Bridge Projects: A Project Monitor's Perspective

No Child Left Behind has required all students develop mastery on state developed tests. Maryland requires that all seniors pass all four high school assessment exams (HSA) in the four content areas, algebra, English, government, and biology, before they receive a high school diploma. Some students experience difficulty passing the assessment exams. In order for students to meet graduation requirements and the requirements set forth by NCLB, Maryland State Department of Education developed the High School Assessment Bridge Plan, which allows for a student to demonstrate mastery of specific academic content. The Bridge Plan is available only to those students who have failed a particular HSA test two times. Those students complete a project in order meet graduation requirements. Their highest score on the test determines the number of projects the student must complete. For example, on the Biology HSA, the passing score is a 400. A student with a score of 378 must complete one project, but a student with a score of 377 must do two projects.

From the student’s perspective, the projects can seem very appealing. Science bridge projects require students to design and carry out an experiment and then interpret the results in order to draw conclusions. The projects are very similar to science fair projects. Many students find the projects difficult and time consuming. After completing projects, the students, themselves, cannot say that they truly know any more biology than they knew before they began the project. The bridge plan is not necessarily easier than the HSA exam itself; because the projects require more work and time. However, the projects are a better alternative for those who were unable to pass the standardized test. The students work with an adult (project monitor), who makes sure the students are completing all the steps correctly. In addition, students have the option of completing the projects over several sittings. If the student’s project is not accepted, the student only has to redo the portion of the project that did not meet the requirements. This makes projects more appealing for many students because who fail the test, even by one point, must sit for another 3 hours and redo the entire test.

However, from a Project Monitor and Bridge Scorer standpoint, there are a few snags in the system. As a Project Monitor, teachers must give up their own time during school, after school and on Saturdays to work with students without compensation (other than the satisfaction of student achievement). Many times the teachers spend a great deal of time searching for students and struggling to get them to stay after school to work on projects. Sometimes monitors have to beg teachers to excuse students from other classes. The projects pose an additional problem for students with special needs; they often have the most difficulty with the exams and therefore have 3 or more projects to complete. With the projects, however, many students do not receive sufficient accommodations, as prescribed by the individualized education plan (IEP) – they receive the exact same project and have to complete the same work under the same time constraints as regular education students. In some schools, the administration expects all teachers to help, regardless of teacher schedules but cannot afford proper compensation.

As a Bridge Scorer, teachers continue to sacrifice their Saturdays and Sundays to look at
hundreds of student projects. As a monitor it is a good idea to become a scorer, because you become familiar with the project expectations and are better equipped to help your students. The scorers must be certified teachers, although the content of the certification seems to be less important. Many biology scorers are middle school teachers or chemistry teachers who may not have strong HSA Biology content. To help the scorers, the state developed rubrics, and the district offered training. The rubrics contain sample answers. However, the sample is not necessarily the only possible answer. Some teachers are not strong enough in their content area to think outside of the rubric box. For example, an English project requires the student to change the verb so the sentence makes sense – I left home and go the store. There are 2 verbs in the sentence – the directions are not specific as to which verb to change, but the rubric only contains one choice. If the scorer does not know enough grammar – a student who says, “I leave home and go to the store “could be marked wrong because the rubric only contains "I left home and went to the store".

The main problem with the scoring system is that there is no way to eliminate bias; it is hard for teachers to grade fairly. Although teachers do not score projects from their own schools, there is no way to account for bias – in favor of students from one school or against students from another school. Every teacher comes to the table with differing student expectations and their own personal opinions about the students and the schools. For science, every project needs 20 points in order to be accepted. Two scorers look at the projects individually, erring on the side of the student, and give it a score ranging from 1-26 points. The scores do not have to be identical, if both say it passes, the project is accepted. However, experience shows that frequently, there is a large range in the scores given even for the same project. One project was reviewed by 4 scorers – with four separate and different scores ranging from 7 to 23. Two people thought the project deserved to pass (giving it 20 pts or higher), while two others gave the project less than 10 points.

The Bridge Plan is in its first year, so with time, some of these kinks may work themselves out of the system. The goal was to create a method for students who struggle with the timed, standardized test to meet graduation requirements. Nevertheless, the scoring system is flawed due to incompetent and/or biased scorers, or maybe simply inadequate training. Furthermore, the students do not develop true mastery of the content, although they may be more engaged. The bridge plan ( at least in City Schools) has truly become more work for teachers and stress for the administration. For most, it is "volunteer," but when a student needs help, and in Baltimore many students do, very few teachers will say no to helping a child graduate. In many cases, this direction of the NCLB educational reform is requiring teachers to work much harder than the students.