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Granite School District > Superintendent's Office > Sup’s Vlog

Sup’s Vlog

Question – Performance Pay and Formative Assessments

Question – Now that we have a system in place to motivate teachers, when is there going to be something put in place to motivate the students? I can tell my third graders how important these tests are, but really they have nothing to lose if they don’t do their best. In the past I have had students that get on the computer and just click any answer. They don’t want to do these online tests and rush through them. Last year during my SEP’s I had students that had high Dibels scores, but low Acuity Language Arts scores. As I went over the data with these students and their parents I asked them if they read the stories on the Acuity test. Every single one of these students said that they didn’t take the time to read them. They just guessed. The test did not show what they knew. I think that this performance pay is deeply flawed if my pay raise is based on a group of 9 year-olds that could careless about their test scores. I can teach these kids the required curriculum, but I can’t make them take their time on the any of the tests. They don’t have anything to worry about if they fail. They just move on to the next grade. I’m the one who gets penalized. So I ask my question again, when is there going to be something put in place to motivate the students? Yes, the teachers need to do their part and be highly qualified, but students need to do their part too.

Response – I conclude from the subject line and the first sentence of your message that you, a teacher, finally have in place something to motivate you in your work – a performance pay system. I surely hope you find satisfaction and incentive in something greater than that. You then suggest that the scores your students generate on the language arts benchmark assessments have something to do with that system; this is incorrect. Results on the SAGE test will likely be tied to any future state performance pay plan, but the benchmark assessments are intended to be a tool for YOU, the classroom teacher. While they provide students the opportunity to practice with questions similar to those soon to be found on SAGE, it is our intent that the benchmark scores provide data for you and your grade level team – data which can suggest areas of instruction that require re-teaching, state standards that needn’t be addressed because students are already proficient in them, and indication of teaching that was effective and might be copied by a teacher who was less so in a particular area. As far as motivating students to do well on those benchmark assessments, the best motivator in a student’s academic life is a competent, caring teacher. I am confident that your students would have responded quite differently on the benchmarks had you begun the year with an explanation for the assessments by saying something similar to the following:

“Class, it’s the beginning of a new term, and today we’re going to the computer lab for something called a benchmark assessment in language arts. Let me tell you what you’ll see – about 25 questions that cover all the material I’m supposed to teach you this coming term. Now, I want you to help me do my job; I need you to give me some guidance so I earn my paycheck these next few months. Please try really hard to answer as many questions as you can. Even though we haven’t even studied any of that material yet, you’ll all be able to answer some of the questions anyway, and I don’t want to bore you by teaching things you already know. And guess what! At the end of the term we’ll go back to the lab and take another assessment on the same material that I’ve taught all term. I’ll want you to try really hard then, too; if you do, you’ll find out how much you really learned over these next nine weeks when we compare the scores for today to those a couple of months later. Also, just in case there’s something I taught that you still don’t understand on that second assessment, I’ll know what I need to re-teach a little differently to some of you so I guarantee you’re ALL ready for fourth grade next year. ”

I conclude with your final question: “When is there going to be something put in place to motivate the students?” My response: “Tomorrow morning. Motivation has been and continues to be something managed by the classroom teacher.”  In point of fact, this would be a great PLC discussion – since everyone on your team or department is teaching the same neighborhood of kids, what seems to be working for colleagues that you might adopt?

Question – Dual Immersion Curriculum

Question – My daughter wanted to know why she has to take her math tests in English when she learns her math in Spanish. She’s in dual immersion and doing very well, but wonders why her tests can’t be taken in the language that she’s being taught in. I told her I would ask. Thanks.

Response – I am glad to hear she is doing very well. The dual immersion program is quite successful and we are excited that our participants are doing just as well as our traditional students in the core subject areas. With that in mind, it is important to understand that students in this program will learn all subjects in both languages. That being said, they are still learning the English language as well so it is important that since their end of level testing is in English as required by state law, that they gain some experience in taking tests in that language.

Thanks for your questions and for the curriculum department for their assistance in responding.

Question – SAGE testing

Question – With the switch of end of year assessment coming, I would like to know what Granite School District and other Utah School Districts are doing regarding keyboarding and basic computer skills. It seems like SAGE is going to not only test students’ academic achievement, but will also assess their ability to use technology (in this case, a computer) efficiently and effectively. I know that part of our core standards includes keyboarding and computer skills, but it seems to me we need access to more resources in order to produce technological competent students. Is Granite School District looking to acquire a keyboarding/basic computer skills specialist who can teach these skills? Will it be the responsibility of the school’s STS? Teachers? It seems somewhat unfair to me that our students should be tested via technological devices without appropriate training, and that teachers’ pay should be partially determined by these results. What are we really assessing?

Response – It is true that the new SAGE assessment will require students to do more than bubble in correct answers as they’ve become accustomed to doing on the CRT’s of the past; however, in Granite District, all students have exposure to a variety of technology experiences which will serve them well in adapting quickly to the SAGE administration. All Granite students participate in formative assessments administered online, and many regularly use the My Access writing tool which provides additional practice at using technology in the writing/response arena. Additionally, all Granite students use online textbooks and instructional resources in math and some also in English/language arts; these tools help develop a variety of technology skills in students of all ages. Granite District does not intend to hire specialists to address facility with technology on behalf of our students nor will STS’s be burdened with that added responsibility. Rather, we are confident that, once teachers have provided students an opportunity to become familiar with SAGE through the available practice tests, they will have little trouble navigating the SAGE test and probably will find it quite engaging. Our greater concern is whether or not they have been effectively taught and mastered the core concepts on which they will be assessed.

Thanks for your question.

Question – Concurrent Enrollment Math Options

Question – I went to parent teacher conferences last night at the high school. I was displeased to find out that concurrent enrollment options in math were being eliminated in favor of common core math standards. With six children in the district planning college careers, I find this very disturbing. Concurrent enrollment is that head start into college at a very reasonable cost. I’m having a hard time seeing the logic in taking that away. Please help me understand why we would eliminate a college credit option in favor of something inferior.

Response – There appears to be a miscommunication between what is now being offered and how this applies to concurrent enrollment and Advanced Placement courses in the math curriculum. As part of the changes our high schools have seen, the intent has always been to grow, not eliminate concurrent enrollment options. However, given your obvious interest in a head start on college, please know that higher education has evaluated our course offerings and has determined that Secondary Math III is a prerequisite for the regents scholarship.  The regent’s scholarship, is a year’s tuition, renewable for a second year.  Students who think skipping Secondary Math III and taking Math 1050/60 puts them somehow money ahead simply haven’t done the math (pun intended).  By all means, take concurrent math courses – but after Secondary Math III!

To the concern with new math standards, in the state of Utah, each university and college is able to track math students from each of their respective high schools. The data collected from 2011, which reflected students who’d had the old math standards, indicates that upwards of 40-56% of our high school students (depending on which high school) were needing to take remedial level math courses – and then a significant percentage failing those. The old standards clearly were not preparing kids for college math.  The changes provide a more comprehensive math curriculum that better prepares our students. This new pattern still provides ample opportunity for concurrent enrollment and AP courses at the 11th and 12th grade level and even earlier for gifted students. This data driven approach to our course patterns will better prepare our students for college and for higher academic success.

Thanks to the teaching and learning division for their assistance in responding to this question.

Holiday Greetings

The following message was sent to all Granite School District employees on Thursday, December 19, at 10 a.m.

Hello All!

I went to bed last night planning a holiday greeting to send out this morning. When the phone rang at 4:00 AM, my thoughts turned another direction.

I left the house much earlier than usual, chipped ice off my windshield, dropped my two elementary kids off at school (the high school kids were long gone already) and drove at a crawl the rest of the way to work. We have two schools with power out, the one with exterior windows we’ll be able to keep open half a day – following a late start – so they don’t have to make it up in April. The other, without exterior windows, we’re getting the word out to close now.

I do want to express my thanks to the transportation fleet, the grounds crews – and all those who don’t usually wield shovels or drive snow plows – who’ve jumped to help provide a warm, safe, supervised, warm-meal day to the children in this community we serve. My thanks absolutely include our teachers who really do the hardest work in our whole organization day in and day out.

As we’ve approached this holiday season, my thoughts have turned to family and Christmases past, including thoughts about my dad who battled cancer, ultimately losing the fight nearly 14 years ago. Paradoxically, he took every opportunity to say that for him, an advantage of cancer was that “it gives the chance to say the things you were too dumb to say before you got sick.” With that counsel, although hopefully not that situation, I encourage all of us (including me), to take the opportunity in the next couple of weeks to initiate repair of bridges in our personal lives and affirmatively let our loved ones know that they are, in fact, our loved ones.

In my own home we celebrate Christmas, so from my home to yours, I wish you a Merry Christmas! I also know many of us approach this season differently and to you, I wish heartfelt Happy Holidays! I’m proud to work with so many great people who dedicate their professional lives, and much of their personal lives, to building our community’s future by serving children directly and indirectly both in our schools and in support of our schools.

I thank all of you!

Martin