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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2007-08-10

CSAP Impressions, part III 

Last night I mentioned that charter schools are able to work around things like district curricula, especially if said curricula may not work. Tonight, I am going to elaborate.

Jefferson County Public Schools went to great lengths and expense to purchase, and to then train their teachers to use, a new math curriculum called Math Investigations (with its 6th grade companion "Connected Math" and upper grade equivalents). This is supposed to be te next great thing. It was piloted in a handful of schools during the 05-06 school year, and then implemented across most of the district in 06-07.

Disclosure: I only know all this because I spent many hours with my daughter this year helping her get a grip on this program.

Did it work?

Here are the Math CSAP scores for 15 of the schools in the northwest part of Jefferson County Public Schools who have adopted Math Investigations. Once again, scores are presented in cohort-groups, (2006 score, 2007 score, progress) with the key number being the +/- at the end of each grade.

Allendale
4th grade 54 46 -8
5th grade 64 39 -25
6th grade 41 40 -1

Campbell
4th grade 67 43 -24
5th grade 65 68 +3
6th grade 57 65 +8

Fairmount
4th grade 77 85 +8
5th grade 80 76 -4
6th grade 85 85 --

Fitzmorris
4th grade 64 45 -19
5th grade 60 59 -1
6th grade 55 72 +17
Foster
4th grade 33 57 +24
5th grade 48 34 -14
6th grade 16 40 +24
Fremont

4th grade 63 60 -3
5th grade 77 66 -11
6th grade 86 71 -15

Hackberry Hill
4th grade 78 81 +3
5th grade 86 77 -9
6th grade 66 69 +3

Little
4th grade 55 81 +26
5th grade 65 56 -9
6th grade 58 58 --

Parr
4th grade 60 60 --
5th grade 69 53 -16
6th grade 55 63 +8

Sierra
4th grade 84 86 +2
5th grade 82 74 -8
6th grade 84 81 -3

Stott
4th grade 70 86 +16
5th grade 77 70 -7
6th grade 58 50 -8

Vanderhoof
4th grade 88 71 -17
5th grade 71 85 +14
6th grade 87 83 -4

Van Arsdale
4th grade 89 82 -7
5th grade 86 76 -10
6th grade 80 75 -5

Weber
4th grade 33 57 +24
5th grade 48 34 -14
6th grade 16 40 +24

West Woods
4th grade 98 93 -5
5th grade 92 83 -9
6th grade 81 86 +5


So, there you have it. 45 assessment groups, 16 demonstrated improvement, 26 showed regression, and 3 broke even.

The question you have to ask yourself, if you are paying property taxes, or especially if you have children in this school system, is this: did Jefferson County Public Schools just spend money on a curriculum that is not doing anything to teach our children math? Is this really better than what we were doing before?

And just how long do they intend to keep using a system that isn't working?

After the investment the district made in this program, I have no doubt that they will stick with it for several years. Which means, very likely, a lot of remedial math instruction somewhere before these kids get to college.

And then ask yourself this: if a charter school showed numbers like this, how long would they stick with the curriculum?

I would like to think not very long.

There's the advantage of the charter school.
Posted by: Michael / 8/10/2007 12:43:00 AM

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