h:\doc\web\98\09\aktest.txt
ajohnson@ktn.net/CC
arthurhu@halcyon.com
Re: [Fwd: InfoExch 10/30/98]


Hi, I lost your original letters when I accidentally 
deleted all my mail, and I could not decode your attachment.


I am bothered by the "for all" concept which is based on
the false belief that if people who take algebra do better, then
everyone must take algebra, and it must be watered down so that
all can be exposed to it. This concept is still very experimental,
and most experiments have parents demanding a return to original
dedicated, not integrated math classes. To have the state force all
districts to switch is a big mistake. Thou shalt not standardize 
on that which has not been proven.


You standardize when the market proves which work and which are 
folly. To set standards to force all to adopt unproven innovations
is madness,  that's the whole problem with the standards-based 
method.


I'd like to pass on those math standards to the loop and show
people how they force districts to adopt NTCM math practices 
before any districts have even tried this garbage.


your graduation exam turns your doploma into tuckers cim,
which for various reasons ive given isa terrible idea since
no education system of any size, even under experimenyal
conditions has been able to show such a strategy will
deliver "all stdents meeting or exceeding yhr highest
international standards"


Germany and japan produce national averages, not all
above a threshold, and they use testing strictly to
ration the highest spots to the best performers. The
US is the only nation attempting such a foolish goal.


I would be happy to review any standards or procedures,
typically, written standards are very easy, but tests
encompass topics normally covered by graduate level
college courses. Such standards are set completely
subjectuvely and deliberately ignore actual levels
of stusent performance.


Do you have evidence that Alaska has cobtracted with any of
Mrc Tuckers organizations to design their system, it
sounds like a classic variation on a theme by tucker






On 1998-10-30 ajohnson@ktn.net said:
   >This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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   >Authur,
   >Could I impose upon your good observational powers on a matter of
   >some import to my ability in being involved in a "Standards and
   >Testing" workshop?
   >As a school board member, I will be representing Ketchikan in a
   >workshop regarding our upcoming performance standards. (Nov. 12th).
   >In that I have been harping to our Commissioner of Education and
   >her staff using in part, comments and postings from yourself, I
   >need to be better prepared as I suspect that they are somewhat
   >anticipating my participation in the workshop.
   >I have attached, what I consider, the first wraps off view of the
   >intentions with the scoring of the test(Yet completed).  Following
   >that will be the Performance standards, which to my simple
   >observation, are nothing more than platitudes, not of any substance.
   >Following that will be a math posting of what are called "Content
   >Standards".  I am confused on these.  When I lay these Content
   >Standards alongside the math standards of Calif. the difference and
   >readability as a parent is very obvious.
   >Could I obtain your take on these documents?  I appreciate your
   >ability to in-depth review these types of articles.
   >Cordially,
   >A.M. Johnson
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   >NEWSLETTER OF THE ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
   >October 30, 1998
   >To contact Department of Education staff by email: first name_last

   >name@educ.state.ak.us
   >DANIEL L. WALKER OF SEWARD NAMED 1999 ALASKA TEACHER OF THE YEAR
   >Alaska’s 1999 Teacher of the Year is Daniel L. Walker, a seventh
   >grade social studies and language arts teacher at Seward
   >Middle/High School in the Kenai Peninsula School District. Governor
   >Tony Knowles and Commissioner of Education Shirley J. Holloway made
   >the announcement during a phone call to Walker. at 9 a.m.today. Dr.
   >Holloway also today submitted Walker’s name as Alaska’s candidate
   >for the 1999 National Teacher of the Year competition.
   >Walker has worked in the Kenai School District since 1982. He has
   >taught seventh grade since 1993. At Seward Elementary School, he
   >taught fourth grade from 1982-85 and sixth grade from 1991-93. He
   >taught gifted and talented students at both Seward Elementary
   >School and High School from 1985-90. “It is an honor to recognize
   >Alaska’s outstanding teachers like Dan Walker,” Knowles said. “Dan
   >Walker’s commitment to children, leadership in education, and his
   >experience in the classroom make him very deserving of this award.
   >Like his predecessors, Dan Walker will represent Alaska well at the
   >national level.”
   >“We have an outstanding new Alaska Teacher of the Year,” said
   >Holloway. “Mr. Walker possesses an excellent combination of
   >teaching experience and leadership. He is a wonderful
   >representative of the best qualities and abilities of our best
   >teachers who are working hard in classrooms all over the state. I
   >am pleased to appoint him to serve as Alaska’s 1999 Teacher of the
   >Year.”
   >David J. Harrington, a high school English teacher at Dimond High
   >School in the
   >Anchorage School District, was named 1999 Alternate Alaska Teacher
   >of the Year.
   >Two other finalists for the honor were Richard Fagnant, a fifth
   >grade teacher at Mendenhall River Community School in the Juneau
   >Borough School District, and
   >Susan Wingrove, a high school choir and drama teacher at Bartlett
   >High School in the Anchorage School District.
   >A news release and a photo of Walker are on the Department of
   >Education web page at <http://www.educ.state.ak.us/TOY.html>.
   >MUSEUM WINS FEDERAL GRANT
   >The Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
   >recently awarded the Alaska State Museum $49,528, part of nearly
   >$20 million in grants given to the nation’s museums. “The grant
   >will give us the ability to better store our valuable collection of
   >Alaskan Native objects,” said Museum Registrar Donna Baron. More
   >Information, Bruce Kato, 465-2901.
   >FEDS FUND LOWER CLASS SIZE
   >Alaska stands to receive $5.6 million in new federal funds to hire
   >approximately 145 new teachers during the 1999-2000 school year
   >under the class
   >size reduction program passed by Congress. School districts across
   >the country will receive a total of $1.2 billion in school year
   >1999-2000 to hire more than
   >30,000 new teachers in grades 1-3.
   >According to a recent news release by the Clinton Administration,
   >the funds “are a down payment on the President’s plan to hire 100,
   >000 teachers over seven
   >years to reduce average class size in grades 1-3 to 18 pupils per
   >teacher.”
   >Each state’s funding allocation is based on the greater share of
   >funds the state received under the FY 1998 allocations for one of
   >two programs: Title I, based on the population of poor children
   >weighted by the state expenditures for
   >education, or Eisenhower Professional Development, based on Title I
   >shares and overall student enrollment. States will distribute the
   >funds to school districts by targeting 80 percent on the basis of
   >child poverty, and 20 percent
   >based on school enrollment. Funds will be available to states
   >beginning July 1,
   >1999.
   >The Alaska Department of Education is exploring more of the details
   >on how to allocate the dollars.
   >Local school districts can use these funds directly for hiring
   >teachers in grades 1-3 based on their needs. Up to 15 percent of
   >funds can be used to pay for teacher testing and to provide
   >professional development and training opportunities for teachers.
   >Districts that have already reduced class sizes to 18 or fewer
   >students in grades 1 through 3 can use their allocations to make
   >further reductions in those grades, to reduce class size in other
   >grades, or to carry out activities to improve teacher quality.
   >STATE BOARD MEETS NOV. 12 AND 13
   >The State Board of Education will meet November 12 and 13 at the
   >Anchorage Hilton Hotel beginning at 8:30 a.m. daily. The Board will
   >hold a work session in the morning of Nov. 12. A business meeting

   >will begin at 1:15 p.m. and continue through Nov 13. The Board will
   >consider approving the school capital improvement project list and
   >performance standards in reading, writing and math. The following
   >regulations are up for adoption: school facility and planning; to
   >implement the new public school funding law; teacher certification;
   >remove a mandate for school districts to administer the CAT-5 to
   >11th graders; library assistance grant eligibility; pupil
   >transportation; district correspondence study programs; and
   >acquisition of tenure rights for teachers.
   >The Board will also consider opening a period of public comment on
   >the following proposed regulations: Certification of Professional
   >Teachers by repealing alternative routes, changing requirements for
   >the Type B endorsement and renewal of license, adding additional
   >endorsements in content areas through
   >Praxis II tests and setting passing scores for the Praxis I;
   >updating the most recent state rehabilitation plan reference in
   >Vocational Rehabilitation; cleaning up school facility and
   >planning; and requirements for the Quality School Funding Grant
   >application program.
   >Persons wishing to comment on agenda and non-agenda items should
   >call 456-2801 to sign up five days prior to the meeting.   Persons
   >with disabilities who require accommodations or alternative
   >communication formats should call 465-2801 no later than seven days
   >before the scheduled meeting.or Mary Stone, 465-2815, or e-mail
   ><dottie_knuth@educ.state.ak.us>.
   >“GET INVOLVED IN YOUR SCHOOLS”
   >By Shirley J. Holloway, Ph.D.
   >Alaska Commissioner of Education
   >It is from both a sense of urgency and pride that I want to inform
   >Alaskans everywhere about the big changes we are making to improve
   >the quality of our public schools and the quality of our children’s
   >education.
   >The urgency comes from a desire to motivate parents and communities
   >to find out

   >what local schools are doing--or not doing--to prepare their
   >children to meet higher state academic standards in reading,
   >writing and math.
   >I also tell this story from my deep pride at what the Knowles
   >Administration, with the help of the Legislature, has accomplished
   >for our children and their education through the Alaska Quality
   >Schools Initiative.
   >I have traveled to many, many school districts during the first
   >month of school
   >this year to talk about the coming changes that recently passed
   >laws are bringing to our schools. I am pleased by progress in some
   >schools. But in others, it’s clear our children will be left behind
   >if local school leaders and
   >communities do not pick up the pace of progress.
   >Here’s what’s coming down the road:
   >Today’s ninth grade students will be the first Alaska students who
   >will need to
   >pass the Alaska High School Graduation Qualifying Examination
   >before their school can award them a diploma. Those who fail will
   >not get a diploma. They will get a certificate of attendance.
   >Unlike the diploma students get today, the new diploma will
   >symbolize that a student has met rigorous academic standards. This
   >will be very important as young people try to get into colleges and
   >technical schools, and apply for jobs
   >or the military.
   >The state Department of Education is currently developing the
   >graduation examination. Many students throughout the state will
   >take a trial test in March
   >1999 to help us figure out where to set the passing score. But
   >beginning with the high school class of 2002 every student, if they
   >want a diploma, will have to pass the exam.
   >How many students will pass? It’s too early to tell. But my deepest
   >hope is that all students will pass. Is this unrealistic? No. Is
   >this possible? Yes. In
   >fact, many people--parents, educators, school board members and
   >others--are working hard to make sure our young people have the
   >knowledge and skills needed
   >to pass it.
   >It would be unfair--and unrealistic--to expect our students to pass
   >a graduation exam if we first do not look at every student’s
   >achievement measured
   >against rigorous standards in reading, writing and math. Schools
   >must share information on each student’s progress with the
   >student’s parents. If adequate student progress is not being made,
   >then schools and parents need to make a swift and intensive
   >intervention to get the student back on track.
   >A law passed by the Alaska Legislature in 1997 directed the
   >Department of Education to develop the qualifying examination. A
   >year later, the Knowles Administration convinced the Legislature to
   >pass another law to make the qualifying exam a part--the final
   >part--of a greater system of accountability, standards and
   >assessments for our schools. This school accountability measure is
   >known as the Quality Schools Initiative.
   >Under the initiative, each school will be required to do a number
   >of things aimed at increasing the quality of schools and the
   >quality of schooling that our children receive.
   >Starting next year, schools, in partnership with parents, will need
   >to chart a developmental profile for each child upon entering
   >kindergarten or first grade.
   >The profile will identify the strengths and areas needing
   >additional attention for help in designing an appropriate
   >instructional program for each child. Schools also need to adopt
   >state-mandated academic standards in reading, writing and math.
   >These are the subjects in which students will be tested on the High
   >School Graduation Qualifying Exam.
   >We need to test each child early and often in these subjects
   >throughout their school careers to make sure they are on target to
   >meet the standards needed to pass the graduation examination. For
   >this reason, schools will be required to test students at the 3rd,
   >6th and 8th grades. If they are falling behind, schools will have
   >to provide special help to children so they can catch up. This
   >system of periodic check ups measured against standards also will
   >give the state and communities solid information to hold schools
   >and communities accountable for the academic achievement of
   >children.
   >Each year, all schools--successful and unsuccessful--will have to
   >report certain information to their communities and the state about
   >their progress.
   >Also, the Department of Education will build a system of
   >accountability, based on the test results and other measures, that
   >will tell us whether each school is successful or unsuccessful. The
   >state will require low performing schools to
   >work with their community to build a school improvement plan aimed
   >at helping the school and students reach the standards.
   >In this way, we are working to make every school successful, where
   >every student is meeting standards and where every high school
   >student passes the High School Qualifying Exam.
   >I want to congratulate the many Alaskans who are working hard to
   >bring to reality this vision of high quality schools. We’ve come a
   >long way. We have a long way to go.
   >On a recent visit to Bethel where I spoke about the Quality Schools
   >Initiative,
   >a 10th grade student acknowledged she would not be required to take
   >the graduation exam to earn her diploma. “But,” she asked, “will I
   >be allowed to take it so I can show I reached the standards?” This
   >is the attitude we need to
   >have toward the examination. Alaskans of all ages should want every
   >student to reach high standards.
   >I urge you to find out what is happening in your schools. Many
   >schools are on track to meet the challenges of the Quality Schools
   >Initiative. Many are not. Please get involved and help.
   >HOW TO GET INFOEXCHANGE BY EMAIL
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Arthur Hu "Fairness in Diversity" Kirkland WA 
http://www.leconsulting.com/arthurhu/


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