9486 in the collection  

Bribery Works

Bribe and threaten educators into teaching to the test--and, in the short term, it works. Scores go up, teachers pocket $3,000, and you'll get good press.

Are the children learning? Don't ask. This about test scores, not learning.

Arizona students continued their steady improvement in the Stanford 9 Achievement Test, scoring 10 points above the national average for math, according to results released Thursday.

Even in reading and language, where Arizona schoolchildren have traditionally lagged, most grades reached or topped the national average. Still, ninth-graders continued to struggle, scoring below the 50th percentile in both areas.

School districts that offered teachers bonuses for boosting test scores and those that landed money for grants or partnered with universities showed the biggest overall increase.

State schools chief Tom Horne said he's happy the trend is upward. In fact, Stanford 9 scores have increased every year in the seven years Arizona students have taken the test.

"First, feel good we're above the national average, even though we're 49th in funding," Horne said, referring to the money schools receive per student from the state. Second, he said, thank your principal and teachers for doing so much with so little.

The Stanford 9 is a norm-referenced test taken by second- through ninth-graders in reading, mathematics and language. The results are for 460,000 students who took the test in April and May.

Districts that did exceptionally well were Scottsdale, Kyrene and Cave Creek, where scores for every grade in all three subjects topped the 60th percentile. Other districts that posted strong results were Paradise Valley, Madison, Peoria, Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler.

Alhambra Elementary School District, in a low-income area in central Phoenix, raised Stanford 9 scores across the board. Its seventh- and eighth-graders at Alhambra Traditional School outperformed every other school in the state on the language portion of the test. The district's seventh-graders scored better than 91 percent of their peers nationwide. The superintendent said he was "ecstatic" about the results.

"The credit goes right back to our principals and our teachers," Superintendent Jim Rice said. "They're the ones making certain that they are teaching the curriculum and the state standards."

Big incentives

The Mesa Unified School District, the largest in the state with 74,500 students, had nine of the top 16 state scores in math. The district revamped its structure, said Joe O'Reilly, Mesa's research director, and retrained its teachers and principals.

"We dedicated money and people to that effort," O'Reilly said. Mesa also started offering a $3,000 bonus to teachers who improve student learning and parent satisfaction.

Phoenix's Madison Meadows cracked the top 10 with its seventh-grade language scores, but the district is proudest of improving its overall math scores.

Assistant Superintendent Pam Santesteban said Madison is supplementing skimpy state funding with a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant and a partnership with Arizona State University. The programs allowed the district to train its entire staff in the latest learning techniques and high-level mathematics, Santesteban said.

"Any district improving significantly (will) tell you they are getting grant money and adding support in teacher training," Santesteban said.

Morale booster

In some districts, a point or two upward was all they had to bolster morale.

Glendale Elementary School District didn't do well, failing in all grades to come near the national average. Some school principals were pleased with 1 or 2 percentage point increases in reading, an area the district made a priority in school improvement plans this past school year. Fourth-graders, for example, made slight gains in all three areas.

"I am well aware that it will not happen overnight," said Karen Budan, Glendale assistant superintendent. "We are excited about the progress we are seeing."

The Phoenix Union High School District raised its math scores 5 percentage points.

"The largest jump was 3 points in math, from 39 to 42 percentile," said Craig Pletenik, a spokesman for district, where seven of 10 schools were labeled "underperforming" by the state last October.

"Improvement is everything for us," he said. "We take these numbers to heart, and we know that they can be better and they will be better. In the meanwhile, they are small victories, but combined, they give us the momentum to do the right thing."

Galveston Elementary, the only school in the Chandler Unified School District with an "underperforming" label, appeared to be making strides in the right direction. The school showed marked improvement in language, math and reading scores at most grade levels under first-year Principal Gina Vukovich.

"We've focused our time on specific areas, and that's helped us in math and literacy," Vukovich said. "It's very encouraging, and we need encouraging news like this to make positive change."

Peoria's Lucy Ranus saw her three children through the Glendale public school system and cautioned parents not to use Stanford 9 scores for more than "ballpark information."

"No one test should be the absolute indicator of how a child is doing," said Ranus, a nurse who heads the state PTA. Report cards and district tests are just as important, and parents can take charge of how well their children do in school by talking to their kids about what they've learned, reading books with them, and keeping in constant contact with their teachers.

Ranus is backed by some of the best education researchers in the state.

David Garcia, a research analyst for the Arizona Center for Public Policy, cautioned against reading too much into the latest scores. He said the higher marks shouldn't be a surprise.

Arizona students have taken the same Stanford 9 test, with the same questions, since 1997, he said. The steady improvement may be the result of what researchers call "score creep."

"Teachers learn the items," Garcia said. "You expect an osmosis affect. You come to understand the test and its questions."

That's why national norm-referenced tests such as the Stanford 9 will take on lesser importance than state tests as new federal rules requiring higher student achievement fall into place.

Paul Koehler, education researcher and adviser to Gov. Janet Napolitano, said he's far more concerned about students' AIMS scores, due out Sept. 2. The Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, which asks a different set of questions each year, uses questions based on specific learning goals for each grade.

The Stanford 9 will still be part of a formula, along with AIMS scores, that will determine how the state labels every school in October. Schools where test scores have not improved will be labeled "underperforming" and face state intervention.

All districts must be creative in a state where 370,000 students live in poverty and many youngsters come to school far behind their peers, Arizona State Board of Education President Wade McLean said. Arizona's hope for continued improvement hangs on parents, he said.

— Pat Kossan
State schools boost scores
Arizona Republic
August 1, 2003


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