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WHO WILL TEST THE TESTMAKERS? A special look at the new standardized testing procedures that impact both students and teachers
Cover Art by Jamie Fung
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The Classic
Contents
Behind the Regents: Take an inside look at new Regents grading practices and the impact they’ve had on Harrisites. Are these policies fair to students, or does the whole process need more transparency? Pages 4-7
Not So Easy A’s: Teacher grading may not be as straightforward as you think. With a new system that ties teacher ratings to test scores, many teachers now must share the same stresses that students feel over standardized exams. Pages 12-15
The Classic is an open forum for the expression of student views. The opinions expressed therein should not be taken to represent those of the administration or faculty, or of the student body as a whole.
We welcome letters to the editor. Townsend Harris High School 149-11 Melbourne Avenue Flushing, NY 11367
CREATED BY THE STUDENTS OF MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM
EST. 1984 The Classic reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and concision.
Nicole Barros, Mahirah Billah, Asmaaul Chowdhury, Sarah Ebbrecht, Jamie Fung, Stephanie Geier, Durell Gill, Stanley Harcharan, Abinash Kaur, Mehr Kaur, Rebecca Kwon, Jason Lalljee, Nina Leeds, Alexa Luciano, Angelika Narewski, Catherine Ng, Fariha Nizam, Emma Noblesala, Zachariah Ooi, Dimitri Perdik, Nijah Phills, Abygail Rampersad, Ekta Rana, Erin Robinson, Rebecca Shi, Daniel Szewczyk, Kasey Wagner, Jennifer Walsh, Stephanie Yeh, and Woo Jung Yi Advisor: Brian Sweeney
April 2015
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REGENTS IRREGULARITIES In 2013, the New York City DOE began requiring high schools to have Regents Exams shipped offsite for grading. Many believed that errors with the new system produced unreliable grades, but have those problems been fixed? BY REBECCA KWON, JASON LALLJEE, ABYGAIL RAMPERSAD, & EKTA RANA
“WHENEVER
you have humans, you have irregularities,” said Rafal Olechowski, Assistant Principal of Humanities. Must this always be the case, or can people overcome this? According to recent statistics on Regents grading, apparently not. In 2013, many felt that the Regents exam scores at THHS, particularly for the English Regents, were unreliable. Though the system seemed fixed after last year’s scores on the English Regents went back to normal, this year seemed to show some similar problems. On the English Regents exam scores for this year’s juniors, who took the exam in January, there was a small discrepancy suggestive of grading errors. In three out of four of English teacher Joseph Canzoneri’s classes, the average grade was in the nineties. In the fourth class, however, only one student received a score of above ninety. While it is normal for Townsend Harris classes to have averages in the nineties on Regents exams, what makes this discrepancy more odd is that Mr. Canzoneri teaches only classes that have qualified for AP-level
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Photo by Adam Sosnicki Copies of the 2014 Algebra 2/Trigonometry Regents still reside in Ms. Brustein’s office. study. “One of the classes seems to have been graded differently,” said Mr. Olechowski. “It’s hard to tell what’s going on, but I’m confident that if the person who graded it just stuck to the rubric strictly, all students would have done better. If it’s only one class, then it’s odd. If there was a consistent pattern then I would say maybe our students did something.” “There was a supervisor assigned to that room who should’ve been more attentive,” he added. This was a small mishap compared to what happened in 2013, At the time, there were about 100 students at THHS whose grades were incongruous. These students received below the mastery level on the June 2013 English Regents, which came as a surprise to students and faculty members. Low grades seemed preposterous to students who excelled in AP-level classes. “The first year (2013) was really a challenge and quite a bit disastrous,” said Principal Anthony
Barbetta. The state implemented the new Regents grading policy to increase the accuracy of grades and prevent grade inflation by prohibiting teachers from grading their own students’ Regents exams. Though many schools in NY state allowed their teachers to continue grading their own schools’ exams (but forbade teachers from personally grading their own students’ exams), the NYC Department of Education (DOE) decided to further prohibit NYC teachers from grading the exams of all students enrolled in their schools, regardless of whether or not they actually taught them. Thus, the Regents exams were shipped out-of-house and NYC teachers had to report to special testing sites to grade the exams. Ironically, after implementing the policy, questions arose about the accuracy of the scores. Mr. Canzoneri referred to the situation in 2013 as a “crazy aberration,” and initiated an appeal by addressing the issue with Mr. Barbetta. The appeal
First administration of Regents as high school end-of-course exam takes place
First administration of Regents as high school entrance exam
7th grade Regents cancelled due to budget cuts; select foreign language exams replaced with locally developed tests First administration of Regents Competency Test (RCT)
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“THE SUPERINTENDENT [CAN THEN] ACCEPT THE
RESCORE OR LEAVE AS IS.” was later denied. The Bureau Chief of the Office of State Assessment, Barbara Willis, said, “For a new score to be given to the student, the superintendent must agree to have it rescored….The superintendent [can then] accept the rescore or leave as is.” “...in some instances, the superintendent must also obtain approval from NYSED,” said Tuba Hasan, from the Office of State Assessment. The exam, or essay in question, is then sent to a group of teachers called an “appeals rescoring committee.” These teachers are content area experts and have special experience with Regents scoring. “During the rescoring process the rescoring committee scores the entire exam and not just the portions where objections were raised,” said Ms. Hasan. “This process can take anywhere from one to four months, and the new score is the final score whether it goes up, down, or remains the same.” Mr. Barbetta said, “The appeal process is very difficult and challenging. You have to appeal it first to the superintendent and it has to be a valid reason not just that Student A, who is used to getting 90s, got a 75. That they will not allow an appeal for. It’s very rare for an appeal.” This appeal process does not help passing students who feel that they received an incorrect grade on their tests. It is for students who wish to pass, but have failed the test more than once. While the eligibility of these students is based on their course grades, for a student who is passing, having course grades that are significantly different from their Regents grades changes nothing. “[The state will] appeal anyone who fails or anyone who needs to graduate and didn’t pass that test to graduate,” explained Mr. Barbetta. Although the chances of getting appeals are slim, it is possible. “We’ve also been successful though in having a test appealed where [the student] did get a low grade,” said Mr. Barbetta. “For some reason
they took that one so it all depends on how many appeal and what they believe is worthy enough. It’s unfortunate that we don’t get to see the test.” They had to take the test to Francis Lewis High School for reviewing, and the student then went from failing to passing the exam. However, Ms. Hasan notes that students and parents should be cautious about appealing their Regents scores “as it is possible that an original score goes down and the final score is not in the student’s favor.” “It is in a student’s best interest to exercise caution and sit for the exam again in an upcoming administration if they seek a higher score, instead of appealing a passing score,” she added. This same process applies to the rescoring of questionable but not necessarily failing exam scores. Prior to 2013, there was no need for appeals as the tests were graded in-house. During the first year of the new Regents grading policy, alumna Stephanie Loo, Class of 2014, scored below mastery. She found her score was an unfair measure of her capabilities as a reader, writer, and thinker. She was confident before and after the exam. However, when she received her grade, she was surprised. She recalled, “It wasn’t that I was upset about the grade itself but I thought back to the exam and couldn’t even wrap my head around how I had scored that low. Maybe I had gotten one or two questions wrong but I didn’t think that my efforts deserved an 80.” A good handful of students in her grade faced the same shock. Eventually, Stephanie took the exam again in her senior year despite fearing that she forgot everything she learned. Her second attempt received a score of 100. Although she thought both exams were fair and felt fairly confident about them, one score showed that she did not achieve the level of mastery while the other proved that she did. According to the School Administrator’s Manual, students and their parents have the right to review
Students are required to take all 5 Regents exams with passing grades and get a Regents dimploma in order to graduate Reduction of administered tests; all foreign language Regents eliminated
Select Regents exams changed to reflect the Common Core Standards.
Teachers in New York State banned from grading their own students’ standardized tests.
April 2015 grading inconsistencies occurred because of a lack of qualified graders or lack of good effort. Ms. Willis, stated, “If the scoring process for each subject is followed according to the directions and scoring protocols for each subject, then the scoring process is very fair.” However, due to various factors, it’s not always guaranteed that teachers will grade precisely according to the rubric. Social Studies teacher Charlene Levi, who grades the History Regents, found that at the testing center, there is a sense of accountability but only to a certain extent. She said that with so many papers to grade it’s only natural that graders, including herself, lose focus at times. The grading is set up so that each essay is graded by two teachers under the supervision of content trainers. When the other teacher graded a test also scored by Ms. Levi, they found that the margin of difference between the grades was distinct. She realized she gave a score of two to a paper that deserved a five. She said, “If he wasn’t there to stop me, I wouldn’t have taken that break that I needed and I would have given low grades, which is unfair for the students.” Mr. Canzoneri doesn’t agree with the reasoning behind the new grading policy. He said, “I think [the DOE] should trust us. If they could trust us to have students in school all year long and give students grades to go on their permanent records, why won’t they just trust us to grade a standardized exam?” Mr. Barbetta said, “I’m not terribly crazy about the system....But [the state has] gotten their act together and it is a better process than before. But I still like and prefer the old system.”
Photo by Adam Sosnicki
the students’ answer papers after they’ve been scored and the grades recorded on their permanent records in the presence of the principal or a designee. “After scoring is completed at Regents scoring sites, all exam materials are returned to schools,” explained Ms. Hasan. “Upon receipt, schools review this material before storing it according to NY State Education Department (NYSED) guidelines.” “Schools have to keep all answers to exams in school for one year,” added Ms. Wallis. “Parents and students are certainly allowed to go to the principal and ask to see the answers and to ask for a copy of the exam and answer sheet to take home. Many students do this so they know what they missed. Exams are not sent with the scores because it is summer and most students have left the buildings and the school has to keep them on file as I said.” Copies of these testing materials can be given to the parent or student during that year, but the original exam must remain in school. Regarding why students cannot automatically see their graded exams with their scores, Mr. Barbetta said, “I just think that -again I don’t know these are my own personal beliefs- that there are thousands upon thousands tests and if they had to give them back to the kids, and try to get them back from the kids because they have to keep it on record for the year, it just seems like a paper nightmare.” Mr. Canzoneri feels that “as long as there is proper training...theoretically you should get reliable results. But the data suggests that there is a problem somewhere. There are inconsistencies in the grading and it’s not right.” He wasn’t sure if the
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NOT SO EA
ASY A
April 2015
How the test-taking bureaucracy affects teachers at THHS BY STEPHANIE GEIER, NINA LEEDS & JENNIFER WALSH
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Although students often complain about testing, they’re not the only ones who must worry about grades. Two years ago, the Department of Education (DOE) instituted a new teacher evaluation system for NYC public schools. This system bases 60% of a teacher’s evaluation on class observations and 40% on students’ scores on local and state-produced tests. Because of the latter, it has become tougher for teachers, especially in non-core subject areas, to earn perfect marks. Since there are no standardized examinations for non-core subjects such as languages, art, music, and physical education, the evaluations of these subject teachers must be partially based on students’ scores on standardized assessments for core subjects. In other words, 40% of non-core subject teachers’ evaluations are based on student comprehension of subjects they don’t teach. “So the new evaluation system provides for multiple measures, which is good,” said the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) Representative for Queens High Schools, James Vasquez. “[The problem] becomes that, yes, we have some of those problems
Regents constitute all 40% since the state allowed THHS to use them for both the state and local test components. “We felt it would be consistent to have one test for non-major subject teachers,” explained Principal Anthony Barbetta. Thus, at THHS, 40% of a language, gym, or arts teacher’s evaluation grade is determined by student performance on the English Regents. Mr. Vasquez explained that the issue lies in the local assessment-based 20%, since schools have a greater say in that portion and since state assessments provide a measure for holistic school improvement that he feels is appropriate for a small portion of the evaluation. In essence, the problem is that, for the most part, the local assessments just don’t exist. “The problem we have with the system we have now is that the local 20% doesn’t provide...for other forms of measurement,” he explained. “So yes, right now the way the system stands, it is a problem... We actually have a committee who’s looking at another type of measurement for the local 20%. So if we can find a way to be able to get the kind of measurement for the local 20%, different than just the simple test score, then that would be a good fit.” In June 2013, the DOE said that it would gradually develop assessments for non-core subjects. They claimed that these assessments would be more rigorous than normal standardized tests, with a greater emphasis on creative thinking. However, they have not announced a timeline for such
N I D E U L A V L E H E T F E H O T T D N R O A U H O Y E “IT’S T A U L A V E where we don’t have direct links for each of the teachers. So, we have tried to negotiate with the city of NY...different ways of having those measures.” Of the 40%, 20% must be from scores on state assessments such as Regents exams, while the other 20% must come from local exams such as the NYC ELA Performance Assessment. Freshmen, sophomores, and seniors at Townsend Harris took the latter exam in fall 2013, which THHS teachers graded. This year, however, scores on the English
implementation. Mr. Vasquez said that with the new UFT contract last year came the “ability to be able to look at possible other measurements [for evaluating teachers].” There is currently a committee dedicated to exploring these other “assessment tools” for non-core areas. “I think what we’ve seen throughout the state of NY every year, we might tweak [the evaluation system] a little bit... to make it a little bit more fair...and I think that’s what we’re going to end up doing in the future,” Mr. Vasquez added. “But what we don’t want is it to be just one size fits all. We don’t want it to be
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Mr. Connor grades examinations at his desk. Photo by Nicole Barros based on a simple test score.” The new system’s lack of accommodation has frustrated many teachers. Physical Education and Health teacher Maria Assante said, “I hate [the current evaluation method]. How would an ELA teacher like
Principal of Humanities Rafal Olechowski believes that this isn’t necessarily the case. “I think at other schools it’s really unfair because let’s say you’re teaching Physical
O T S E S U F E R ” . T H A C H A T E T M E Y T L S L Y A S U T A C N A U O Y S G N I H
to be graded based on how our kids did on the FitnessGram? I don’t see how it correlates.” She feels that teachers should be graded solely on what they teach, since some students might be doing well in one English teacher’s class but not another’s. Classical Languages teacher Jonathan Owens agreed. “In the abstract I think it’s pretty dumb,” he said. “If I taught at a school that wasn’t doing so well with English...and I had the best students who were taking Latin...but the rest of the school was somewhat weak and they all failed their English Regents...even if I taught very well, my evaluation would be lower, and that’s messed up.” While there is the argument that the policy encourages cooperation between teachers of all subjects for the common goal of literacy, Assistant
Education. Sure you can assign a project here and there, an essay, but honestly, I’m not sure to what degree that’s going to bring up the literacy levels that are measurable on their Regents exams,” he explained. Though the policy makes little sense to teachers at THHS, in reality, it does not necessarily endanger teachers given that students at THHS consistently score high on the English Regents. “At THHS, [the policy] works beautifully...it’s going to reflect well on me,” Mr. Owens said. Social Studies teacher Franco Scardino, who currently handles UFT business at THHS, added that since THHS has a “high mastery rate [for the English Regents], teachers do not have much to worry about, but in other schools this clearly may not be the case.” “I’m surprised there isn’t more outcry from some of the other schools,” said Mr. Barbetta. The effects of this system are apparent for Tara
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“60% OF A TEACHER’S EVALUATION [IS BASED] ON CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS AND 40% ON LOCAL AND STATE-PRODUCED TESTS.” Brancato’s predicament, watching their rating move from highly effective to effective once test score ratings were factored in. This may be because teachers are not just rated on how well they do, but how well students do in relation to other factors. “It’s hard to feel valued in a system that refuses to evaluate you on the things you actually teach,” Ms. Brancato said in an email interview. “And it’s a problem in virtually every school. ...All schools have some teachers whose classes don’t culminate in a state exam.” However, Mr. Vasquez feels that this hasn’t been a prominent issue even at low-performing high schools because the evaluation system emphasizes student growth rather than just simple test scores. He added that, out of the four evaluation options, most teachers fall into the middle of these options. “Because [most teachers] are in the middle, I don’t think there’s too much of a concern about people who are ‘highly effective’ falling into ‘effective,’” he explained. “Obviously it’s a concern if teachers were ‘effective’ and [after factoring in] test scores they went to ‘ineffective’.” However, if this was the case, the UFT mitigates the consequences as much as possible with the DOE, with no guarantees. For instance, if a principal felt that a teacher should be rated ‘highly effective,’ but after factoring in test scores the teacher’s rating was bumped to ‘ineffective’, they look at the case “as a unique problem.” “There have been very few of those cases,” he said. Before the state altered the teacher evaluation system, teachers were rated as “satisfactory” or
“unsatisfactory” based solely on classroom observations. As of last school year, however, teachers are now rated “highly effective,” “effective,” “developing,” or “ineffective,” with receiving an “ineffective” rating twice in a row leading to possible termination or other disciplinary action. Teachers rated “developing” must work closely with their principals to set goals and improve performance. Some school districts evaluate teachers of noncore subjects differently. According to Mr. Barbetta, some schools decided to use students’ grades on all five Regents exams. “Many other districts have created their form of an assessment,” he added. “In suburban school districts, many but not all Physical Education teachers are evaluated based on a Physical Education test that was developed by the district.” But there would be cons to developing new assessments. “What the state’s probably going to want to do is have a test for each subject, which would take up so much time in the school year, every subject having a test that you’d have to be evaluated; what learning would actually happen?” said Mr. Owens. “And...if I know my job depends on how well students do on a test, I’m going to teach to that test, and that’s it.” Mr. Vasquez added that the UFT would like to see teachers have the “option to use a different form of assessment” for the local 20%. “I don’t think it’s necessary for it to be a test,” he said. Ms. Brancato has similar ideas. She proposed, “What I’d like to see the state do is allow us to design assessments for our classes, or allow students to turn in portfolios of their work for assessment.” Her school is part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) world schools network, so her students submit a portfolio to IB after their four years, which they’re then graded on. “But if that’s not feasible for every school or every class, using student surveys would be helpful,” she said. “Letting students have a voice and say whether or not their teachers are effective would probably give us a pretty good idea how our teachers are performing.” She added that Washington D.C. uses these methods, and teachers there are satisfied with the system. Chancellor Carmen Farina supports the current teacher evaluation system for having “four, much more nuanced ratings, instead of only two,” which helps “identify and provide specific support to struggling teachers, as well as identify those who do not belong in the classroom.” She added that she looks forward to “continuing to collaborate with the State, and our principals and teachers, to ensure our principal and teacher development and evaluation system raises the quality of schools across our City.”
April 2015
introducing
TOWNSEND’S CLASS
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IN 2014, STEPHANIE LOO, a senior at the time, created a Facebook page entitled “Introducing Townsend’s Class of 2014,” dedicated to capturing the anecdotes, farewells, and words of wisdom from the year’s graduating class. Seniors Yash Sharma and Kari Iocolano duplicated the page with the graduating class of 2015 as an independent project, and we’ve spotlighted one of their looks at a member of their graduating class.
“Life is hard. It doesn’t matter if how much money you have, the color of your skin, your sex, gender, parents, reputation, none of that stuff matters. Everyone has problems, and that’s life. Some people have harder problems than others, but that too, is life. And yet, you gotta love it. You went through a bunch of crap, you’ll go through some more crap, but you gotta love life, you gotta love yourself, and you gotta love others. Your struggles and your obstacles and your reactions and your mistakes and what you learn from them make you who you are.” -Kadeem Finlater Check out more at: www.facebook.com/townsendclassof2015 Photo and content courtesy of Kari Iocolano and Yash Sharma
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