This week concluded our state-mandated testing. After spending so long in Colorado dealing with them, then moving here, I was in for an eye opening experience. It's soooo different here!
In Colorado, they're called CSAPs (Colorado Student Assessment Program). Kids take them from 3rd to 10th grade. Reading, writing, math. And in grades 5, 8, and 10 they take a science test. Then, 11th graders are required to take the ACT. There is no exit exam for seniors. The tests in Colorado don't have any impact on student grades, performance, etc. All the tests are timed as well.
In Alaska, they're called SBAs (Standards Based Assessment). Kids still take them from 3rd to 10th grade, but when they are in 10th grade, they are called the HSGQE (High School Graduation Qualifying Exam). Reading, writing, and math still. And science is tested in grades 4, 8 and 10. All 10th graders must pass the reading, writing, and math sections of the HSGQE to receive a true diploma when they graduate as seniors. If they don't pass the spring of the 10th grade year, they are tested again in the fall the following year. And again in the spring. And again and again until they pass. They only have to retake the tests they failed though. Other than the exit exam, the other major difference is that the tests here are not timed. Students have as much time to complete the tests as they need. Theoretically, they can stay til 9pm at night if they need to! I didn't get a chance to see the high school tests, because I was proctoring for one of our elementary special education students (she needed a one-on-one proctor to read her the test), but the tests seem so much longer. The writing part of the HSGQE has 6 or 7 writing prompts I believe, in addition to the 60 multiple choice questions.
The nice thing is that my community seems to find SBA scores important, unlike parents in Colorado, who are indifferent to their students' CSAP scores. (I do believe SBA scores are processed a little quicker than CSAP scores...that might be a helpful factor.)
Overall, my first year of SBA testing went fairly smooth. Nothing too crazy to report.
Oh, on another note, it's official. I'm returning to Koliganek for another year! I'll be back in Colorado for the summer though!
Showing posts with label NCLB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NCLB. Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2010
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Students in the Bush
The first question I was asked for the first month that I was up here was "How are the kids different?" And depending on the situation, would depend on which "kids" they were talking about. Sometimes they were talking about kids in Colorado, other times it was kids in Alaska. The kids in Colorado and the kids in Alaska are not too terribly different. It's just different circumstances that make the kids different. When it comes down to it, they're still kids. Their work ethic isn't much different between the two places, they have relationship problems with the boy/girl friends, some of them have great home-lives and some of them don't, and they love sports.
Because of the circumstances of the high schools in the villages, there are a lot of students who live in other villages that come up to our school because there's no high school in their village. They stay with extended family or live in boarding homes while their here. The boarding home parents get paid for taking in kids, of course, and they usually have kids of their own at home. They also have the right to send the students back to their homes if they get out of hand up here.
Education up here is very focused on the SBAs, which is the state-mandated test (similar to the CSAP in Colorado). The SBAs here though are much more important to most of the students, staff, and parents than the CSAPs ever were for anyone I knew in Colorado. I guess that is definitely a major difference between the two places. Don't get me wrong, everyone knows it's important to pass your state-mandated test (CSAP, SBA, whatever) because of No Child Left Behind...but in Colorado, that's as far as it goes. In Alaska, the students have to take an exit exam to graduate high school, which is taken for the first time at the end of 10th grade. They are tested on reading, writing, and math, and the material is supposed to align with the Alaska state standards, which funny enough, is the same idea with the SBAs.
Most of the kids here are very technology savvy, too. Our school district is a Mac 1-to-1 school, which means every middle school student has access to their own Mac laptop (although they cannot take it home). Every high school student has a Mac laptop that they can take home, after they pay a $40 fee. They end up with a lot of skills using the different programs. We use a program called Remote Desktop to monitor the students while they are working. We can take control of their computers, freeze their screens, or just monitor them. Pretty cool!
All in all, the students in the bush aren't much different than students in the suburbs of Colorado. They have their issues, but their kids...what kid doesn't have problems, right?
Because of the circumstances of the high schools in the villages, there are a lot of students who live in other villages that come up to our school because there's no high school in their village. They stay with extended family or live in boarding homes while their here. The boarding home parents get paid for taking in kids, of course, and they usually have kids of their own at home. They also have the right to send the students back to their homes if they get out of hand up here.
Education up here is very focused on the SBAs, which is the state-mandated test (similar to the CSAP in Colorado). The SBAs here though are much more important to most of the students, staff, and parents than the CSAPs ever were for anyone I knew in Colorado. I guess that is definitely a major difference between the two places. Don't get me wrong, everyone knows it's important to pass your state-mandated test (CSAP, SBA, whatever) because of No Child Left Behind...but in Colorado, that's as far as it goes. In Alaska, the students have to take an exit exam to graduate high school, which is taken for the first time at the end of 10th grade. They are tested on reading, writing, and math, and the material is supposed to align with the Alaska state standards, which funny enough, is the same idea with the SBAs.
Most of the kids here are very technology savvy, too. Our school district is a Mac 1-to-1 school, which means every middle school student has access to their own Mac laptop (although they cannot take it home). Every high school student has a Mac laptop that they can take home, after they pay a $40 fee. They end up with a lot of skills using the different programs. We use a program called Remote Desktop to monitor the students while they are working. We can take control of their computers, freeze their screens, or just monitor them. Pretty cool!
All in all, the students in the bush aren't much different than students in the suburbs of Colorado. They have their issues, but their kids...what kid doesn't have problems, right?
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