Accountability Essay(Preferably a teacher)

I teach at a middle school in small charter school system in the metro area. Last year

was my first year teaching there, and I quickly realized how critical standardized test results

are, when the superintendent denied my step-daughter’s hardship application due to her

low CRCT scores. The fact that I was a teacher in their district and her guardian did not

suffice. It was then later confided to me by my school’s assistant principal that the system

was very cautious in allowing low performing students under the employee hardship

process. The system itself has a very diverse and challenging student population, and they

are very conservative and cautious with their resources.

The most important standardized assessment at my school is the CRCT followed by the

Georgia 8 th

Grade Writing Assessment and lastly, the IOWA. Currently, this school year my

school was identified as a Focus School due to the results of certain student subgroups’

performances on the Math and Reading Language Arts portion of the CRCT. The

instructional planning and class scheduling are all centered on the provisions of additional

support and remedial classes for these groups. Students are also placed in after school

tutorial sessions, as well as a “Math Camp” during Spring Break. The school has also

employed a “Math Coach” to give small group instruction to students and to model

effective teaching strategies to the math teachers. Students’ reading skills are measured

three times during the school year. Remediation classes and language arts labs are held in

order to support students who are reading below grade level. In the fall, a mock writing

assessment is administered to the 7 th

and 8 th

grade students as practice and preparation. In

addition, there is a separate room in the building that is designed as the “Data Room”. In

this room, there are charts that display the progress of the student subgroup performances

on the previous CRCT tests, and the RTI process updates. During our monthly faculty

meeting, teachers are informed about the RTI status of students and the intervention

strategies in place. Parents are well informed about their child’s potential to perform on

the CRCT. During our parent conference week in the fall, students are given copies of their

child’s reading grade level measurements and current math performance/abilities, and are

informed on the instructional support they are receiving and how they can assist their child

at home to prepare for the CRCT.

My school did not meet AYP for the 2010-2011 school years, but did meet AYP in the

previous 2008-2010 school years. The academic performances of the subgroups of Student

with Disabilities and ELL students on the CRCT Math and Reading Language Arts disallowed

meeting AYP. The CCRPI score is 79.5, and I am not sure if this is a good score or not yet,

though I have seen lower scores, and I am still trying to understand the factorization of the

CCRPI measurements. I did observe, however, that the performance score for the ELL and

SWD subgroups is still a low 3.9 score using this new measurement. According to the state

guidelines, there is still much progress needed in the academic performances these two

subgroups.

The school climate is not any different from any of the other middle schools in Georgia

under pressure to perform on the CRCT. The stress level was very high prior to and during

the week of CRCT testing. Both students and teachers were anxious and displayed a lot of

tension under the pressure to perform and administer the CRCT accurately and with no

unreported irregularities. Several students cried or fought during those weeks, unable to

cope with the level of stress and anxiety on their own. And even though I teach Spanish, I

administered the CRCT to my homeroom students and felt very anxious during testing days.

The Math CRCT testing day was perhaps the most stressful day since most students seemed

very anxious about taking it. One of my students was so anxious and nervous that she did

not follow directions and I had to record the irregularity which eventually voided her score.

At the end of the testing window, I was just as happy and relieved as the students that CRCT

testing was finally over. But our relief was very brief, because then we were informed that

we were administering the IOWA assessment the following week. By the second week of

May, our students were experiencing “testing exhaustion”.

The school climate of my school thrives on the drive and pressure for our students to

perform on the CRCT. Some teachers are uplifted, while some teachers may feel repressed

or even threatened by this type of pressure. School accountability sets the tone for a

school’s climate and the morale of its teachers and students. However, when the 8 th

Grade

Writing Assessment and the CRCT scores were received, it was a very special moment to

experience the joy in the faces of those students that “met” or “exceeded” the standards.

Standardized assessments are part of our educational journey, and though I myself

performed poorly on the SAT when I was in high school, I knew that that score did not

justify who I was as a student, how effective my teachers were or how accountable my

school was in educating its students.