The Mississippi Department of Education issued the following statement.
Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education, recommended waiving the passing requirements for statewide 3rd grade reading and high school end-of-course assessments for the 2020-21 school year. The recommendation was included in a presentation today to the Mississippi Senate Education Committee.
“I think this year is a year of grace,” Wright said. “I understand that COVID-19 has disrupted teaching and learning this school year, and we want to make sure we support teachers, administrators and students as much as possible.”
Statewide assessments will take place as scheduled this year to measure statewide student progress, assess the impact of COVID-19 disruptions on learning and meet U.S. Department of Education requirements.
“Statewide assessments provide critical data to the department to identify any learning gaps and what resources the state needs to accelerate learning opportunities for students and professional development for teachers,” Wright said.
The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) is working with technical advisers to examine ways to meet requirements of federal law to address accountability concerns. MDE recommends all districts and schools retain their letter grade from the 2018-19 school year for the 2020-21 school year. All recommendations in assessment and accountability are subject to policy decisions from the incoming presidential administration.
Mississippi lawmakers requested information from MDE on the impact of the pandemic on public education and how the MDE is addressing student needs.
Wright
said MDE will continue to help districts plan afterschool, enrichment
and summer learning opportunities. Literacy-Based Promotion
Act funds could fund summer reading camps, afterschool programs and
reading enrichment programs. These funds are available because of
reduced face-to-face training and travel costs due to COVID-19.
Districts are expected to use federal funds to support literacy
and learning efforts as well.
Kingfish note: NO! NO! NO! PERIOD! I totally get the reasons for postponing standardized tests. Covid-19 and distance learning has wreaked havoc upon Mississippi education for nearly a year. However, the third-grade reading-gate test is the most important test our schools administer.
The reasons for the law haven't changed. If kids can't read after the third grade, they fall further behind and rare is the child who actually catches up. The reading-gate is the main reason JPS schools improved from an F to a D. We need to know if the kids can't read in third grade. Period. The test identifies who needs help. During this pandemic, making sure those kids can read should be one of the most, if not the most, important priorities in education. The test will show who needs help and a whole summer can be spent getting those kids up to speed.
Now if MDE wants to temporarily drop the passing requirement from Level 3 to Level 4, that is fine. However, kids who can barely read need to be identified and coached. It will also help determine which schools are "shammin'" when it comes to distance learning.
Any legislator who votes for this is voting for illiteracy.
47 comments:
What's an "illiteracy" test?
Something I made up. The test tests for literacy and of course, the flip side, illiteracy.
Lowering the bar, one future welfare recipient at a time.
When your constituents can't pass, lower standards.
This would be an injustice to the children of MS. Education is the ONLY way to
break the cycle of poverty so richly ingrained in MS
If MDE maintains the 2018-19 accountability ratings, the much-debated Teacher Recognition Program (TRP) will only fund the work of teachers who have remained in the same school since that year. Think about this: the TRP will "reward" teachers based on work performed THREE school years ago and only to teachers who have not changed schools since then.
Teachers: Work through pandemic for at least 1.5 years and then move to a different (perhaps, better) school? That's too bad. You won't be recognized for that work. The TRP budget should just be absorbed by Delbert to fund a wholesale teacher pay raise. It's a farce, anyway.
Okay Kingfish at 11:12.
You're just an elitist.
Reading is a much overvalued skill -- along with thinking, completely unnecessary in the digital age.
Why waste time and money testing for literacy?
Carey just wants to continue bragging about what a great job she's doing to justify her ridiculous salary. This is all about her, not the kids.
Get rid of this overpaid superintendent of education. Last year she didn't even know how many public school teachers the state has so they could all get raises. How can we have any confidence she knows what she's talking about this time?
Q: "What's an 'illiteracy' test?"
A: "The Clarion Ledger."
I agree that we need more illiterate people in Mississippi. One only need to watch the events at that capitol yesterday to see how much a group of illiterates can achieve.
Insanity!
What is a farce is funding a pay raise for under- and non-performing teachers. A merit based world except for teachers.
Lets give that a little more thought.
We are already in last place. How much lower does she think we should go?
KF I finally found something I can agree with you 100% The kids who will be hurt most by curtailing this very effective test are the ones most at risk in the first place, Especially JPS. These kids are already losing ground because of the insane decision to cut in-person instruction for almost one year, but they will be absolutely doomed if their reading status is not quickly identified and remedial efforts initiated as needed. The JPS administration has already failed them and this may be the last hope for many of these unfortunate kids.
I propose that most people are illiterate by the standards of the founders of this nation. For instance, the majority of people alive today are unable to read the handwriting of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Another example is watching an employee of the City of Jackson or many State employees attempt to read modern cursive handwriting. Barely literate in typewritten script, they are also unable to read cursive just like they can’t give you correct change because they can’t count either. This anomaly transcends race. This is the way statists want the nation. It makes people ignorant of history and vulnerable dependence on the state itself.
@11:57
What you saw yesterday were a group of agents provocateurs of the DNC silence Ted Cruz and Rand Paul before they could put the many objections on the record. Trump supporters wanted the America’s greatest Doctor and Lion Ted to be heard.
I’m guessing this was Cindy Hyde Smith’s idea. Maybe now she can finally pass the 3rd grade after so many tries. The short bus won’t have to make a stop at Cindys house for too much longer.
The reality is that JPS is a school district defacto operated by the Democratic Party of Mississippi. Abandoning students is nothing more than filling the party pipelines with more unskilled, poor and destitute. For Democrats it is simply known as party outreach to the young and teens.
I realize COVID was not the children's fault. But, do we really do them a favor by moving them on with a hole in their education? I think not.
" A mind, be's a turrible thang to waste..."
She looks like she didn't make the Lollipop Guild auditions for the wizard of oz...
@12:14, it's 11:30
I understand your sarcastic frustration, but I don't think it's fair to punish a 10th grade English teacher for having to play catch up when a student has been taught English for at least 9 years, already. I also don't think it's fair to reward all teachers for the work of the one 10th grade English teacher.
Before the TRP, all teachers (regardless of ability or performance) wanted to teach state tested subjects because they could make extra money that way. Now, every teacher gets rewarded for the results only a few actually produce.
The good and able teachers then burn out because they are assigned to take on the classes that determine accountability ratings. We already have a teacher shortage, so how can we dismiss the teachers who aren't worth their salt? There's been no good proposition to solve problems like these presented by anyone.
If you want to learn how these things work, listen to a teacher. If you're brave, marry one.
If I understand correctly, essentially they are saying that BECAUSE these kids had challenges or less opportunity to learn last year, we don't want to find out just how far in the hole they are. Isn't the purpose of the test to find that out and fix it? If you think there's a bigger problem than usual, don't you want to find it and fix it? Isn't that the whole purpose of the test in the first place? WHY the kids are behind is not what the test is for - it's to find out how far behind.
Kinda like saying, "Let's not check the pressure in that half-flat tire or fix it - we can just drive it until the other ones need attention."
But I'm guessing that facts have no place in this issue.
Need to do these illiteracy posts on youtube so you don't need to be able to read in order to read the post!
If you want to learn how these things work, listen to a teacher. If you're brave, marry one.
If want a reader to believe you're sharing an opinion in good faith, don't preach.
Shocking on the number of MDE people drawing six plus figure salaries in this State.
Agree with 12:46. It has been obvious to me for a long time that the system is designed to look like education is a priority while empowering a powerful lobby and transferring a lot of wealth, but without actually producing educated children.
They still have to take the reading tests. If they can't make the passing grade, they can still move to 4th grade and get extra help. Sounds from some of these comments y'all are the illiterate ones.
So little Johnny has been sitting at home "virtually learning" since he started 3rd grade in September because his teacher was scared of getting his cooties and told him not to come to school. Johnny's single mom is working two jobs to make ends meet and Granny is not into computers. He isn't getting the instruction he needs so he isn't learning and ergo he isn't able to magically pass the test. Don't worry little Johnny, just do 3rd grade again next year and let's really hope you can go back to school, too.
Two thumbs up to you, Kingfish!!
Irregardless...I love the word illiteracy.
What's the state waiting on to terminate the contract of this outrageously incompetent woman? She'll stoop to any level to have it appear that her unrivaled guidance is setting some sort of mark of achievement. How damned long will we be duped into paying this woman the highest salary in the United States of America?
Of whom does she have photos? (a question carefully crafted using proper sentence structure)
1:29 PM
If you're even braver marry a community mental health therapist.
@1:44 The 3rd graders will still take the MAP state assessment. The state assessment is the instrument used for the Literacy Promotion Act. She is just saying that she believes the requirements to pass to 4th should be suspended for this year. They will still be tested and data will be gathered.
@2:37 Trust me, many, many, many teachers are "not scared to catch cooties." We want to go back, but we are not the politicians that make these decisions. I don't really understand your last sentence, sorry.
If you set your goals too high, just lower them.
Well at least we got MDE to admit that "virtual learnng" doesn't work.
"Dr. Carey Wright recommended waiving the passing requirements".
And Delbert is always in front of the cameras babbling about giving teachers yet ANOTHER pay raise.
Carey Wright should resign and apply for a position within the Ole Miss grad school.
During 1991, a friend of my mine taught third grade at Barr Elementary on West Capitol Street.
The majority of her students were 8 years old. ( the proper age for third grade).
But there was also a 13 year old assigned to her class, bullying the younger kids every day.
This 13 year old would waddle into class at his discretion. (When he decided to even make an appearance).
Naturally the young kids were scared shitless of this guy.
The Jackson Public School "District" told my friend to shut up about it.
She left in 1992 and has never looked back.
MDE doesn't appear to exist or operate with the primary goal of producing educated functional children, so what it their focus?
The bureaucrats and pols have to keep the ignorant on the plantation and un/underemployed so they will vote democrat.
And this typifies what is wrong with the education industrial establishment. Somehow, letting someone not learn to read is viewed as Grace. Grace is actually making sure they know how to read - that we don’t just send them down the primrose path to fail in life. Grace is holding ourselves accountable for preparing the adults of tomorrow. Grace is letting someone exist not knowing how to read? How horrible of a person.
3:04 What would happen if one kid had to be held out of school for most of the year? Would the requirements to pass to 4th be suspended for the year for that child? How many children does it take to suspend the requirements?
Just askin'.
Earlier, I prayed to God that I would laugh out loud, sitting at my computer, before bedtime. This post did it for me. Thanks so much:
"She looks like she didn't make the Lollipop Guild auditions for the wizard of oz..."
@8:25 If a child missed the whole year he/she would fail. Moot point.
Just change the rules to make any score between 0 and 100 an A+. Then you've got a school where every student is a straight-A student.
See how easy it is to improve school performance?
"She looks like she didn't make the Lollipop Guild auditions for the wizard of oz..."
You're probably unaware that W.C.Fields was her grandfather. Show some respect.
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