WashPost on Students Who Pass Classes But Fail Tests

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

THOSE WHO PASS CLASSES BUT FAIL TESTS CRY FOUL

   Washington Post -- November 21, 2006
               by Ian Shapira

Sylvia James hardly considers herself clueless in mathematics. After 
all, she finished sixth grade with a B-plus in the subject and made the 
Honor Roll, which she saw as a victory in a challenging year of fraction 
conversion and decimal placement.

But what happened when she took the state math test?

She flunked it.

Now, by that measure, Virginia considers the 12-year-old below par in math.

"I was kind of shocked," said Sylvia, who attends Herbert J. Saunders 
Middle School in Prince William County. "I just thought I was going to 
pass it because I always usually pass everything else. I guess I went 
through the test pretty quickly."

Many students in the Washington region are suffering from academic split 
personalities. Driven by the federal No Child Left Behind law and 
tougher state diploma standards, the testing blitz has left these 
students in a curious limbo: They pass their classes with B's and C's 
yet fail the state exams.

These cases surface frequently, with one local high school reporting, 
for example, that a quarter of students in beginning algebra passed the 
course but failed the state test.

The discrepancies have emerged amid fierce debate over the role of 
testing in public education. Supporters of the federal law say 
standardized exams are the best way to raise academic standards and the 
only way to hold schools accountable for results. Critics complain that 
time spent on test preparation saps classroom creativity and that test 
scores are just one indicator among many of student achievement.

Students and teachers offer an array of explanations for why test scores 
sometimes fail to match up with grades. Some students don't take the 
exams seriously. Some freeze up. Still others trip over unfamiliar 
language. And teachers sometimes are not prepped in what the exams 
cover, especially when the tests are new. Occasionally, some school 
officials suspect, classes aren't rigorous enough to prepare students 
adequately.

Whatever the reason, the fact that some bright students struggle on 
state exams upends the perception that only the worst students fail them.

"This is a warning sign that there's something out of tilt in the 
system," said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy 
in Washington, which tracks how states implement the federal law.

The law requires annual state testing in reading and math for all 
students from grades 3 to 8 and at least once in high school. The 
results are used to rate schools, and those that fall short of adequate 
progress are threatened with sanctions. States often add more tests in 
high school that students must pass to graduate.

Because the exams can have such high stakes for students and for 
schools, many seemingly solid achievers who have failed the state tests 
are forced into remediation courses to help them pass on the next try.

And some students worry: Am I not as smart as I thought?

Brittanie Morris, 14, a freshman at John F. Kennedy High School in 
Montgomery County, is taking a catch-up math class after school because 
she did not pass her Maryland exam last year.

"I got a B for the total year in algebra last year, but this makes me 
feel uncomfortable . . . and you feel kinda slow," Brittanie said. "It 
feels weird to be in the class because it makes you feel like you didn't 
pass, when you did."

Brittanie's mother, Kay Morton, was befuddled when she opened the mail 
and saw the results of her daughter's standardized math exam.

"It's hard to understand a situation where you can have an Honor Roll 
student who doesn't pass the test. She's been an Honor Roll student 
since the sixth grade," she said. "I can't say I really hold her teacher 
accountable. . . . I just accepted the fact that Brittanie may not be a 
child that tests well."

The data available on these "pass/fail" students -- most of whom 
apparently are getting C's or better in their courses-- vary across the 
region. But a glance at local schools shows that the number of such 
students is sizable.

At Kennedy High in Silver Spring, 25 percent of the 147 students who 
took first-year algebra in 2005-06 passed the course but failed the 
Maryland High School Assessment in that subject, said Reginald Wright, 
the school's math department chairman. In all of Montgomery, about 12 
percent of the 10,720 students who took first-year algebra last year 
passed the course but failed the exam, according to county schools 
spokesman Brian Edwards.

In the District, about one-fifth of the 70 students in fourth through 
sixth grades at Tyler Elementary School passed their classes but failed 
the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System exam, according to principal 
Michelle Pierre-Farid.

In Fairfax County, a survey of a remediation class at Herndon High 
School was revealing. Seven of the 11 students had earned a C or better 
in English or math but failed at least one of the corresponding state 
Standards of Learning exams, according to the school's assessment coach, 
Sharon Bowen.

Defenders of standardized testing say the exams function like audits, 
revealing gaps in the curriculum that must be filled if the students are 
to reach high academic standards. Critics say that the differences 
between scores and grades show the fallibility of the exams, which 
provide only a snapshot of what a student knows.

Some students who sail through courses crash on standardized exams 
because they are not native English speakers.

Qasim Bilal, 20, a native Pakistani, graduated last spring from Herndon 
High. He said that during his junior and senior years, he failed the 
state English reading test four times and the English writing test 
twice, even though his course grades ranged from a C-plus to an A. Bilal 
had trouble on the tests answering poetry questions and with 
interpreting the differences between first-, second- and third-person 
narratives.

"I had doubts about myself," Bilal said, adding that his parents 
wondered whether his grades were justified. He asked his teachers 
whether they had been too lenient. "But they said they don't do that. 
They said they were giving me what I deserved."

Why the discrepancy? Teacher Nancy Hencken said she thought Bilal was an 
articulate student who easily demonstrated his knowledge of the subject 
matter in class. During class exams, Hencken noted, Bilal and other 
students could ask her for guidance. That wasn't allowed under the 
state's strict testing format.

Helen George, a math teacher at Parkland Middle School in Montgomery, 
said her former student Brittanie deserved her high grades.

"What was tested and what was going on in the classroom was not really 
matching," George said. "I guess I had to reexamine what was going on."

Schools take several approaches to help students who fail standardized 
exams. In the District, some schools may offer special remediation 
classes, said William Wilhoyte, a regional superintendent. But in 
general, he said, schools prefer to help students in their regular 
classes. They do so by grouping students by ability, based on their 
performance on certain test questions.

In Maryland, students starting with the Class of 2009 are required to 
pass state tests to earn a diploma. So Kennedy High compels students who 
failed a state test to stay after school for remediation twice a week. 
Virginia's tests have similar high stakes, so Herndon High students who 
fail their state tests must take classes titled "Developing Literacies" 
or "Expanding Literacies."

Some students placed in remediation appear more than eager to proclaim 
their academic credentials. During a recent catch-up math class at 
Saunders Middle School, seventh-grader Lexie Hunt wanted to share some 
good news with teacher Pamela Childress.

"Ms. Childress, I made Honor Roll!" Lexie said. "In this school, do they 
give out bumper stickers for that?"

  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112100075.html