HSAs!

While hurriedly searching the Internet for information about Baltimore City schools, I came upon an article from the Baltimore Sun about apparent growing concern over the HSA testing requirements for a diploma in 2009. The article contains the usual talking points: the need for high standards versus the validity of having four tests determine the outcome of 13+ years of school; how to make the tests fairer for students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency; lawmakers versus the school board; etc. There was also a one-liner about the abysmal passing rates of Black and Latino students: “Critics also note that larger numbers of [sic] blacks and Hispanics are failing the tests.” That, apparently, about sums it up for the Baltimore Sun (no need to look any farther into that statement, now is there).

But the most interesting and, in my opinion, the most entertaining part of the article was the final section on remedial help. The article notes that students who fail to pass the HSA the first time are often enrolled in remedial HSA mastery courses the following year. Apparently, there have been concerns about students missing out on elective opportunities so that they can retake classes that they found difficult or boring the first time. What I find so amusing (darkly amusing, mind you), is that people actually think that it is valid to criticize remedial coursework in algebra, biology, government, and English, when tests show that these specific students have not mastered the material taught in those courses. In my opinion (and in my experience), many of the students who reach high school in Baltimore City NEED remedial courses in these subjects, and if failing the HSA is how they’re going to get it, so be it. Now, I don’t discount the need for student-selected courses of study to broaden the educational experience, but really, if the city is waiting until high school to implement remedial courses in core subject areas, what do we, as educators, really expect? Parents and students SHOULD be heated about missed opportunities to study African literature and AP Chemistry, but they should be more heated that there weren’t opportunities to catch up in core subjects before high school rolled around. Imagine if students were on grade level in everything (or even in three of the four subject areas) before they got to high school? I’m sure the testing and the remedial courses wouldn’t be seen as so much of a problem.

What I also found interesting was the discussion of how teachers affect student’s scores on the HSAs. Someone pointed out that if a student had a bad teacher in a tested subject, they wouldn’t stand a very good chance of passing the HSA in that subject. I found myself thinking that I could only HOPE that the only year my students had a bad teacher was one year in the one HSA tested subject that they needed to graduate. We all know that the 40% pass rate in Baltimore City is not due to that one biology, algebra, government, or English II teacher. Our students don’t pass because of accumulated years of schools that consistently don’t meet their needs. I, for one, happen to think that a remedial course or two is the least we can do to make up for all of those lost years of basic instruction in core subjects, even if it ends up being a little boring for the students in question.

If you’d like to read the article yourself, here’s the link: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-te.md.tests12mar12,0,2353768.story?page=1&coll=bal-education-k12 .