This is a shout out to the members of the 'The Scores are Falling!' quintet.
I remember my delight, as a youngster, at the Chicken Little story. Her sense of urgency, her belief that she must save the farm from impending doom, the obviousness of her mistake, which was painfully evident to everyone but her...I just howled. But only recently have I pondered what the story might feel like from the perspective of our heroine. Bummer.
In 2007, Corbett's 3rd Graders got a bad rap. They showed up poorly on the State of Oregon Assessments. Their 52% passing rate in 3rd grade math was particularly irksome to the few people who noticed. I was one of the few, and I was asked by teachers and board members what we were going to do about it. "Nothing." Of course. Wouldn't you just know it?
And what should we have done? A new math program? Pull the kids out of recess to have them do extra math? Take away their music until they learned their fractions? (No, wait, music is a GREAT place to learn fractions, so that won't work...). Add an extra hour of math at the expense of P.E.? (Don't laugh. There are schools where this is common practice!)
What did we do? We trusted our teachers. We trusted our practice. We trusted our past decisions. We trusted that fact that cohort ahead of them had passed at over 95% in 2006 before the benchmark was changed. We didn't panic.
Today we still have the third grade assessment results for 47 of our current sixth graders. Some are now in the Charter School, others are in Corbett Middle School. Of those 47, 23 failed to reach the 3rd grade math benchmark in 2007. That's a 51% passing rate. Today, 17 of the 23 (74%) have met the 6th grade math benchmark. Why is that number familiar? Oh, of course, it's very close to the State passing rate for 6th grade math last year, which was 73%. And our 74% mark counts only those student who DIDN'T meet the 3rd grade benchmark. What about our entire cohort of 47 students?
This year, taking all 47 cohort members (including those who did meet in 3rd grade) into account, their passing rate in math is 87%. Say it again: 87%! They are, in fact, out-performing those students who have since joined us and for whom we have no 3rd grade results. (Private schools, of course, don't administer the assessments.)
The class ahead of them? The one that had a 95% passing rate in 3rd grade? Last year they posted an 86% rate on the 6th grade math assessment. And this year they are running at over 80% in 7th grade math. And so it goes on.
This year, Corbett Middle School (grades 6 through 8) has passed 80% of all of the tests taken in Reading, Math and Science combined. The class with the highest passing rate among all three cohorts? The Sixth Grade! These kids are knocking it out of the park.
So in the spirit of free speech, I say that we let Chicken Little be Chicken Little. (I'm certainly not going to be the one to explain what is really falling on her head!) But fair warning, CL, denying reality is an uphill battle in most circles.
