RES 5530: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Spring 2009)

I hope we are ready for a shift back to the center! I think like most things, a balance of the quantitative and qualitative is in order. Policy makers and administrators need to know the students and talk to the teachers in order to understand the numbers. I think you've got a great idea to take a qualitative study approach to the discrepancy in the K-2 results to the third grade pre-test numbers. I actually got to sit in on a meeting at central office about this "discrepancy" issue. I think I was there by accident. My curriculum coordinator misunderstood the request for participation. They hadn't intended to invite a classroom teacher! And as a result, I was the only classroom teacher there and the only one with K-2 experience. I was shocked to learn that they felt they could solve this problem without including classroom teachers (especially second and third grade). But they were polite and listened to my ideas. One of the things I suggested was that the K-2 assessment needs to be more closely aligned with the EOG test. I personally don't think that there is a drop in achievement, I think that we are just assessing a different set of skills. We need to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges as the saying goes. Any way,that was a year ago, and I haven't seen or heard anything new. And by the way,I never did get invited back for a second meeting!

I think that we have been ready for a shift in education for quite some time but I think that we have to be careful with how much we shift. I don’t think we need to completely do away with quantitative assessments but I think we need a change in how those assessments are created and administered. I also agree with you that we need qualitative measures to support those numbers! Let’s look at the numbers and that talk to our students – what do you think it the most difficult part for you; what do you think you are able to do well, etc. The pretest at the beginning of the third grade is the first time most of our students see a standardized test. They are young at the beginning of third grade and that test is overwhelming and difficult. I think that the pretest says VERY little about their actual abilities and that putting too much weight on the scores isn’t beneficial for anyone. I think that an IRI or running record of the students’ reading ability at the beginning of the year is a much better judge of how students are doing and I believe that your teachers should try that before they figure out what they are doing wrong – I would guess that the IRI would show that many of your students are right where they need to be. As far as the test, I know we all dislike it but right now our students have to take it – it’s one of the hoops that our children have to jump through to move on. With that being said, we have to make sure that they feel comfortable taking it, that we offer a few sessions to teach them how it works WITHOUT scaring them into anxiety attacks. Before long I hope that things change and that accountability takes on a better form.

I think that proponents of NCLB need to read our articles for this week. It is very difficult for teachers to get away from the quantitative means of assessing when that is all we ever hear about--"What were his benchmark scores like?" or "How well did Susie perform on the common assessment?" Somewhere in the midst of all of this testing, some kids get lost. Now, I think that there is a time and place for quantitative assessments, but I do not believe that they should be our primary source of student achievement.

Hi, I teach third grade and I know about the discrepancy. My thoughts are its not a change in the children but rather in the test. This year " the bar has been raised, alot". I usually rejoice in low pretest scores, because that allows my students to show growth. But this year only 3 out of 20 students passed the pretest. I had eleven students score a one on the test. I have never had kids score that low on the test. Do I blame the second grade teachers? Do I believe that they don't teach them anything? No, of course not. The test has changed. Have the second grade benchmarks changed to reflect the changes in the EOG? We need to evaulate testing, not the changes that may or not happen over the summer with seven and eight year olds.

Wow, your critique and the comments about your critique have identified very important thoughts and ideas of the system. Even though your ideas and SuSu's ideas are so different they both bring up very legitimate questions. Even though your comment and Susu's comment are addressing the same issues-test scores and transitions, I think they are very different in some ways. I think the changes that occur between seven and eight year-olds could be researched, as well as the tests that are labeling the students. I have a hard time choosing which is more important.

You hit on a very important theme in education--taking time. Taking time to truly know how a student learns most effectively and then providing the appropriate instruction and/or learning environment is key. Unfortunately, there seems to be a need to hurry up and try this new method because the research says it works. Again, the research is probably more quantitative than qualitative, measuring a group of students with all different learning styles on a predetermined list of skills. The measurements derived may accurately reflect some children learned best in this research, while some did not. There is not a "one-for-all" way to teach. Each one of us has blog posts that hit us differently because of own set of experiences or ideas. The same is for the group of children we teach. They learn and respond to some styles better than others. We need to take the time to discover the strengths of our students, to gear our instruction to promote their success and retention of the material. I know that each of us chose to teach for different reasons, I would venture to guess it may be to make a difference or reach those who have been left behind. Whatever the reason, I think we are each willing to take the time to reach our goal. Let us help each of our students to do the same.

As a 3rd grade teacher that came from 2nd I think we are definitely ready for a shift in education! We are ready to stop putting all of our eggs the the "quantitative research basket". Why not have a balanced harmony of both qualitative and quantitative research. Quantitative research has left us sad and blue, because it constantly reminds us that most children are being left behind. Let's use qualitative research effectively to figure out what to do about that.

Good questions here! I'd love to see someone take on a qualitative study that investigates the phenomenon that you are describing. Your school's situation does seem to be one of process rather than product, and a qualitative evaluation would definitely provide some perspective! I think you should do it..... :)