Octorara Board Meeting Reflection Paper

Standardized testing has been around since the early 1900’s. Today, it determines a high school student’s future. Every year juniors in high school start to prepare months in advance for the SAT’s and ACT’s. Along with the test itself, comes stress that is not necessary. The debate of standardized tests defining a student’s academic ability or not has become a recent popular controversial topic. Many colleges and universities are starting to have test optional applications because they are realizing that a single test score does not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. There is more value in a student that should rule an acceptance or rejection. In the article, “SAT Scores Help Colleges Make Better Decisions” Capterton states, “The SAT has proven to be valid, fair, and a reliable data tool for college admission” (Capterton). Capterton, president of the College Board, believes that the SAT’s and ACT’s should be used to determine a student’s acceptance because it is an accurate measure. What Capterton and deans of admissions of colleges and universities don’t know is the abundant amount of resources upper class families have for preparation, the creative talents a student has outside of taking tests, and the amount of stress they put on a 17 year old.

The Texas Academic Performance Reports is a detailed report of a district’s academic performance, financial information, and data reports as long as information about staff programs and demographics. Although the final and official ratings have not been released, a preliminary analysis for 2016 was available for review. From the results collected, I was able to create a detailed data analysis and summary over Channelview ISD’s STAAR/EOC scores for 2016 at all grade levels.

Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Likewise, if a poor test-taker is judged by their SAT score, they could be forced to attend an inadequate institute of higher education. For decades, the SAT has been “the test” that makes or breaks a student's chances of getting into their top college. Generally, the privileged populace do well, but minorities and women do not come out as strong and are therefore limited to college choice. The SAT has proven to be an unsuitable, biased method for predicting success of students in college.

Now it becomes difficult, if finding a place to live during a prosperous age wasn’t hard enough, try finding one during the time of recession. Job losses are very common during this age, and with that comes the difficulty to afford proper housing. Most end up on the street, and others barely struggle to stay sheltered whether it be in their car, assuming they still have one or staying in public shelters. Ehrenreich mentions in her 2011 blog that, “Housing expert Peter Dreier says that “people who’ve lost their jobs, or, at least, their second jobs, cope by doubling or tripling up in overcrowded apartments, or by paying 50 or 60 or even 70 percent of

For students to get accepted into most institutes, they must pass the admissions requirements that school has placed. Most likely having a decent SAT/ACT score and a good standing GPA is required, along with recommendations and sometimes an essay. However, should colleges really rely on standardized test scores to determine a student’s success in college? One single test should not determine how well a student would do in college or determine whether they should get accepted into that college. Instead, they should remove the requirement for SAT/ACT scores and rely on the student’s high school grade point average. Students build their GPA within four years, and that can determine their effort, focuses, and diligence, as stated by Jada Bah, “SAT/ACT Scores Alone Should Not Predict College Success.” A four-hour test should override a four-year grade.

Housing in America really isn’t what it used to be. With prices getting very high, people have found themselves moving and relocating more quickly. Statistics have shown that 35% of Americans have moved at least once in the last 5 years (meaning that in the last 60 months, over 100 thousand people had to fill the change of address forms) and the truth is that the number doesn’t seem to be reducing. Moving in America has always been on the rise as people have been on the constant search for more opportunities and greener pastures; better jobs, better housing and living conditions, improved ways of life, etc. Job related factors have always been the most frequent and common reasons

The school college and career readiness, graduation, and post secondary preparedness are also about average when compared to other schools across the state. Which has them meeting about 79% of their performance targets in the area of academic achievement. Academic achievement typically measures the content knowledge of both math and language arts. In addition to this for high schools this includes the proficiently rate of language arts and math on the HSPA [New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment]. In career and college readiness the school is meeting at least 60% of their anticipated performance. Career and college readiness is the measurement of how their students will succeed in college and careers as well as the participation of college entrance exams such as the SATs, ACTs, and AP classes. (State of New Jersey,

If this is true and GPA and school activity involvement are more important, then why is the SAT even considered? Brandon Busteed, an executive director of Gallup Education, ran a study including 2,586 superintendents around his area. According to his results, “...Only six percent of superintendents strongly agree that SAT and ACT scores are the best predictors of college success” (Brandon Busteed).  This shows that even educators feel that the SAT lacks a true purpose. How can any college determine a student's study habits, work ethic, or community involvement through a number? Jennifer Finney Boylan, a professor at Colby College, states, “The only way to measure students’ potential is to look at the complex portrait of their lives; what their schools are like; how they’ve done in their courses; what they’ve chosen to study; what progress they’ve made over time; how they’ve reacted to adversity” (Hambrick & Chabris). Although other factors are not ignored, including involvement and high school GPA, there is still immense pressure to do well on the SATs. Busteed states, “We’re not just overinvesting in standardized testing, we’re actually testing standardization. That is to say, most standardized tests are designed to have students come up with the same answers. We’re teaching them how to be similar, not different” (2015). This shows the negative effects that the SAT has on

The Octorara Board of Directors and Finance, Facilities, and Policy Committees met on Monday, July 18, 2016. Only six members attended. Anthony Falgiatore, Brian Fox, and Nelson Stoltzfus were absent.

The first school in the district to present was Bradford Area High School. The principle, Mr. Ray, spoke saying that overall the school scored a 77.9%. The goal he has set for his school is to improve college prep classes, mastery skills in standardized testing, and to continue to revamp the science curriculum since it is the lowest scores on the state’s testing. I feel this could affect me as a future teacher because I would know what I need to work on more with my students. In addition, this could mean more jobs available to college prep classes.

Supporters of the test may state it is a good base or “key” to use and gage a student when looking to gauge their academic skill level. Swing to the other side and it’s unsurprisingly easy to find the reasons to oppose the test. Reasons include that the test prevents some students from unlocking their full academic potential due to their lack of easily available resources. Lack of these resources could be due to financial situations or a person’s ethnic background. Studies show the SAT cannot predict a student’s performance in secondary school. These studies examine and exhibit to us (the viewer) that the SAT lacks in showing a student’s true qualities and work ethic. Segregating students based on a test prevents a student from possibly unlocking their full potential. Students judged by their SAT are not the only ones missing out on potential academic success, the future of America loses the chance to further educate the next generation of potential

African Americans: 62.5 / 77.7 = 0.8043758 = 80.4%. The pass rate which is 80.4% indicates that there is no evidence of adverse impact.

In today’s economic environment even the wealthiest states and districts are having to cut funding for education, while districts which were already teetering on the edge are now in an even worse position. In some schools children have to face not having enough books, paper for copies, severe overcrowding,

The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college and university admissions in the United States. It was first introduced in 1926, and its name and scoring system have changed several times throughout the years. Many students around the world that want to pursue post-secondary institutions in the US make it a point to write the SAT at least once in their high school career to better their chances of getting a higher score. This test has three parts to it – one reading, writing and one math. In order to achieve the best score that they can possibly get and be placed in the highest possible percentile, students may decide to attend SAT preparation classes starting from the early years of High/Middle School. The unfortunate reality of these extra preparation courses is that they are quite expensive, and due to this, they mostly cater towards to higher or higher-middle class families. Courses that provide extra preparation such as Ivy Global are not very affordable to many families and so students. According to many statistics and news reports, the higher the test taker’s family income, the higher their scores in the test. This has been a topic of great controversy as we have grown in the modern society

As we review and synthesize data of a district for planning school improvement, the following information is needed to access and determine the needs of a school. First, a thorough analysis of performance data must be reviewed to see how school districts measure up with state and federal accountability. During this process, it is very important that schools focus the performance indicators that will guarantee growth and success. School teams must refer to the districts mission and vision to guide the planning process. The performance indicators will provide data that will be beneficial in creating improvement strategies. So, after careful evaluation of the data, the next step would be to plan effective methods and strategies that will improve student achievement. Moreover, this plan should include needs, demographics and opportunities for students to be successful. Additionally, the baseline data is important information to include in the improvement plan.