Newspaper Article

Newspaper Article (view Newspaper article archive)
This article originally appeared in the Birmingham News on October 18, 1998.

When Schools Focus Energy, Test Scores Come Up
by Cathy Gassenheimer

Last week, the State Department of Education released results from last Spring's Geometry End of Course Test and for writing assessments given to last year's fifth and seventh grade students.

The results weren't good. In Geometry, only about 10 percent of the students knew the subject well enough to score at levels III or IV, indicating solid or superior performance. Last year, 16 percent of the students taking Geometry scored at levels III or IV.

Writing scores weren't much better. In fifth grade, students were asked to read either a narrative, descriptive or expository "prompt. The state average for students scoring at the solid or superior levels in narrative writing was 24 percent; in descriptive writing 12 percent and in expository writing 15 percent. Like in Geometry, this year's scores declined, with the exception of narrative writing where scores increased by two points.

In seventh grade, a fourth category was added to the three tested in the fifth grade: persuasive writing. Students were given a prompt from one of the four categories. Results were mixed with scores improving in the descriptive and persuasive categories and declining in the narrative and expository categories.

These scores provide a clear signal to educators and parents of areas of weaknesses that must be addressed. The results in expository writing are particularly unsettling because this kind of writing comes closest to what we expect students to be able to do when they enter the world of work.

Superintendents, principals and teachers should use information from these tests to develop professional development programs for teachers to help them meet the challenge of our state's rising standards.

In the past, school systems that have responded in this way have reaped the benefits of improved student academic performance. Take the Decatur City Schools, for example. Decatur is committed to improving learning by studying test results and crafting professional development to improve instruction. According to Jeanne Payne, the Supervisor of Elementary Education and Staff Development, "Last year, we started a system-wide focus on writing and reading. When the writing scores came out, we began to plan."

Each school in Decatur has a building leadership team made up of teachers and the principal. The teams analyzed their writing scores, looking at the highs and the lows, and developed action plans to improve their students' writing skills.

As a first step, Mrs. Payne invited Dr. Katherine Mitchell, Director of the Alabama Reading Initiative to conduct a session on writing for every K-7 teacher in Decatur. (The same day a consultant spoke to teachers grades 8-12 about preparing for the exit exam).

According to Mrs. Payne, feedback from the teachers was very positive and they wanted more exposure to training about writing. The system hired Rick Shelton, an accomplished writer and consultant, to work specifically with teachers in the fifth and seventh grades. His charge: Help teachers understand more about writing and the writing assessment so they can better prepare their students to be good writers.

He started by holding an after-school workshop for all K-7 teachers to discuss how to help students improve their writing skills so they could move into the "solid academic performance" range. He then visited every fifth and seventh grade class in Decatur to work with the students while their teachers observed. After-school sessions were held for teachers to ask questions and for additional training.

Shelton describes his work as not only helping the students become writers, but convincing teachers that they, too, must be writers. He encourages teachers to share their writing samples with students to demonstrate that everyone in the class is a writer.

Teachers were given additional help by one of their peers, Margaret Greer, a second-grade teacher in Decatur. Greer, along with free-lance writer Laurel Griffith, developed a book full of strategies to improve students' writing skills. Copies of the book, Write Away!, were provided to every elementary and middle school principal. Greer and Griffith also conducted a workshop for teachers.

This year, several Decatur schools have contracted with Shelton for additional help. An elementary school, which recently moved from academic alert to clear, scheduled Shelton to visit four times this year. The first time he visited the school, Shelton brought samples of his own writing and the children analyzed how he wrote. "You wouldn't believe how actively engaged and involved the students were in his writing," said Mrs. Payne. On his next visit, he will analyze the students' work.

Has this work paid off? This year, Decatur fifth graders beat the state average across the board and showed solid improvement in two of the three categories (the third remained the same). Seventh graders did even better, bettering both the state average and their own scores from last year.

This can-do attitude of the Decatur City Schools can be replicated all over Alabama and is the answer to improved test scores and student performance. According to Jeanne Payne, "The writing assessments have been given for years. But, until recently, as a system, we had not targeted writing as a priority. Once we did, it is amazing how much ground can be covered when you focus on a specific issue."

Cathy Gassenheimer is the managing director of the A+ Education Partnership.