Reflections: Then and Now
Submitted by Frank Murphy, Sept. 9, 2010
Jordan* attended summer school during the month of July before he started eighth grade. Although he had passing grades on his final seventh grade report card, he was still expected to participate in the Philadelphia School District’s summer remedial program. On the PSSA test that spring, Jordan had scored below basic in both reading and math. It was the central administration’s decision during the 2004-2005 school year to require mandatory attendance in the summer school program of all students scoring in the below basic range on either the reading or math PSSA tests. Performance in the summer school would determine grade placement in the subsequent school year.
The teacher who instructed Jordan during the twenty day program was not assigned to Meade during the regular school year. The principal of the summer program was also someone who did not work at Meade during the school year. The instructional materials used in summer school were purchased specifically for this remedial program. They had no connection to the instructional materials used during the school year and were primarily decontextualized skill drills.
At the end of the program, Jordan’s summer school teacher recommended that he be retained in seventh grade. The teacher felt that Jordan was not ready to go on to eighth grade. It is hard to fathom how this teacher could make such a determination in the short time she knew and worked with Jordan.
It surely didn’t make sense to me. I had known Jordan since he was in first grade. I had a good understanding of his strengths and weaknesses as a student. I also knew his family background, what interested him, and who his friends were. I knew that Jordan would have been devastated if he were retained in the seventh grade. This would have been an action that would have shut him down. It would have robbed him of hope and set him on the path to becoming a high school drop out.
What right did this teacher have to make such a potentially life-altering decision, when she knew so little of who Jordan was as a person?
As principal, I decided that this could not happen. In September when I returned to school, I promoted Jordan to eighth grade.
Of course critics would claim that I was not being accountable. In their viewpoint, I was just passing Jordan along even though he didn’t make the grade. They would say that I was denigrating the integrity of the system and lowering the standards and rigor of our educational institutions.
During his eighth grade year Jordan finally started to develop his confidence and in hand, his competence. Our staff continued to work with him as intensely as they had during prior years. At the end of eighth grade, he scored at the basic level in reading and math. I made arrangements for him to be accepted into a Philadelphia high school offering a number of extra curricular activities that I knew would be engaging to Jordan. This high school also had a college readiness program that could provide him with much individual support.
Jordan grew and flourished in high school. He proved himself to be a successful student and was in his senior year, awarded a full scholarship to a prestigious state university.
In May of this year, Jordan successfully completed his first year of college. He has done well. It is hard to imagine this same outcome if I would have abided by the recommendation of his summer school teacher. But then this teacher would never have entered Jordan’s life that summer if it weren’t for the decision of the school district leaders to make the state test such a high stakes endeavor.
What are we doing to children when we make such important decisions about their future based solely on the results of a single test?
What do you think?
(* Jordan was introduced to readers of Confession of an Urban Principal on September 8, 2010.)