Last year's Third Grade at Janney. 30 kids in a class = only 53% proficient in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares? It is just a test.

I care because I'm a parent and a tax payer. I don't personally care about test scores, per se, but the District government roped our families and our children into this test, which many declare as worthless. This test required tons of instruction time to prep for. This test cost our city coffers millions....millions that could be spent on other education-related expenses.

If your child did well, why do you care about the overall? I am not a fan of standardized tests. It is a very small piece of a overall picture. I heard about the mega class last year at Janney from friends, who dismissed the year as a waste and a loss.

So you prescribe to the "I gots mine!" philosophy. Cool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Caucasian kids overall at Hearst destroyed the test last year. 86% at 4+ for ELA and 89% at 4+ for math. Can't breakdown by class because the classes are so small. Big gains for the other populations there too. Great job owls! No substitute for small class sizes.

Uh, except the results for the only other race breakout at Hearst (AA) are horribly disparate from the white students. I find that concerning when other schools in the area seem to do significantly better with the achievement gap between races.

Uh, but you are not factoring SES into your analysis. Hearst is much more diverse in that metric than JKLMM. That's what makes the upward AA swing even more impressive and outpaces the city overall.

Half the JKLMM schools don't even report on other than white students since they have so few of them, so yes, my analysis did include more diverse schools.

Take Eaton for example which has a significant OOB population like Hearst. The achievement gap is no where near as stark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably has to do with the difficulty of the 3rd grade test last year. I don't remember 3rd grade being lower the year before.

Then why did 3rd graders at Mann score at 85%? And Janney only managed 53%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it makes you feel better, Lafayette had 20 kids in a class and still only 53% tested proficient in English.

I don't get it.

your kids are in that school. Are they learning a lot and thriving academically? If so the test is flawed!

How do you know if they are thriving when the test results are so low?

You know your kids and your kids friends and classmates. what are they reading? what is their vocabulary? Come on. Some human beings made up a test and now it is THE thing that can tell you whether your child is thriving in ELA? You know your kids and their classmates. You are in the classroom and you have talked to other patents. YOU know.

[Anonymous]

My third grader (not at Janney) last year reported computer problems when taking the test, such as laboriously-typed out answers being deleted when the "next" button was pushed.
I also think that typing out ELA answers on a computer is a difficult shift from the way the kids have learned writing until that point: pen on paper.
Problems with the test-taking, in other words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Caucasian kids overall at Hearst destroyed the test last year. 86% at 4+ for ELA and 89% at 4+ for math. Can't breakdown by class because the classes are so small. Big gains for the other populations there too. Great job owls! No substitute for small class sizes.

Uh, except the results for the only other race breakout at Hearst (AA) are horribly disparate from the white students. I find that concerning when other schools in the area seem to do significantly better with the achievement gap between races.

Uh, but you are not factoring SES into your analysis. Hearst is much more diverse in that metric than JKLMM. That's what makes the upward AA swing even more impressive and outpaces the city overall.

Half the JKLMM schools don't even report on other than white students since they have so few of them, so yes, my analysis did include more diverse schools.

Take Eaton for example which has a significant OOB population like Hearst. The achievement gap is no where near as stark.

And Stoddert!

[Anonymous]

I had a third grade at Janney and there weren't any computer issues during this test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My third grader (not at Janney) last year reported computer problems when taking the test, such as laboriously-typed out answers being deleted when the "next" button was pushed.
I also think that typing out ELA answers on a computer is a difficult shift from the way the kids have learned writing until that point: pen on paper.
Problems with the test-taking, in other words.

If this is the case, why were 3rd graders at Key and Mann able to figure out the test and perform well but 3rd graders at Janney were not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My third grader (not at Janney) last year reported computer problems when taking the test, such as laboriously-typed out answers being deleted when the "next" button was pushed.
I also think that typing out ELA answers on a computer is a difficult shift from the way the kids have learned writing until that point: pen on paper.
Problems with the test-taking, in other words.

no doubt. add a large school with time pressure to complete within the window. the test administration is a disaster across the board.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the 3rd graders at those schools were just a dumb group?

[Anonymous]

Except last year's 3rd graders didn't have a problem.

Also schools had a chance to report testing anomalies - and appeal scores on that basis this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My third grader (not at Janney) last year reported computer problems when taking the test, such as laboriously-typed out answers being deleted when the "next" button was pushed.
I also think that typing out ELA answers on a computer is a difficult shift from the way the kids have learned writing until that point: pen on paper.
Problems with the test-taking, in other words.

If this is the case, why were 3rd graders at Key and Mann able to figure out the test and perform well but 3rd graders at Janney were not?

Perhaps they had more practice throughout the year.

[Anonymous]

To be fair, all schools showed lower scores for the writing subsection. Janney and Lafayette subscores were high in the other sections -- they just really bombed the writing/typing part. I'm not sure how that part is graded, but they may now be forced to teach to the grading metric.

[Anonymous]

ugh, after just spending 1.4 on a home IB for Janney I have to say I am having 2nd thoughts. My wife and I want to be part of the resurgence of DC public schools but if they can't do better at one of their flag ship schools it leaves me with little faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ugh, after just spending 1.4 on a home IB for Janney I have to say I am having 2nd thoughts. My wife and I want to be part of the resurgence of DC public schools but if they can't do better at one of their flag ship schools it leaves me with little faith.

Oh for god's sake. Head over to the Montgomery county school scores... Janney beats most of those elementary schools.

Chilax, or apply to Sidwell.