Learning in the Delta: A New Teacher's Adventures

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Normal

In Jackson, the district creates and administers the final exam at the end of each term for all State-Tested classes. I teach two Algebra I classes – which I love – and, unfortunately, have to deal with the pressure of preparing my students for not only a state test, but a district test as well. Never knowing what the test looks like until the day I am administering it to my students is stressful, especially when one takes into consideration the amount we are required to teach each term (the JPS pacing guide is a joke), and that each teacher must constantly be reinforcing everything covered in previous terms, since what was tested in the first term, may reappear in the test for the fourth term.

My first two district tests – first term and semester – were “interesting.” It is always a bad sign when the term “normalized” is brought up in terms of grading. Normalized is the districts way of saying, “since everyone scored so poorly on our test, we are going to add 38 points to each student’s original score.” Teachers are not allowed to turn in any grades until the district has “normalized” each student. As report card time rolls around and the question floating around the faculty meeting is, “do you know if the scores have been normmed, yet?” it’s difficult not to crack a smile and giggle at the ridiculous of the question. It’s as if to say, “tests are not an adequate instrument of measuring learning, unless you erase all the incorrect answers and replace them with the correct ones.” Umm… wouldn’t I get fired for doing that in my own classroom? Hmm?

Lucky for me, though, the scores are normalized. Otherwise, the sight of all those 20s and 30s might be enough to make me quit. After normalizing, I at least have some students who passed the first term and semester exam.

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