OK, Those posting are correct about the TPM. However, you are totally missing the point. The number one reason the district was Unacceptable last school year was because of Memorial's completion rate, or lack thereof. That is the single most important change this year that affected our rating.

We worked very hard to get kids to school and keep them there. While I agree that TPM is a joke, how dare you downplay the hard work we've done to change the single factor that made the district unacceptable last year. It is typical of this particular group of commentators to use their "black-tinted" glasses to take away any sense of accomplishment through our hard work

Edith, you don't know anything. Quit complaining about everything, roll up your sleeves and dig in - in a manner other than standing on the sidelines, complaining.

I think the article that mentioned VISD got the most comments because it was in the breaking news at some point or maybe there are more people in Victoria. The comments that mentioned how the formula had been tweaked weren't negative, to me, just matter of fact.

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/...

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/...

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/...

I didn't even see the other articles.

i fight everyday with clients, but that's my job.

just curious why the visd article is the only one that gets all the negative comments. i didn't see anyone running down the other local isd's.

Robert, wanna fight?

and the nay sayers lay quiet

Way to go tstorm....I love the "you can't handle the truth". Why blame VISD for following rules for testing and ranks that the state set up? You are upset with all the tests.....so are we the TEACHERS !!!! Don't gripe at Bob Moore about it, contact TEA, our state representatives and state senators. These people who sit in Austin ( and Washington DC) and tell us what we have to do to keep our jobs and then you locals who want to gripe about every little thing come in and tell us you don't like the way we do it.
If you are not gonna be a part of the solutionm, then quit stirring things up and making the problem worse.
The teachers of VISD know this is only a small step and that we cannot rest on our laurels. Each year is a new group of students with new baggage that too many parents have settled them with without giving them the tools to unpack. As teachers, too often we have to address the baggage issues before we cannot truly begin the academics.
You want to help, look at the schools with the lowest levels. Contact that school and ask what you can do to help whether it be timewise, financially whatever. There are hundreds of students who need 30 minutes of tutoring. Someone to read with them, help them "catch up" because the only thing they've had it home to do is an x-box 360 or an "older" sibling (10 or 11 years old) raising them since they were 1 because mom/dad has to work.
Before you gripe so much...get out there in the trenches and see what is really going on. That also goes for VISD administration who have a tendency to make decisions that affect every campus with out considering the individual needs of each campus. We are not all equal but we do want to be treated fairly.

We've seen what we can do when teachers, staff and students work hard together. Imagine what we could do, how much farther we could go, if we could just get the community to join in and stand behind us...

Last year we took a hit because of the completion rate in the economically disadvantaged group. We went from 67.4% last year to 84.5% this year for that particular group. We jumped from 78.5% to 84.9% completion over all. The teachers, the staff, and the students pulled together and worked our butts off! You people can pooh-pooh it all you want. But in my opinion, that is SUCCESS! We did it, forget what all the negative people say. "Great job!" to all my fellow teachers and staff, and to the students! And congratulations on our "recognized" status. We have to keep it going now. Let's keep climbing upward :)

Breeding ground for predatory teachers, eh? This oughtta be a real hit around the faculty mailboxes.

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and surprise, surprise

the articles about the calhoun county isd, nursery isd and industrial isd are void of negative comments running their status into the mud.

so, so, so predictable of the people in this area

Tx Board of Edu is gonna run themselves out. It is nice to bell curve results. Predicition of a 3yr span will be ok since the election is coming up. All isd's used the same method of accountablility. Now lets get them to stay in school.

So many kids cant perform well on ACT,SAT or THEA. Then community colleges have class after class on remedail courses. Students cant score good enough on preplacement testing.

I can change a error to a hit and it looks good on paper. But when the kid has to do the task at a performance camp they cant because the numbers dont match their profile. I think I'll be 6'6'' tomorrow.

and fyi, my college engineering program had an all inclusive test your sr year.

2 to 4 questions / problems from your core engineering degree and your elective engineering courses. It was used as a prep for the PE exam and to makes sure they weren't graduating a idiot.

% of engineering students passing the PE exam is also used for accreditation of engineering programs.

of course colleges are graded on their testing. you must PASS your tests to become a graduate of a college. those college graduates then move into the workforce and represent their different schools and depts.

graduating within 4 years of enrolling is a very important stat for colleges and universities. this stat also reflects who's passing their tests and who isn't.

im guessing you've never had a piss poor professor. no better feeling than a professor who talks one subject for 3 weeks, then goes a whole other direction for the tests.

I have this theory, based on ignorance, that we are force-evolving ourselves from "man-thinking" to "man-parroting." Alfie Kohn's quote reminds me that THINKING is more important than memorizing or spitting back. I also like to remember that getting something wrong shouldn't define you - it should be an opportunity to learn.

"If the results aren't used to tweak that individual child's instruction, what's the point? "

Exactly what I meant in one sentence.

Who knows what I meant. When I get that way just ignore me. I guess I've learned that there are more superior ways of demonstrating knowledge or skill. There is more to a child than a test score. A teacher is more than the average of her students' test scores, a school is more than... Tests can be a wonderful tool, but they are abused. If the results aren't used to tweak that individual child's instruction, what's the point? I'm ignorant and full of opinion, remember that. ;)

I understand what Rebecca means I think.

My take on standardized testing is that the results award or punish a school or a district as a whole. Not every student learns at the same pace, the teaching to the lowest denominator argument.

Way back when at William Offer Elementary we took a test near the end of every year, a achievement test, that test did not count toward our grades, it was a measure of how much we learned from year to year. The results of the achievement test where used for class placement the following year.

Unlike today, where students that are behind their peers and students that excel are placed in the same class room, they where divided.

Was it right? Who knows, but it afforded the better students the opportunity to further their education and also afforded the students that where behind to learn in a situation where they had the chance to catch up, instead of giving up because they where behind their class mates.

Robert, yeah, but, if I failed it was my own fault and NOT the fault of my professor. My professor wasn't to blame for my test scores. Are exam results used to grade universities? Can you imagine what would happen to higher education if that were the case? No one said a test was bad, but using a test to measure what a child doesn't know, or using it to determine a teacher's performance, or to assess the quality of a school is - not logical.

how do you think you're graded in college ?

testing

well, some colleges still give out grades instead of pass/fail grades

Sorry, my comments didn't really go with the article but instead they addressed the comments. D=

"Be the change!"

::fist in air::

I hate our dependence on short-answer high-stakes testing and I hate our obsession with constantly monitoring and comparing our students and teachers using the most inadequate of measurements.

"One way to judge teaching quality: the proportion of questions the teacher asks that don't have a single right answer." Kohn

I have that hanging on my refrigerator to remind me not to focus on the lower level thinking skills. We have an educational culture that is placing more and more emphasis on lower level thinking skills and taking more and more clout away from the people who know and are educated to help children learn.

Is education being reduced to training kids to be good test takers? Are teachers being reduced to that of test-prep coach?

That's what we accept?

1. True
2. Mostly true
3. I disagree
4. True
5. False
6. True
7. tstorm alludes to everything’s perfect at West.
8. From what I see, I’ll disagree
9. Somewhat true
10. I did. And it does. And if you had bothered to READ the first article I cited, it was about the false EXEMPLARY rating schools across Texas received. As to the RECOGNIZED rating, I can assure you Moore was all over folks to get those scores up. And they did. The ACTUAL scores. Not the PREDICTED scores. A tangible measurement, not a guess. Again, I don’t have to like Moore to like the district.

You have a good day. Work on some pep rally plans—you know East is!

Remember that thread domination comment during football season, will ya?

Well, it is now completely clear to me that you have missed very nearly every point I’ve tried to make. You are so busy trying to climb farther up what ever you’re climbing that you have become blinded. I guess I am really not surprised.

Just because I do not always agree with VISD decisions does not mean I do not support the teachers and the students. My children attended VISD. I have many friends and relatives who teach in VISD. I do not have to like Bob Moore and his decisions to like the district. I obviously care about VISD a great deal, or I wouldn’t waste my time farting with folks like you!

From much of what you have posted, I gather you are one who employs ‘black and white’ thinking. ‘It’ either ‘is’, or ‘it’ ‘isn’t’. For you, if someone dislikes one part of the whole, then they must dislike the whole, too. If I held that same thinking, I would dislike ALL the posters on the forum, not just the ones who are narrow minded and stubborn and refuse to believe there could be another valid viewpoint.

And, for the record—I am not the only person on this thread who shares my view. I’m singled out, why? Because YOU can’t handle the truth!

Edith Ann: tstorm, did you answer the question?
tstorm: Question? I didn’t see a question.
Edith Ann: tstorm, did you answer the question?
tstorm: No, ma’am, I didn’t.
Edith Ann: Why not? It’s an easy question, isn’t it?
tstorm: Because to answer it honestly would require me to adjust my thinking.
Edith Ann: To adjust your thinking?
tstorm: Yes. I would have to come back to reality, and I am enjoying denial too much to do that.
Edith Ann: So you feel safer there?
tstorm: Yes.
Edith Ann: How’s your unicorn?
tstorm: Fine, ma’am, just fine.

I love Weird Al.

tstorm--Just answer this question-

Why do you refuse to accept any truthful information about VISD when it is of a negative nature, even when presented with the facts?

NOTHING is completely perfect. This is a state-wide issue; it is not just VISD, but VISD is where I live; the other schools don't affect me.

It is neither realistic nor logical for you to continue to insist that all is perfect Get a grip man! To continue to deny reality is not congruent with good mental functioning.

Take school ratings with a grain of salt

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/m...

How schools get credit for a TAKS zero

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/m...

Lies, damn lies and magic statistics

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/m...

Hochberg unmasks TEA’s controversial rule

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/m...

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tstorm—you think Bob Moore’s salary is $35,000.00? Now, that is priceless!

anxious—you’re getting it. Perry is tired of Texas coming at the bottom and it’s an election year. This is statewide.

Rebecca—go ahead, indulge. Students are overtested.

bighorn—kids didn’t even have to sit in the new desks to have a great outcome, did they? Or is this a reflection of the Morrison Commission on Education? Hmmm...

This is one place our state government can monkey with the numbers. When they figure how to manipulate stuff like teen birth rates by predicting that in a few years the numbers will be lower or jiggle the figures on children with medical coverage by predicting that all children will be covered at some point, those outcomes will rise, too.

It would benefit some to read more than the sports section and the online forum of the Advocate for their news so they can have the benefit of several perspectives on any issue. It’s a big ol’ world out there. Not everyone who wants the bigger picture is bitter and angry, but I suspect some who can’t defend their position for a lack of facts might be exactly that—bitter and angry.

What a SCREW UP! This wasn't supposed to happen until next year when Moore could claim all the NEW buildings were responsible and justify his raping of the Disticts Taxpayers!

IF we needed all the Schools to get our kids educated properly, doesn't this event PROVE that our facilities were fine as they are. Excuse me, were.

This is where I would usually come in and gripe about our obsession with testing. I'm going to deny myself that pleasure.

so are the nay sayers going to go run down the other local districts that achieved recognized and exemplary status ?

or just visd ?

funny how they pick and choose

Reminds me of an Indiana Jones movie:

Indiana: Here, take this,
[hands Marion a torch]
Indiana: Wave it at anything that slithers.
Marion: The whole place is slitherin'!

It seems that all districts are getting a higher rating, now that Texas is curving the tests. It was on Houston News tonight. Same thing happening across the state. Majically, all districts are ranking higher.

tstorm—

What took you so long? Were you busy cleaning your rose colored glasses, feeding your unicorns or trying to un-wedge yourself back out from that warm and cozy little spot you are often found in?

From another article in the Victoria Advocate:

“The Texas Projection Measure uses a complex formula to predict whether a failing student will pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in the future. The campus or district then receives extra credit on their ratings based on those estimates.”

"The state has always had some kind of method for, I guess, cooking the books," said Bloomington superintendent Brad Williams.”

"I just think it creates these false passing scores," said Moulton superintendent Michael Novotny. His district would have been rated recognized, but with the rating was pushed to exemplary.”

These administrators came out better with the new funky math and STILL are calling foul on the process! What is sad is that you have a problem with reality not matching up with your fantasy world. But for the grownups that live in the real world, some of us like the truth. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the real world worked the way this Texas Projection Measure does? We’d all be able to predict that one day you will finally wake up and step into the real world.

tstorm, you just keep fighting the good fight. Over there in your little Warrior World, fiction rules because you don’t like to hear the truth. I doubt that you even read the article. That’s fine, you can ask the football coach to explain it to you.

"Huddle Up Warriors ‘cause ignorance is bliss!"~~tstorm

Read this and decide for yourself as to the validity of the rating.

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-edu...

"Since the 2008 ratings, the number of schools ranked "exemplary" has ballooned from 1,000 to 2,624." Think 1624 schools improved to exemplary just on TAKS scores?

Awesome!!! Do not relax. Demand and expect excellence.