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Hub fourth-graders take a military approach to MCAS math
Ohanian Comment: 4th grade boot camp for MCAS--Is this any way to treat 9-year-olds? Someone should ask these commandos who call themselves educators to show the pedagogy on which such dispicable practices are based. Such kill-drill test prep undermines all good teaching practices, even undermining children's understanding of the material covered.
The reporter got it right when she said "this is all about numbers." It's about adults covering their ass, not about educating children. It's about quick fixes, not about helping children develop a passion for words and numerical relationships.
Megan Tench
The troops filed into the cafeteria, labeled ''basic training,'' no later than 9 a.m. yesterday. By 9:30, they were doing drills. Their fists punched the air as they shouted out answers to a flurry of questions. An hour later, the 35 ''cadets'' were escorted to the gym for a quick sweat. They took a moment for a ham and cheese lunch, and then swiftly returned to the drills.
This boot camp was all about numbers - math vocabulary and problem-solving strategies.
''What does `difference' mean in this math problem?'' said Robert Bouvier, a literacy specialist turned commander. ''To subtract,'' the pupils responded almost in unison.
Unlike thousands of Boston public school students on vacation this week, this group of fourth-graders from the Agassiz, Fuller, and John F. Kennedy elementary schools forfeited their break for a rugged experience in MCAS boot camp - three days of intense training for an exam that could determine their future, that is, once they reach high school.
As state officials stand poised to release the results of the 10th-grade MCAS retest in the next few weeks - which for some seniors marks their fifth attempt to pass one of the toughest exams in the nation - these fourth-graders are already working to avoid the same fate.
The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam is given to public school students nearly every year starting with the third grade. But it isn't until the 10th grade that the exam becomes ''high stakes.'' Students must pass the test to graduate.
Still, that doesn't take the pressure off of elementary school students, said educators. Under the No Child Left Behind initiative, President Bush's federal mandate overhauling public education, the Agassiz school in Jamaica Plain has been labeled ''low-performing'' because MCAS test scores showed that students failed to make progress in math.
''Whenever I read in the paper that we were labeled as a failing school we wanted to step up,'' said Bouvier, who designed the MCAS boot camp at the Agassiz. ''We are just concerned for our students, and they've been incredibly receptive.''
The ''low-performing'' rating has administrators and students alike concerned.
''By this time we've instilled in the students a sense of how serious this is, and that we are willing to help them out if they are willing to do the work,'' said Agassiz school principal Alfredo Nunez.
In this boot camp there was no whining, no complaining, and no problems with discipline. What's more, these students, whose ages ranged from 9 to 11, wanted to be there.
''There is stuff I don't really know, like division and fractions, and sometimes I need help with word problems, '' said Nicole Blount, 9.
Fellow cadet Jonathan Cornier, 11, said he wants to become a math whiz.
''I like to do hard math, so I came here to see if this was a challenge,'' he said. ''Everything that involves math I sign myself up for because it involves my future.''
Like other students enrolled in the program, Laveria Wysinger, 9, said she could've spent her school vacation in front of the television, or outside with her friends tossing snowballs.
But, to the surprise of her father, Wysinger chose boot camp instead. ''I've been through some hard things with the MCAS,'' Wysinger said as she tackled a math problem.
She says she needed tutoring after performing poorly on her first MCAS exam in the third grade.
''But I didn't give up and I am not going to give up,'' said the aspiring art teacher. ''I don't want my parents to be ashamed of me. I want them to be proud.''
But Wysinger's father, Lorenzo Greene, said he is already proud of his little girl.
''She was the one who wanted to come here, and that makes me proud,'' said Greene.
Not only does he encourage his daughter to be at the top of the class, Greene also hopes that other parents become more involved with their children's education.
''The test is coming every year and it gets harder and harder,'' he said. ''And if we don't show them we care, then they won't care.''
— Megan Tench
Boston Globe
2003-02-20
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/051/metro/By_the_numbers+.shtml
INDEX OF MILITARIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS
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