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EZ RE


KLMNO EDUCATION


“It helps the child’s chance of success. You’re not teaching it just one way.” —Carol Lange, principal of Diamond Elementary School, on benefits of the integrated curriculum.


JAY MATHEWS


What happens at school sometimes stays at school


B


esides thisMondayMetro column, IwritemyClass Struggle columnevery


Thursday for theLocalLiving section. It focuses onparents.WhenImove to Californianext year, Ihope to rename it “The SchoolParent” andcompare the adventures of familieshere to parent-school encounters elsewhere. Suchstories are full of surprises. For instance, aMcLeanHigh


School father complainedtome recently about teachersnot lettinghis childrentake their gradedexams home so they couldget a better sense of their errors. Itwas ananti-cheating measure that seemedto frustrate learning.Assuming itwas anisolated phenomenon, IdidaLocalLiving columnabout it. Wrong again.The online versionof


the columnabout it got 68 comments, three times asmany as Iusually get. E-mailspouredin.Hiding examswas more commonthanI realized.A frustratedtutor inCalifornia saidthat “it’snot only absurd, butunethical, for a teacher towithholdthe results of testswhenthey are amajor component of the grade.” PhyllisPayne, aFairfaxCounty


parent, saidthat one teacher toldher that “sheuses the same tests every year, so she can’t let the childrenkeep the test questions.As a former teacher, I’mmystifiedby this approach.”Atopstudent atWest PotomacHighSchool inFairfax Countywas ignoredwhenshe asked to see a test todeterminewhy she got aD. Teachers saidparents andstudents


missedthepoint.AnneCullen,who teacheshonors-level journalismat MontgomeryBlairHighSchool in MontgomeryCounty, saidthat “creating a quality test (e.g. one without ambiguous ormisleading answers) takes considerable time and effort, so it is simplynot reasonable to expect teachers todesignnewsets of tests for eachunit taught.”Teachers usually let students reviewtheir results inclass, butparents and students say that isn’t enoughtime. The exchanges onmy blog gotugly.


Parents accusedteachers of being lazy.Teachers saidparentswere enabling cheaterswhowouldshare oldtests,maybe for a fee. Some readers askedme to check


withtestpreparationexperts, or psychometricians, before Iwaded into this swamp. Ihave talkedto them fordecades.Theypatiently explain the longhours andmanydollars neededto create tests that are fair to all students andalignwithlearning standards theymust assess. Oneproblemis thatmany local


schooldistricts are going to great lengths to standardize their owntests —making sure, for instance, that all U.S.history classeshave the same final—toprepare their students for the standardizedstate testsusedto judge schoolsunder federal andstate laws.Havingdone all thatwork, they want to reuse at least some questions, so they can’t sendthemhome.Butdo we reallyneedsuchwell-polished exams at every level? The SATandACTcollege entrance


tests, theAP, IBandCambridge college-level tests, andthe state achievement tests areworththe time andexpense.Theydon’tneedto be returnedto students (althoughin some cases they canbe, for a fee). Why can’t schooldistricts let teachers write their owntests andlet kids go homewiththem, ashappenedwhen theirparentswere inschool? Districts say they standardize their


tests toprotect students from unsettlingdifferences between, say, thewayMs.Gonzalez inRoom313 andthewayMr.WuinRoom315 grade their juniorEnglishstudents. I don’t see theneed. Studentshave survivederratic grading for several decadeswithoutmuchharm. Ithelps prepare themfordating. Making every test so gold-plated


that it can’t be takenhome to learn frommistakesdoeshurt the learning process andneedlessly frustrates parents. Some collegeprofessorsused tohandoutmanypossible exam questions andsay that only two or threewouldbeused.Thatproduced careful study, andsome learning. Isn’t that thepoint of tests? mathewsj@washpost.com


THE DAILY QUIZ


What cartoon character is the basis for a soon-to-be-released movie, for which PostPoints members can enter to win tickets to the advance screening?


(Hint: Log in to your PostPoints account and click on Events & Contests for the answer.)


EARN 5 POINTS: Find the answer, then go to washingtonpost.com/postpoints and click on “Quizzes” to enter the correct response.


MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2010


PHOTOS BY JUANA ARIAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


ColinVan Bonkhorst participates in a lesson in which first-grade teacher GaleMundy uses books about other countries and cultures to illustratemath shapes at Diamond Elementary School in Gaithersburg, one of the pilot schools. Students are “more engaged, and it means more to them,” she says, comparing the newand old curriculums.


Montgomery phases in lessons that blend subjects curriculum from B1


story about patterns, listen to rhythmic patterns in music class and play a skip- ping game in gym class that requires them to move their bodies in a physical pattern. “It helps the child’s chance of success,”


Lange said. “You’re not teaching it just one way.” The newcurriculum is slowly working


its way into Montgomery classrooms. Last school year, the kindergarten pro- gram was tested in 90 schools across the county. This year, all kindergartens are using


it, and 112 schools are trying it in first grade. Plans about when it will reach all grades at all schools haven’t been final- ized. Before the agreement was signed with


Pearson, the plan was to finish develop- ing the program up to the fifth grade in 2015. Now, officials expect to finish it by the 2012-13 school year. Much of the curriculum is available to teachers online, and the school system expectsPearson to develop supplemental training materials and tests that will run alongside. Not all teachers are fans of the new


program. Some say it is more difficult to tailor lessons toward students who are quick to understand new concepts vs. those who require more time. “We have no idea what’s above grade


level or what’s on grade level,” said Helaine Cohen, a first-grade teacher at Sequoyah Elementary School in Der- wood.


Schools across the country are about


to change the way they teach math and reading to align with the new common core standards thathavebeenadoptedby Maryland, 39 other states and the Dis- trict.


Educators say the standards will bring


new rigor and consistency to what had been a patchwork of approaches. Mont- gomery’s initiative, which was planned before the newstandards were launched, promises to be one of the first compre- hensive curriculums written to the stan- dards.


First-grade teacher Emily Chapelle reads to her students at Diamond Elementary, which is testing the new integrated curriculum. In one first-grade class, for example, reading the fairy tale “Little Red RidingHood” was used to teach students about science and safety.


They will also revamp the way math is


taught in the elementary grades, backing off from a push for ever-increased accel- eration that has in recent years had more than half ofMontgomery fifth-grade stu- dents taking sixth-grade math or higher. birnbaumm@washpost.com


The Answer Sheet VALERIE STRAUSS Excerpt from voices.washingtonpost.com/answersheet I


f you have any doubt about the direc- tion of school reform in this country, consider these two events: Former Florida governor Jeb Bush —


who remains powerful in politics — hosted a two-day education conference in Washington last week that was all about how foundations and businesses could affect schools. A few days later, Florida’s governor-elect, Rick Scott, namedMichelle Rhee as the most promi- nent member of his education transition task force. Bush, Scott and Rhee all share the


samebusiness-driven vision of education reform. Infact,rumorsare flying through the Sunshine State that Scott wants Rhee to become the next education commis-


POINTS EVENTS


Be a Food Snob! That’s the advice from the Post’s Health & Fitness Section, if you’re getting ready to make the rounds of holiday parties and you don’t want to gain weight. This tip was sent recently to PostPoints members who signed up for a weekly email from Post staffers. To sign up for emails on topics that interest YOU, just log on to washingtonpost.com/postpoints and click My Account Profile. Scroll down and make your selections.


sioner there. Some in Florida have even painted a


scenario inwhichBushrunsandwinsthe presidency in 2012 and appoints Rhee as secretary of education. Bush has said he is not running in 2012, although Bush watchers in Florida say they don’t think that decision is final. Bush’s conference was the work of the


Foundation for Education Excellence, one of his vehicles for staying at the forefront of school reform efforts across the country. Big topics for discussion were charter schools, choice, innovation and technology. Bush drew to the con- vention state education secretaries, school superintendents and others, mostly people onboard with today’s


brand of education reform. Bush, a Republican, led a standing


ovation for Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a Democrat, showing that school reform is indeed a bipartisan effort, if not a monolithic one. Bush and Duncanagreedonanumberof issues in a question-and-answer period after Dun- can’s keynote address — high standards, accountability, etc. And both called for the next Congress


to quickly reauthorize No Child Left Behind. Duncan urged changes to the law, saying that it is too inflexible and has led to the narrowing of curricula in public schools as well as to lower aca- demic standards as states have struggled to meet unreasonable targets set by the


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law. What best tells the story of the con-


vention is the list of its sponsors: l Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation l Broad Foundation l Walton Family Foundation l Charles and Helen Schwab Founda- tion


l IQity l Lynde andHarry Bradley Foundation l HoughtonMifflinHarcourt l McGrawHill Education l WIN l Apex Learning l Cisco l Learnin3.com l Susan and Bill Oberndorf l Foundation for Educational Choice l SMART l Apex Learning l Barton Malow Design/Construction Services


l Charter SchoolsUSA Big money, big business. That’s school reform today.


straussv@washpost.com


A complete list of PostPoints Spots can be found at washingtonpost.com/postpoints.


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