Scrambling and Mania

In the next week or so, you will see a great deal of scrambling and mania at both the elementary and middle schools. Why you might ask? Because it is ISAT time!

Even though you will hear over and over again, "we don't practice for the ISAT" or " we don't care about the ISAT" or "we don't do test prep," the truth of the matter is that they do.

Keep an eye on what your kids are bringing home for homework. You will undoubtedly see words in the margins of the worksheet that indicate the worksheet is to help prepare kids for the ISAT. Not only that, but the homework load will increase. Worksheets will become packets. A pep rally will be held at the elementary school. Scrambling and mania will take place. Even the teachers get worried...

"Crazy world at Pdale!!! Suddenly ISAT tests are super important and wehave to get our kids ready for them!!! (The Administrators) talked about them a lot atour staff meeting and now after years of them saying ISATs don't matter..they do!!" 

Mark Fredisdorf wants to bring in another statistician to inform the board that even though our scores will be going down, our students are still doing great! What's that you ask? Scores going down? Well, no, not yet, unless you are talking about the 8th grade Math Explore score. That one did tank. We are now ranked 4th among feeder schools in math. Ouch!

The reason the ISAT scores will go down is because the "cut scores" are going up. The cutoff score for students to meet and exceed the state standards will be higher. Kids that usually exceed the state standards might only meet them. Kids that meet the standards may fall into the "does not meet" category and so on.

Next year is the last year students in Illinois are expected to take the ISAT test. After that, they are supposed to begin taking the PARCC test. PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career. A consortium of 22 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands are working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math anchored in what it takes to be ready for college and careers.

In this year's ISAT 20% of the questions will be based on the Common Core Standards. These questions are a different format than our kids are used to. Below you will see some sample questions and their corresponding grade level.

Scrambling and mania might be an understatement...

Change the Stakes

Because a good education can't be measured by a test score...

http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/change-the-stakes-supports-garfield-high-school-teachers-refusal-to-waste-students-time-schools-resources-with-the-map-test/

Quote of the Day

Words to Live By

Truth...

Honesty has a beautiful and refreshing simplicity about it. No ulterior motives. No hidden meanings. An absence of hypocrisy, duplicity, political games and verbal superficiality. As honesty and real integrity characterize our lives, there will be no need to manipulate others.  ~ Chuck Swindoll

Here's hoping this will give a few of the members of the PTANC something to think about ;)

Prediction Time!

It was an early Christmas gift for the residents and taxpayers of District 107 back in December when board president Leandra Sedlack and previously ousted board member Rick Rigley decided not to run for another term on the board again.

With that in mind, we are going to make a prediction, because you know, that's what we do!

We predict that once a new board is seated, disinterested board member Beth Tegtmeier will resign her seat. Why you ask? Well, spend some time viewing the last few boe meetings online and see for yourself how interested she is in representing your interests on the school board.

She contributes next to nothing, spends most of the meeting texting and when asked a question, she waffles back and forth with comments like, "um...well...uh...in my heart of hearts...I just, uh...well...um, I really don't know enough about..." Beth also blindly approves agenda items that she hasn't seen or been present at previous meetings to hear the discussion. She just does whatever the others do, or what the puppet master tells her to do.

Thank God that the stronghold on the Pleasantdale school board is almost over. It will be a breath of fresh air to see some new, independent thinkers once again on the school board instead of the same ol' puppets. It will also be nice to see the focus shift from board policy, spankings and blind following to a board that actually questions, thinks and gets things done!

Happy Anniversary to US!!!

It is our four year anniversary! Hard to believe that four years after this blog was started, we are still going strong. Sure there have been weeks and months of little to no posts, but we are working to change that. People are busy and life gets in the way of being able to write and post as often as we would like. In addition to new posts, we will be re-posting some old posts that are still relevant to our community, our district, education, or the issues at hand. We hope you will continue to follow us and share our blog with friends and neighbors.
 
The paragraph below was posted on our blog after the consolidated election four years ago and we think it needs repeating.

We plan to keep our blog open because we feel this is one avenue of communication that will continue to grow. Not every blog on the Internet is what you’d like it to be. Some are politically correct so as not to rock the boat, and others seek to bring truth to light. Our intention is and will remain to shed light on the wrongs and the rights, the good and the bad, and unfortunately, even sometimes the ugly.

Cheers!

Quote of the Day Repost

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength." Eric Hoffer