In today's Baltimore Sun is it reported that there is an estimated 8% of Maryland high school seniors at risk for not graduating. 4,660 students out of 53,500 (with 1063 of those students coming from our very own Baltimore City) are in the process of struggling through Bridge Projects in order to graduate on time. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-hsa-resultsbyschool-table0325,0,6258495.htmlstory When I say "struggling," I mean the teachers and Department Heads are the ones struggling.
During one of our Professional Development days, the math teachers were all sent to be trained on how Bridge Projects work. In my school, only the Department Head and one other teacher deals with advising the projects, so until this PD I was unaware of what this process included. To my surprise, the PD was not filled with useful tips on how to get the students motivated to do the projects, but rather was a session on how teachers can give students the answers to the "project" (really it's just an extended work packet) without legally giving them the answers. We were told that as an adviser, we should be giving students the exact questions with different numbers, work the problems out, as well as write out any explanations needed. This can be used as a "reference" for the student as s/he completes the project.
Frankly, I don't see the point of this project. The student's are still not mastering the skills they clearly need. They are merely being taught how to copy off another page properly. I understand the concept of modeling for a student, but how does this assess whether or not the student understands the concept being tested? Students taking the real HSAs do not get problems worked out for them. I feel as though the state is trying to find a loophole from failing the 8% of students. If you are going to have a standard such as HSAs, do so. Stick by it. Fail 8% because they are not ready to leave high school, because they have not accomplished the skills the state has deemed necessary for graduating. Do not just let them pass by completing some make-up work packet the students copy off of their teacher. What is the point of that? What is stopping them from removing the middle man and have the teacher just write it out themselves while signing the students name? The responses on these projects aren't the words or thoughts of the student, but rather the teacher. There is no actual understanding being demonstrated.
So someone please tell me, what is the point of these Bridge Projects? Help students understand material? Or a way for the state to avoid failing mass numbers of students and looking like an educational failure?
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Your post does a great job of summarizing all of my frustrations with the Bridge projects. At my school, I realized that I basically had to (re)teach them the material that was in the packet, and it was disturbing to me to be teaching high school seniors about verb tenses, paragraph structure, or what variables are. I often found it difficult to tell when I was helping too much or not.
Your last line is really striking because the political element of these projects is not being talked about. These projects are, in an ideal world, a better way of assessing knowledge than a standardized test because they require practical application of concepts, continuity from one problem to another, and focus on a theme. However, when high school seniors must have their hands held to complete any part of a very low-level project, that should be a clear warning sign that the students do not possess the skills we are testing.
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