A few nights ago, I caught the end of the rebroadcast of Dr. Hicks State of the School District Address on CAR20. I had tuned in just as he was finishing his speech, and was able to watch the entire Q&A segment that followed his presentation. None of the questions surprised me, however, one of Dr. Hicks answers did.
When asked why children were being socially promoted to the next grade level when they were not reading at grade level, Dr. Hicks replied “Grade level does not matter with Mastery Learning”.
Really, now? He went on to explain that a child can BE in the fourth grade and BE reading at 2nd grade level. He explained there is not a reason to hold the child back, because Mastery Learning allows the child to learn at his/her own pace.
I know that it can hurt a child’s self-esteem if the child is retained, but isn’t it more demeaning when the child gets to middle and high school and cannot read?
Is it any wonder why RUSD scores on the state’s WCKE are so abysmal? It is very possible that many 4th grade students take the 4th grade test and have never seen any of the information on the test in class because they are still working in the 2nd grade book.
Up until a few years ago, children who had not mastered the basics in the early primary grades were given extra attention (via reading specialists and teacher assistants). Now, it seems that many children are not getting the “extra” time they need. It is definitely easier to remedy this situation when the child is 7, rather than having to enroll in the new reading recovery program, Read 180, in high school.
It seems to me that the Mastery Learning has created a whole new generation of children “left behind”.
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It's just another example how he Hicks is fill of it. All the levels in CP are based on grade level. Your 4th graders example for instance. His teacher would say that he is reading at a 2-2 level. That means second grade, second semester. The forms Unified prints out for us the track (did I use the 'T' word) the students have the grade levels printed on them.
The new MAP testing (which I like) also uses normative data based on grade level. I was trained to explain that a student with x score is performing at the level an average third grader would perform.
So grade levels are all over the place in the realm of teachers and parents. We never explicitly tell the children they are functioning at a certain grade level, but they do know when they are in a lower reading book.
What I would like to know is "When do these children ever get caught up? Do they ever get caught up? Where does this system leave them in terms of graduation and college?"
I assume we will find out in a few years, after the first wave of children who were introduced to CP in elementary school enter high school.
I can tell you know that many never catch up. In fact, the bottom reading groups seem to get bigger year after year. There will be a group of children, about 15-20% of the entire grade who will not get on grade level by year's end.
The children who have known nothing but CP are in fourth or fifth grade depending on when their school implemented. We'll see in middle school next school year.
Can you say Read 180?
As much as the district would like to believe Read 180 (the reading recovery for middle and high schools) is working, I think they are just warehousing these students.
You may disagree with me, but I think if a child cannot read by 3rd grade they are destined to fail.
Were you teaching in the district when we used most of our Title 1 funds to help 1st and 2nd graders get back on track with reading?
Does the district do anything like that now? From what I understand nothing is really done (recovery, retention, etc) for a child until they are at least 2 full years behind.
Is this true?
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