

I am just frustrated. I realize that not every teacher is doing what they are supposed to do but there are a few of us in the district who really want to help and would happily give a few extra hours a day to prep our kids for these standardized tests. Half of my students have taken the ACT and their scores were 18 or above (which is what the state considers passing). They are really frustrated that they have to sit through this. My kids WANT to read, do research, and the other things we have been doing all along. DPS students have a deficit in READING. If they can't READ and understand the directions and the passages in the test, all the test taking strategies won't do them any good.

I am just perplexed as to why they (DPS) want to forget about reading and doing anything else other than a persuasive essay (that is ALL they want me to do with the kids for a month).
Top of pageBottom of page

Barnesfoto
Member
Username: Barnesfoto

Post Number: 2990
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - 1:26 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I would encourage you and your students to call a press conference and announce your non-compliance with the situation...Stage a "read-in", occupy the library until the Cambridge Mercenaries are called off. Demand that the money be spent for more reading materials, or for other things that are lacking in your building.
Off course, it's easy for me to sit here with my cup of coffee and say that; it's not my job that's on the line.
Top of pageBottom of page

Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher

Post Number: 906
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - 10:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If it would only be that easy.
Top of pageBottom of page

Gianni
Member
Username: Gianni

Post Number: 278
Registered: 05-2004
Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - 11:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Calling Steve Wilson. . . .

That really is an outrage that there are unqualified people doing your work, and then administration demands that you teach from books that they can't or won't give you.
Top of pageBottom of page

Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher

Post Number: 908
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 5:30 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I don't want to say that all the people doing this are unqualified because I don't know except from what the lady who is in my room told me. I also don't want the plan done away with because there are teachers who aren't teaching anything...at least with this program in place the kids in those situations get something. I would like to see it revamped so that the kids get the reading and other things in that we had planned. My kids decided, by popular vote, to read a novel and have a book club type atmosphere for 15 minutes on the days Cambridge is not in my room. I can't deny them that (they even signed a petition...which I taught them was the first step in getting things to change if talking about it failed). As always DPS has a quick fix to a problem. Unfortunately for some kids, that solution wasn't thought through. I see this as another program that DPS invests tons of money into that won't last.
Top of pageBottom of page

Danny
Member
Username: Danny

Post Number: 5465
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 2:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was DPS!!! I Graduated from DPS and so did my family. Detroit Public Schools here, Detroit Public Schools now, Detroit Public Schools forever.
Top of pageBottom of page

Michmeister
Member
Username: Michmeister

Post Number: 86
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 3:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Am I missing something there, or are they being taught to study for the the tests sake and not for their own knowledge? Smooth move, DPS!
Top of pageBottom of page

Awfavre
Member
Username: Awfavre

Post Number: 94
Registered: 08-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 3:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

A few things folks need to remember about the ACT:

1) The ACT is designed strictly to predict success at the collegiate level on a national scale. It is not a gauge specified to what Michigan schools are/are not teaching. The State switched from the MEAP primarily to save money on test administration costs.

Having said that, it’s not such a bad thing to want Michigan students to excel at the collegiate level, but I question whether it’s an accurate device for measuring student learning based on Michigan’s goals. When I took the ACT back in ought-six, I scored average on one version of the test, then significantly higher on a another version of the test a few weeks later. I did nothing in the interim to study content to make me so much “smarter.” How was this an accurate testing device?

2) There are strategies for taking standardized tests. Once a student learns these strategies, they will almost always score better than a student relying on content knowledge alone.

Again, how is this an accurate testing device if studying strategy alone—versus not studying the No Child Left Untested’s beloved content-content-content—allows for better scores?

3) The ACT folks & the companies teaching ACT strategy classes are strictly in the business for making money. I’m guessing they do not care what Michigan students do/do not do on this test, as long as Michigan is a repeat customer.

Toward that end, the ACT folks have imposed extremely strict timing and logistics limitations that hinder the best testing atmosphere. I don’t recall most of what I’ve been told in this regard (bad memory—sorry), but it centers around testing at certain times, dates, etc., not allowing food or water during testing (items that are often critical for secondary aged students with growing bodies and changing physiologies to consume during long periods of testing), not allowing bathroom breaks, etc., etc., etc. Perhaps the most crucial part of this (if I remember it correctly) is schools can only test during a few select dates certain times of the year—often well-before students have had a chance to take classes covering certain subjects and content areas. When schools protested certain of these restrictions as setting up their students to fail, they were informed they had no choice, because the ACT people have to preserve the integrity of their tests, and that was more important than what Michigan schools and their students need. (I just wish I could remember all the other silly things the ACT has mandated.)

Given what Detroitteacher said about these Cambridge classes, DPS would be smarter to have Cambridge reps teaching ACT strategy classes to the teachers, so the teachers can do what they do best & teach the kids, whom they know. This Cambridge experience proves being a great teacher is not about simply knowing content, but being able to teach that content.

Detroitteacher, all I can say is hang in there & keep doing what’s best for your kids. It may be a debacle, but all you can do is the best you can do. And you can take comfort in knowing your kids are the better for it.

Thank you for your hard work.
Top of pageBottom of page

Livernoisyard
Member
Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 2307
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 3:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

When it comes to ACT/SAT testing, it's GIGO, pure and simple. Those students who go into these tests with garbage skills (skills which should have been acquired after nearly a dozen wasted years of schooling) leave garbage results behind. This result is quite predictable, and finding excuses for those who "fail" is also rather predictable, especially in Detroit.

Been there, seen that...

(Message edited by LivernoisYard on February 01, 2007)
Top of pageBottom of page

Darwinism
Member
Username: Darwinism

Post Number: 593
Registered: 06-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 4:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroitteacher: These are exactly the kind of decisions from the top that grinds and grinds and grinds at teachers like you. I have seen it happen time and time again throughout the years. As motivated and as well-intent as you are, there will be the breaking point where you eventually step aside and step away because the more you put in, the more hurt you are. Good teachers leave because they started taking care of their own well-being.
Top of pageBottom of page

1953
Member
Username: 1953

Post Number: 1282
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 4:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I would think that a student taught with an interesting, diverse, and thought provoking curriculum would do just fine on the ACT. Why does anyone need an ACT prep course?
Top of pageBottom of page

Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher

Post Number: 909
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 8:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I agree with most of what is said here. I am trying my best to keep my kids engaged. I am teaching to a test, however, and not teaching them necessary life skills...not because I don't want to but because I am forbidden to do so. I am sick (literally, worn down, ragged) but still go to work to try and help my kids. I have to take a day off tomorrow just to regroup and recoup. I warn my kids of pending absences and leave thought provoking lessons for them.

I went to a workshop tonight (after my own classes on Tues and Wed) on how to teach the writing portion of the ACT. They told me nothing I didn't already know. My kids have been doing this type of writing and using rubrics since the very beginning. I now have the materials (well one copy of it, I have to spend my own money to make copies for my kids) to do what DPS demands I do...so no more excuses for me. Monday I will go in and try and make this interesting for the kids and keep it appealing until March 20th. On the side, with a few stolen moments in class, I will have them do novels/bookclub type activities and research papers (much of this they'll have to do on their own with the aid of Blackboard Online Learning that I set up for them). I listen to my kids about what interests them and I will tweak my lessons of this very scripted "stuff" DPS demands I do to make it bearable for both the kids and myself. Thanks for the input. It helps to know others see it as a rotten way to teach kids.

Add Your Message Here
Posting is currently disabled in this topic. Contact your discussion moderator for more information.