Anonymous wrote:StoneMill, Lakewood, and Travilah all do the pizza or ice cream party for kids doing well and turning in all their packets. It sucks.

So you get the pizza if you turn in a packet, no pizza if you don't turn in the packet? Or is it pizza based on getting a certain score or above? Because the first sounds OK, the second not so much.

StoneMill, Lakewood, and Travilah all do the pizza or ice cream party for kids doing well and turning in all their packets. It sucks.

Anonymous wrote:The principals in clusters of high performing schools (97%+) compete with the other schools to "win" by .1 of a % point. Our principal brags about it and I find it absolutely disgusting. I have no doubt that any teacher who isn't bringing in the test scores that assures Principal X will win over her cluster peers is not going to enjoy being around. The kids who do not do well on the practice tests or finish the MSA packets get excluded from pizza and ice cream parties. The teachers are miserable, the students are unhappy, no one is focusing on creative ways to improve actual education but the principal wins. Its a textbook lesson in behavorial economic incentives.

Really? I find this a little hard to believe. Where is this?

Anonymous wrote:The principals in clusters of high performing schools (97%+) compete with the other schools to "win" by .1 of a % point. Our principal brags about it and I find it absolutely disgusting. I have no doubt that any teacher who isn't bringing in the test scores that assures Principal X will win over her cluster peers is not going to enjoy being around. The kids who do not do well on the practice tests or finish the MSA packets get excluded from pizza and ice cream parties. The teachers are miserable, the students are unhappy, no one is focusing on creative ways to improve actual education but the principal wins. Its a textbook lesson in behavorial economic incentives.

yikes!

The principals in clusters of high performing schools (97%+) compete with the other schools to "win" by .1 of a % point. Our principal brags about it and I find it absolutely disgusting. I have no doubt that any teacher who isn't bringing in the test scores that assures Principal X will win over her cluster peers is not going to enjoy being around. The kids who do not do well on the practice tests or finish the MSA packets get excluded from pizza and ice cream parties. The teachers are miserable, the students are unhappy, no one is focusing on creative ways to improve actual education but the principal wins. Its a textbook lesson in behavorial economic incentives.

I don't see that much time going into MSA prep either. Besides, the things that are tested on the MSAs are things that the kids really need to know, so it's hard for me to see how it's such a big deal for the schools to make sure the kids are proficient.

As far as what OP's child said, it doesn't sound like a message that I've heard from our school. None of my kids are the least bit stressed out about the MSAs and I'm not even sure they realize there is a "pass" rate. However, the teacher might benefit from knowing that her child heard that teacher's jobs depend on the passage rate on the MSA. While they want kids to be prepared and do their best, I don't think the school staff wants kids stressing or worrying about their performance.

1 math and 1 english worksheet and that is it. Our scores are ok but Rockville not Chevy Chase. I am quite happy with that!

Stinks for kids that would perform high anyway and have to sit through prep.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I am just annoying that MSA prep seems to take an hour every day for a month. It would be nice if they put that much effort into social studies or science....

Absolutely!!!

I think it depends on the school. DC's school, which is really high performing, does none. But yes, it stinks for schools that do it.

Our school is high performing-- I think the grades range between 94% and 99% proficiency-- but they are still doing this. Is that something that other high performing schools skip, or are we not as "high performing" as I thought?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I am just annoying that MSA prep seems to take an hour every day for a month. It would be nice if they put that much effort into social studies or science....

Absolutely!!!

I think it depends on the school. DC's school, which is really high performing, does none. But yes, it stinks for schools that do it.

Anonymous wrote:
I am just annoying that MSA prep seems to take an hour every day for a month. It would be nice if they put that much effort into social studies or science....

Absolutely!!!

Some teachers don't know discretion. Also, kids can interpret little things they hear all kinds of ways. I'd let the teacher know how s/he was "misinterpreted", whether or not that was the case, so that they know the pressure being placed (even if it is inadvertently) on the kids.

I would e-mail the teacher with that quote so she can give the class a more realistic view of the test (just to make sure everyone is learning what they need to know etc). If she in fact did put that idea or something similar in their minds, she needs to realize it was innapropriate. But I would take the tact that your child seems to be getting misinformation proabbly from other kids..

That's terrible, but do you know that it's the teacher who said it? It sounds like playground gossip to me, or maybe "telephone". (the old line about "I won't believe what they say about what happened at home if you don't believe what they say happened at school")


I am just annoying that MSA prep seems to take an hour every day for a month. It would be nice if they put that much effort into social studies or science....

DD came home from school yesterday and told me that if half of the class doesn't do well on the MSA test, her teacher will be fired. What type of adult puts this kind of pressure on kids? The MSA, from what I understand, is intended to make sure that the school/teachers are, in fact, teaching. (Yes, probably teaching to the test and all of that.). I think it is outrageous that schools would manipulate kids' feelings in this way an put this type of pressure on them. BTW, this is a very high performing school so the prospect of the kids not hitting the testing benchmarks are minimal.

Thoughts?