New Haven Bombs On SATs

The second paragraph is misleading because it implies that a certain percentage of ALL students got a score rather than a certain percentage of participating students.

Which brings me to my question,"if the statewide average student participation was 94%, what was New Havens participation percentage? (1,145 out of how many?)

If the participation is low (as it seems) and if one jumps to the conclusion that the best and most motivated students are the ones taking the tests, the reality may be far worse than the published results.

Where are you Garth? Why does a guy who just got here get to speak for the district? Your graduation rate is now suspect and your poor kids are not doing as well as poor kids in other poor districts. I can hear the school district falling apart under your watch. This is a sad time in our community. Somebody needs to step up so you can step out.

Shame on you "New Haven" Independent for your misleading depiction of New Haven.

From my first glance at the title of this article, I am both disappointed and saddened by your reporting of our district. I do not appreciate your choice of choosing a title that, once again, paints a negative picture about new haven public school students and their schools. A more accurate title might have been, "New SAT forms the benchmark for Common Core curriculum moving forward," but no that would be too optimistic for our "failing" district, correct?

When you note, "New Haven got this year's SAT scores back Tuesday and learned that students are not necessarily ready for college," you are using a single, narrow, metric to make that assertion. In turn, by saying this, you are perpetuating the false narrative that these scores are in fact an accurate depiction of future college and career readiness.

As stated by Berliner and Glass, "The nation would be much better served if the billions of dollars spent on high school exit exam programs and other high stakes testing mandates were instead vested in programs that promoted teacher and student development and reduced poverty" (221).

New Haven Independent, whether you realize it or not, inflammatory titles and statements such as these only lead to the continued benefit of the Pearson Testing Corporation and not the students of New Haven Public Schools.

So the story is that New Haven "bombs," yet it has the best average combined score of the four cities that are similarly sized.

I definitely think the district and the teachers need to focus on instruction instead of a lot of the crazy things that become the superintendent's focus, but the headline seems irresponsible in comparison.

Building a false narrative does not help anyone or anything and it does not serve journalism.

I have not commented here in over 7 months--but I must now--NHPSstudent you are my hero--and if you are really an NHPS student you are wise beyond your years--we have so much to be proud of and to reduce ANYTHING to just test scores is embarrassing, illogical, fraudulent and just not valid. So knock it off and stand up for our students and their parents as they attempt to do the best they can everyday--I and my colleagues stand up for them every day and are so proud of them for all the effort they exhibit--Tom Burns

This article didn't have any graphics, so I made one -- posted here with some more thoughts

http://www.jamesdossgollin.me/nhps-sat/ (happy to send a high resolution one if anyone wants)

Two take-aways: (1) these scores are really bad, even given the challenges that NHPS faces. Those can't always be an excuse. (2) The emphasis on creating a college-going culture has done a lot of good, and we can and should be proud of progress on that front. But sending kids to college who aren't academically prepared means they are likely to either not graduate, spend money on remedial classes, fall behind in their major, fail to get good internships because of bad grades, etc. And if you borrow money to attend college but don't graduate, you're in the worst of all possible worlds.

Let's keep up the progress on the college-going culture front, but also remember that the biggest goal of a school district is to help students learn. This is a bit more evidence that we aren't doing very well at that.

How many of the New Haven kids are New Haven residents or are our magnet out of districts kids driving our scores "up." Just saying.

@ NHPStudent,

The idea that your emphasis regarding the NHPS academic failures is placed on the NHI is absurd. Furthermore, I couldn't help but to notice, that you didn't put any blame at all on Superintendent Harries. Why?

This is exactly why we must again applaud those retired educators for the stance they took in addressing the current educational conditions of the NHPS.

For once, I agree with this assessment of our student's college readiness as measured by these SAT scores.

As my child took the SATs this past spring as well, I watched like a hawk.

Our kids are not scoring well in math because too many are leaving middle school too far behind grade level for high school teachers to catch them up while maintaining a normal pace of grade level new material instruction.

Math instruction requires a solid foundation and if there are too many gaps in a student's math foundation knowledge, then the teacher has to stop the grade level curriculum and do remedial instruction.

Many students are taking the math SAT without even being exposed to half of the material tested.

Read that last sentence again. And, ask the kids who took the exam-I did.

Need I continue?

If a school or an individual teacher tries to retain students to ensure they are at least near grade level before promotion to the next grade, then parents and administrators will scream bloody murder and the wrong folks will have their careers ruined.

Does the HSC attempt to do the right thing by retaining those students who needed to repeat a grade ring any bells? What happened to those courageous educators who did not conform to the politically correct stance of NHPS leaders and politicians?

This is cow-pucky and if you are not concerned, then you doggone should be.

Test scores do not define a student's ability. In fact, many suburban students have scores that over-value their ability simply because their family has significant resources for test preparation. Folks with money are always gaming any system designed to provide an even playing field.

Colleges are moving away from standardized tests because it is not an effective way to predict success. Others use it as just one metric among a variety of measures.

Sure, the public schools should do better, but that takes a plan from the district leadership and greater effort from the largely suburban teaching force that undervalues city students. Those two sides have not been properly focused on instruction. The district leadership is fixated on propping up its wayward superintendent while the union is always adult-focused and not student-focused.

But it remains irresponsible for the Independent to run the headline that it did. Using sensationalization to take down students is an abuse of the public trust. You should try to do better. Shameful.

I never trusted the NHPS. So I did what I had to do and send my kids to Catholic school. My daughter is in the 7th grade and has taken the test twice. The financial sacrifice has been worth it. There are a lot of good schools in New Haven itself just that none of them are Public.

Wow. Talk about defensive. Our kids did not do well on the SATs. That's a fact. SATs play a major role in whether our students are admitted to college and the quality of colleges and universities they are accepted into. Also, I submit, a good education, reflected in part using SAT scores, readies students for whatever path they seek. SAT scores are of significant concern when students apply for scholarships. I'm so tired of excuses rather than owning up to the inadequacy of the adults -- and I don't mean teachers. If central office would let teachers use their better judgment rather than being restricted to whatever new "common core" or "state of the art" curriculum, things might improve. Let teachers decide what professional development is appropriate for the children they work with and pay them to attend. This could look better. Parochial schools use the same curriculum and the same general deliverance year after year. Let's study districts and schools that succeed and follow their example rather than rationalizing poor performance. And, finally, don't blame the kids, their parents, their homes or their neighborhoods. That's not the problem.

At the Board meeting on Monday, I am sure that the Mayor and Garth Harries will try to put a spin on these low SAT scores. They both have low expectations for our children. Garth Harries and Mayor Toni Harp brag about the graduation rate and attendance rate. We have many great children graduating from our schools and some are going onto higher education and the work force successfully. We also have a number of students that are being pushed out, given grades that they did not earn and marked present when they are not, in fact, in school just to make sure that these data rates are high. Must we all forget or should we just not believe our lying eyes. Mayor Harp and Superintendent Harries seem to think that they are dealing with a bunch of ignorant citizens. New Haveners are bright and caring people. We have been bedazzled by charm into thinking that this Mayor and Superintendent knew what they were doing. Thanks to the present Board of Ed and this group of retired administrators that our eyes are being opened to the inept work of these leaders. One would think that Mayor Harp has enough on her plate as the mayor of our city to not appoint herself Board of Ed president by soliciting Board members to vote her in. She has enough to deal with in this city with the many lawsuits, the police chief and many other pressing things. She should step down and let this Board deal with the educational side while she deals with a city that is in crisis. If a teacher had the evaluation that this superintendent had, that teacher would be up for non-renewal. He said that he looks to accelerate the appointment of teachers of color into leadership positions. WE NEED GOOD TEACHERS IN THE CLASSROOMS, not leadership positions. His focus seems to always be on administrators to surround him with so that they can hold him up for his incompetence. Watch closely when he is asked a question. Mayor Harp tries to answer it to protect him or he looks around the room for someone in his administratio

There is no stain block good enough to hide these scores which continue a tradition in New Haven. Build new schools, deliver poor results. Even over at ESUMS - the premier science, math and technology school - heavily dependent on math, students do poorly. And ESUMS spends weeks teaching to the test.

ESUMS is also getting a new $85 million school.

Call it school reform, but never deliver it. Celebrate a decrease in suspensions and expulsions, but that's just because they kids aren't suspended or expelled. They're just put in rubber rooms to cool down.

None of this is progress. There is no measurable progress and even those who manage to make it through, choose to go to college, are woefully unprepared for that challenge. This is not new information. This information has been known by NHPS for at least a decade. It is cause of great concern in the university system because remedial students and support sap copious amounts of shrinking resources.

The president of the NHPS board should resign. And frankly, Garth Harries, the king of "reform" should be fired and replaced. Quickly. Enough already. Quit putting lipstick on a pig.

I have a lot to say about this, but one little thing first.

A score on the SATs or any other test certainly doesn't come remotely close to describing you, the "whole student," or your school, just as the numbers on a blood test don't even remotely describe all of you.

But, it indicates a minimum standard you must surpass to be a successful student and, like an off number on a blood test report, a red flag to indicate when things might be going wrong. We can't just reject the test and ignore the scores. Beyond that minimum, of course we need to consider whether you are a critical thinker, a nice person, an active citizen, a creative artist, a problem solver, a good friend. Of course.

But unless you can read, write, and do math well enough to get a moderate score (500/800 or 60% is not that ambitious), your ability to make good use of all those other aspects of the whole student -- in college and in life -- will be somewhat limited.

"Even over at ESUMS - the premier science, math and technology school - heavily dependent on math, students do poorly. And ESUMS spends weeks teaching to the test."

The only test prep ESUMS does is in language arts. Perhaps it's paying off, since their scores are surprisingly good there.

But you are right, it is absolutely scandalous that our scores in math do not exceed the benchmark. I would like to tell you why.

We cannot get or keep enough math teachers in the classroom. Mid-year hires take forever, and some never happen. Part-timers understandably leave for full-time jobs. Too many high schools students spend the second half of the year without a real math teacher. Is it any wonder they don't learn what they are supposed to?

But more than this, ESUMS cannot hire teachers early enough. I doubt any New Haven school can, though the suburbs manage it somehow.

I am part of the PTO group that EVERY SUMMER has to write nagging letters to the administration in July, begging the district to approve our school's budget and teacher hiring. It's not just this year with Victor leaving. Is is EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

Suburbs hire in April and May. That's when the best grads of the teacher training programs are hired. In August, New Haven schools are hiring the leftovers AND giving them no time to plan and prepare a full slate of courses. Some of those "leftovers" really do heroically well, but others . . . just don't.

From the NHI coverage of the Harries issue, I guess it is the administration's position that teacher hiring is in crisis everywhere, and so you cannot blame anyone for it. If that is the case, why not get competitive? Act early! Recruit hard! At least try! Don't just shrug and say "Oh, der der der, it's a national problem," when there is abundant room to improve.

One more. And this one is about all of us.

I have an unfortunate and rather depressing hobby of attending NHPS activities: board of ed meetings, citywide parents, funding committee, TAG committee, powerschool training, climate survey working group, and now this upcoming focus group facilitator business. All of these activities take the time of administrators, parents, and even teachers.

And they are pretty much a crap waste of time. They are make-work, and they focus on administrative and structural issues, rather than actually teaching children the stuff they need to know. Our teachers and building administrators are regularly called away from their actual work for similar wastes of their time and energy. Many also devote their own time generously to monitor, understand, and resist nefarious initiatives from the central office.

If every "stakeholder" took every hour they put into this bureaucratic fluff and nonsense, and spent it instead teaching or volunteering (helping in a classroom, tutoring after school, supporting our teachers in their work), I bet we could get those scores up 100 points next spring.

One other thing to those who say, we're better than our other urban counterparts - that is cold comfort. That's like saying while living in Alabama - thank god for Mississippi. We're next to last, but there's always worse.

Pretty clear that there are some people commenting on here that don't understand much. Among them:

@ Robn and others, an FYI:

Virtually all 11th graders took the SAT. The CT State Dept of Education replaced the 11th grade state tests (the CAPT and then the Smarter Balance) with the SAT. This was an effort to reduce the burden of standardized tests that high schoolers take and to align around a single college prep assessment. Traditionally only college-bound students took the SAT; but now it's the defacto state standardized test for 11th graders.

MB

Again, we see how putting all the African American children in the low level middle school math classes make them never catch up to the Asian and Caucasian children. Mr. Harries, why do we see this? This happened to my grandchild and is happening to others. Why are all the minorities set up to fail in your system that gives an advantage to the children with lighter skin tones?

The usual comments from the progressives panning the use and value of tests (even those that measure English language and math skills) just kill me. Every time the testing shows a terrible result, they're like broken records, claiming that tests have little value in predicting how successful a person might be. You might as well say let's do away with mandatory education and public schools because learning something doesn't mean anything and doesn't predict success in life. Same logic.

Perhaps, Swampfox, some people who comment, unlike yourself, actually see whether or not test scores predict success at the next level.

But thanks for your input on nothing but just supposition. That was important.

Hey Swamp- nice stretch. My daughter didn't do well on hers ("bombed"??) and has her Master's and nice full time gig. My college didn't require them and now I have a doctorate. At least in our house they are not that important.

Too much emphasis is what we are saying.

MB,

Thanks for the clarification. What was confusing me is that I've heard NHPS state a figure of something like 22,000 students. Dividing that by 14 (pre-K though 12) gives you a figure of @ 1600.

1145 is 94% of 1218.

1218 is 76% of 1600.

Does that mean by the time our kids reach junior year, 24% have dropped out?