ISTEP and READ 180

One of the key people in Stephanie’s school district – on a tour of all the schools in the district – spoke to a faculty meeting at Stephanie’s school Tuesday afternoon. In the No Child Left Behind world, one of the ways schools and school districts are graded is based on how students in various demographic groups perform on whatever the state’s standardized test is (in this case, the “ISTEP”).

A minimum number of students must be in a school or school district for the state and federal government to count standard test scores from those students – as a group – and Stephanie’s school – like most of the 13 elementary schools in her district – are too small and too Anglo to have many groups. Even with Stephanie’s school’s English as a New Language magnet program, there are not enough Spanish-speaking kids in the school to qualify as a Latino group or enough Japanese kids to qualify as an Asian American group. (For their first two years in Indiana ENL classes, ENL students’ scores don’t count – After that, they do.)

There are also not enough special education students in Stephanie’s school to count as a group.

The only groups in Stephanie’s school – which serves a largely Anglo, working-class student population – are Anglos and receiving free and reduced price lunches (an index of poverty).

This past year students in both of these groups in Stephanie’s school achieved – on average – at least the minimum ISTEP scores, and so Stephanie’s school “passed.” However, there are only three middle schools in the district, and many of these schools DO have enough students in other categories: Latino, African American, special education, etc. A majority of the kids in Stephanie’s program go on to the middle school with the ENL magnet program, Scribner (on the edge of the city of New Albany and the rural/suburban Floyds Knobs area). This middle school passed. But some of Stephanie’s kids and the most other Fairmont kids go on to Hazelwood Middle School, in the city, and this school did not pass (apparently thanks in part to decent sized African American and special education student populations whose average test scores were NOT passing).

Low scores by students in some groups in the middle schools and high schools in Stephanie’s district helped cause the school district to earn a failing grade the past couple of years. That means teachers in all schools across the district have received training in – the strategy the district apparently picked – “curriculum mapping” and have been required to practice this strategy. Ultimately, the state could take over individual schools or the whole school district, probably wiping out the existing school board and superintendent.

The new superintendent dispatched a key lieutenant to make the pitch to teachers such as Stephanie and her Fairmont colleagues: Even though your school passed, the test scores of some of your students who graduated to middle school helped the district fail. This is not only a problem for these students and their families, but also for the district as a whole, even for teachers in individual schools that passed.

(This administrator also assured the teachers that – even though the new Indiana state education chief – who came from their district – is pushing to license teachers with very little education training – people like me with history Ph.D.s should be able to teach middle school or high school social studies even if I’ve taken almost no education classes – that doesn’t mean that schools in their school district have to hire these folks as teachers.)

This year Stephanie is playing a role not only in helping her present and former students pass the ISTEP but also in helping non-ENL students do so. Not only is she working with a mix of ENL and non-ENL kids in after-school programs, but she is also teaching ENL and non-ENL students reading in her 90-minute “READ 180” reading classes (aimed primarily at students who are reading OK but slightly below grade level).

An employee of the company that markets READ 180 was slated to stop by Stephanie’s school this morning to do some additional training of Stephanie and one of her colleagues who also teaches READ 180 classes. This person was then slated to hang around and observe, which Stephanie felt was important enough that she tinkered with her lesson plans for the day. Hopefully this went well. And hopefully this kind of teaching in Stephanie’s schools and other elementary schools in her district will help produce middle school and high school students who will perform well on the ISTEP and help the district “pass.”

-- Perry

Big day

This Thursday Vincent went out to work - helping a family move - with his father, for the first time since his own Ohio move. He said it was hard work, much harder than unloading Halloween costumes into the Halloween Express store. I got word that - thanks to Obama/Democratic Congress reforms to student loan programs - my lender has approved me for income-based loan repayment, which means Stephanie and I should just barely be able to afford to start making payments not just on her loans but also on mine. And at work and church, everything finally got turned in on the World Mission strategic planning project I worked on a lot in September and October and Wednesday PM I finally led a church Outreach Council meeting that I was pretty happy with. Mom and I continued to talk about both her future and ours. And I completed another stage of helping to prepare for a gathering of the non-Anglo folks who work at the Presbyterian Center, the Presbyterian Distribution Center, and the Presbyterian Foundation. And - last but not least - although plenty of fall leaves will continue to come down into our yards - we had tried harder this year (not waiting for Vincent) to rake front-yard leaves onto the "curb," where the City of St. Matthews picks them up - but, awfully early, for our trees - and today - after I've been raking for 5-10 minutes every morning after walking the dog - and after I got in a last 5 minutes of raking - city staff picked up our front yard leaves (pictured above). We'll still have plenty - esp. in the back - to rake into big brown paper yard bags - but not as many as most years, since we got so many in the pile for the city.

-- Perry

Denmark in New Albany

Stephanie had hoped that like last year Vincent could come to talk with her after-school Culture Club when they dealt with Denmark. With Vincent unavailable, Stephanie tried to of Vincent's friends who had gone to Denmark. Nathan is the son of friends of ours, a current Brown School senior, whose family had (like us) twice hosted Danish exchange students. I picked Nathan up from his mother's school and he came with about a dozen pictures from his time there last summer (same summer Vincent was there, I believe). With a majority of time devoted to questions and answers, Nathan - who, thanks to me, was late - talked for about 30 minutes. Stephanie had hoped to show a Denmark video and also have the students make Viking helmets. But the video had yet to arrive and few students had brought in the plastic gallon milk containers to make the helmets. So they talked with Nathan and colored Viking sheets afterwards. Perhaps the video (which now has arrived) and helmets next Monday.

-- Perry

Movie spree

In the middle of driving Vincent out or him taking out, Stephanie and I saw six movies in eight nights - in the last couple of weeks - ironically none with Vincent, who was at first working in the evenings and then - in hindsight - getting ready to leave. The first movie we saw Vincent would have seen - "It Might Get Loud" - the rockumentary with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and U2's The Edge. Continuing in that vein the next night was "This Is It," the documentary/concert rehearsal film with an amazing Michael Jackson. Next was the Drew Barrymore rollar derby movie "Whip It," with Ellen Page of "Juno," which was OK. And then Michael Moore's pro-social democracy "Capitalism: A Love Story," a movie he hinted at in "Sicko" but that loses steam as it misses the biggest mass movement of the past year, the right-wing Tea Party movement. It turns out because it was his last night town Vincent missed a movie I thought he'd like, by one of his favorite directors, Quentin Tarantino, the ultra-violent World War II fantasy, "Inglorious Bastards," with Oscar-worthy performances by Christopher Walz and even the female leads. Exhausted Friday after Vincent's departure we limped to see Matt Damon in "The Informant!," an odd movie with Central Ohio ties that we perhaps should have skipped in favor of the St. Matthews holiday walk. Ironically, this spree was bookended by two other movie events. 2 1/2 weeks ago on my day off - before Vincent went to work - he and I went to the discount theater to see - for the 2nd time - the Harry Potter 5 movie. Then this past Wednesday - one year after Election Night - I spent a couple of hours with past and present Obama campaign and Organizing for America volunteers (pictured above) watching "By the People," a fascinating dcoumentary about the Obama campaign - particularly about the early days leading up to the crucial Iowa caucuses and a handful of very young (including some Asian American) volunteers/coordinators who helped make everything happen. What a difference a year makes.

-- Perry

Tough season

We've stuck with the Seminoles and embattled Coach Bobby Bowden throughout this difficult college football season (tough for University of Louisville fans) and have gone to several Kentucky Seminole Club events. Vincent of course missed the disappointing Clemson game this past Saturday night. Above our president, Mark, and we helped his girlfriend - they met on Facebook - celebrate her birthday. Below one of the more serious fans ponders the second half. Behind him is John, the former club president, who's active in local Republican party politics. I'm on afraid on this night - during a rare not close game - we drowned our sorrows in a little too much food.

-- Perry

Au revoir, Vincent

Stephanie and Vincent's father (pictured above) chat while Vincent and his friend Aaron (not pictured) say good-bye, at 6:15 p.m. Friday. The streaks are from the camera trying to take pictures without flash at dusk, with the main light from Vincent's father's and Vincent's lit cigarettes. After smoking since the day he turned 18, Vincent had quit for several months, but started smoking again this past week. Aaron and Jessi had helped Vincent pack belatedly as he threw books, DVDs, video games, and a few clothes into two duffle bags - and then went back to get the Wii. We wouldn't let him take Frisco.

We've talked with Vincent episodically since then - and he's talked and texted with other Louisville friends (including two different young women). He's stayed and visited with relatives, then moved into a house near Morse and Westerville roads (and Easton) in Columbus: http://columbusoh.apartmentfinder.com/Columbus-Apartments/Thornapple-Apartments-Apartments. Unfortunately, his name is on the lease and the utilities. He's moved in some of his father's stuff and played video games, eaten cookies, and slept some at home.

-- Perry

Disco inferno

Below was the scene at one of the first Halloween Hillcrest Avenue houses we stopped at, the one whose front yard turned into a de facto disco.