News From SWW

June 8, 2002: Response to Meeting Minutes

Date: 8 June 2002

To: School Without Walls Community Board
From: Dan Drmacich
Re: Response to Meeting Minutes

Please find attached, a response from Ann Cook, Co-Director of the Urban Academy in NYC, regarding a report in our last meeting minutes that the SWW Staff has decided to make substantial changes to the SWW schedule in order to accomodate the need for more Regents classes to help students pass Regents Exams.

I think Ann raises a significant question: Can SWW continue to offer its learner–centered curriculum, with the understanding that over the next two years the Mills/Standardized Reform Agenda will collapse of its own weight and through the legislative hearings and resulting pressure? And with the understanding that if the Regents exams do continue, SWW Staff could get their students to pass them through an intensive "test-prep" process during their last year? The counter questions to this proposal will be something like: If we go that route and some of our kids fail the exams, we could be sued for educational mal-practice! and If our students don't take the exams at the normally expected times (e.g.,World History at the end of 10th grade, Am. History at 11th grade, will our low cohort % passing cause the state or city to suggest SURR School status? or as a school needing state intervention? I am definitely in favor of giving Ann's strategy more discussion, especially given the Education Committee's call for hearings on the "impact" of the Mills Reform Agenda. The proposed SWW re-organization does smack of "teaching to the test" ! I invite your responses.

From: Ann Cook
To: Dan Drmacich
Date: Sat, 08 Jun 2002 08:19:40 -0400

Dan –This is a short reply to your note about the changes at SWW caused by the possible introduction of the Regents exams. Here are some thoughts:

1) All students who were in the school before 2001 do not have to take anything besides the ELA. Students entering 2001 Sept as freshman (any transfers are only subject to the ELA) have 4 years before they have to take the Regents.

2) We should not give in now when things are moving more in our direction–I believe we can afford to hold off one more year without hurting kids if we develop a school–wide and a political strategy. First the political strategy: both the Times article and Sanders/Kuhls response to hearings are important: people are beginning to take notice that something isn't working. The fact that Sanders is calling for a broad review of the exams is important–he's broadened the charge to "impact" of the tests not just their reliability and validity.

That's critical if we are to look for some sort of roll back. Folks in every city where hearings will be held need to be mobilized to make sure that the sessions are packed–and that our position is represented often and loudly. Let's start gathering examples from friends in Regents schools documenting a range of issues: dropouts/GED data/teacher time (see attached l04 million document)/ impact on school curriculum/activities/kids' attitudes/teacher attitudes/evidence that the Regents are turning teachers and kids off. With respect to the school strategy: we need to be smart about the tests. We are now developing (with the help of people like Princeton Review) an approach to teaching kids how to pass the test that will allow us to continue using our curriculum. We need to slow down –and not panic. As long as we are not trying to get kids to pass the tests at 90–I think we can find ways to narrow the amount of time we work with kids on the tests–to a concentrated period of test prep –while still maintaining our curriculum. Obviously this is not a strategy we hope will be necessary to continue using once the hearings have been conducted and followup action taken. But as a strategy of containment I think it provides a way to think about positioning the tests in a specific place in our schedule and not letting them infect everything we do.

Ann

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