BACKGROUND ON THE TESTING ISSUE POLICY IN 1993:
One might wonder why I think something that happened in 1993 is important to things that happen in Katy ISD in 2017. I think that they are because the process of installing the dumbed down curriculum, the over-abundance of administrative personnel, the string of planted superintendents in our midst that were made to appear as the Board's "choices," and all the education "reform" initiatives that stifle students' acquisition of meaningful knowledge, all hark back to the seeds that were planted in the 1980's and especially in the 1990's in Katy ISD.
"They" hated that I got elected because I asked the pertinent and hard questions that often revealed what they were doing. Everything that happened was planned, devised, schemed and implemented at every opportune moment.
Other Board members had no background such as I did that allowed me to see the changes, what they meant and how devious they were.
I still marvel at the audacity, cleverness, and deviousness of the administrators who knew what they were doing and chose to be a part of implementing such a demonic agenda.
Only now, at the cusp of the Trump administration are we getting closer to having someone fix what it took almost fifty years to implement. One can only hope that there are those who know what they are doing and who will bring us all back from the precipice.
Anyone who doesn't understand that the Millennials and some of the GenXers are the result of being dumbed down in our public schools, just isn't very smart themselves. California was the best at it! Kentucky and New York followed close behind. The university at Rochester was a hotbed of clever liberals who saw their chance and took it to rip up public education in America. You may ask what their motive was. It was to dumb down our populace so that they cannot think for themselves and thus will become easily controlled by the elites.
When Jerry Kroll came to the Board with his request for his daughter's tests, he was endorsing what I had been saying to the Board for a while. Because he was a prominent businessman, the matter garnered some attention, but "they" were ready for it.
This is a copy of the plan that was followed. Because it was given to the Board, it is a public document, and it was not marked "Confidential."
I have colored words red that are significant in the changes that were proposed and which have hidden or double meanings. Some of them are explained in the glossary elsewhere on this web site. They're not saying what you think they are saying!
Concept Statement
TO:
Design and implement a consistent, district-wide framework for fair and equitable access to tests for students and parents which incorporates as a part of the process: a) student opportunities to review all tests in class, b) is based on student specific needs, c) provides feedback to teachers
In a way that:
*Provides flexible test review times for parents
*Requires each campus to formulate a clear concise campus procedure for test review and distribution
*Establishes a clear communication system among teachers, parents and students regarding the alignment of teaching/learning/testing
So that:
*Student performance is improved, and students accept more responsibility for success in the testing process
*Teacher/parent communication is improved
*Positive parent involvement is increased
Purpose(s) of Testing
*Validation/Documentation of Student Process
*Promotion/retention
*Readiness for next sequential concept
*Reteaching/enrichment
*Parent awareness
**Assessment/Diagnosis of Student Progress
*Acquisition of knowledge, skills, and higher order thinking
*Mastery of TAAS objectives
*Reteaching enrichment
*Expansion/enhancement of student's learning experience
*Strategies for thinking organizing information/study skills
*Attentiveness to and participation in the learning environment
*Exposure to a variety of testing formats
*Diagnosis feedback and evaluation of teaching process
Administrative Guidelines
The following guidelines outline:
* Types of student measurement which may be used in Katy ISD include but are not limited to:
*portfolios
*paper/pencil tests
*test requiring use of technology
*projects
*oral/written reports
*class discussion
*dialogues
*performance/practical
*published tests
*Teachers will provide multiple assessments within a given grading period which ensure student opportunities to demonstrate competency.
*Grading guidelines/procedures will be consistent with existing district policies.
*Grading guidelines/procedures will be reviewed each year by individual campuses, departments, and grade levels. Students will receive timely feedback on assessments.
*Students will be given opportunities to review assessments at school.
*Teachers will respond in a reasonable and timely manner to parental requests for explanation or interpretation of student assessment. Teachers are not required to actually give a copy of the test questions to a parent, unless failure to do so would prevent the parents from reviewing the record. [DUH!!!!]
*The time frame will be determined by the nature of the assignment and impact on student learning.
ISSUE: Some of the teachers in the District have developed exam questions that are being used to establish a test bank. These teachers want to withhold the questions from parents and students after the exam is given so that they can use the same bank of test questions year after year. Teachers, on some high school campuses, have spent a considerable amount of time in developing a test bank. As a result, these teachers do not feel that they should be required to allow parents to review the test questions.
On the other side of this issue, there are parents who want to review exam questions in order to better help their children at home. These parents feel that tests are [sic] little value if students are not allowed to analyze and learn from these experiences. Parents want to be given access to student tests upon request.
[The issue that is left out is the one I put forward and that was that the teachers appear not eager to exert themselves in that they didn't want to release their test questions because they did not want to make up new questions for every year and class. As a former teacher who never gave the same test twice, ever, I KNOW that the effort expended is not that great unless one is just not very dedicated to doing the right thing. This excuse, and it is an excuse, is the lamest, most self-serving that I ever heard, and the rest of the Board bought it--which says a lot about them as well.]
Summary of Legal Reviews
From Merrie-Schneider Vogel's comments, one can conclude that student exam questions would most likely be considered "student records" in that they contain personally identifiable information about the students themselves and their relationship to the school. While teachers do not automatically have to provide parents with copies of their test questions, an opportunity to review exam questions is likely necessary in order to provide parents and/or students an interpretation or explanation of student responses. In other words, parents have no right to a copy of the test questions unless failure to give them a copy would prevent the parents access to a review of the record. [So in essence, the parent needs to know to say, "You are preventing me access to a review of my child's record, so give it here! I thought this "legal" opinion was about the most duplicitous I had ever heard!]
Committee's Charge
To make recommendations within which individual campuses can make sound site-based decisions related to parental/student access to test questions and responses.
Committee Members:
Bonnie Holland, Chairperson
Jan Barnett, Executive Director School Services
Art Hinds, Director of Guidance and Counseling
Kathy Huckabee, Assistant Principal MCHS
Kirby Iselt, Assistant Principal KHS
James McDonald, Principal THS
Christian Sillavan, Instructional Specialist
Phyllis McLennan, Instructional Specialist
Brenda Owen, Instructional Specialist
Ed Pepper, Instructional Specialist
Joan Laughrun, Instructional Specialist
Cynthia Schimek, Instructional Specialist
Trudy Sinclair, Instructional Specialist
Jennifer Watson, Instructional Specialist
Meredith Gunn, Instructional Specialist
Judy Scearce, Instructional Specialist
Carolyn Raper, Instructional Specialist
Kerry Kirby, Instructional Specialist
Committee Recommendations
1. Teachers will provide multiple assessments within a given grading period which ensure student opportunities to demonstrate competency.
2. Grading guidelines/procedures will be consistent with existing District policies.
3. Grading guidelines/procedures will be reviewed each year by individual campuses, departments, and grade levels. Students will receive timely feedback on assessment.
4. Students will be given opportunities to review assessments at school.
5. Teachers will respond in a reasonable and timely manner to parental requests for explanation or interpretation of student assessment.
(TEACHERS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO ACTUALLY GIVE A COPY OF THE TEST QUESTIONS TO A PARENT, UNLESS FAILURE TO DO SO WOULD PREVENT THE PARENT FROM REVIEWING THE RECORD).
6. The time frame for grading student work will be determined by the nature of the assignment and its impact on student learning.
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My handwritten comments on this document which were made at the time and indicate that I asked these questions are:
The paragraph that begins "Teachers are not required..." above indicates that you have simply copied the legal response hoping to fool the public. Is that true?
When did the Board make the decision to make this a "site-based" decision? Isn't this matter the purview of the Board? Please read to me the Board Policy that makes this an administrative/site-based decision?
WHO made this decision, and why wasn't the Board consulted on the matter?
How will this jibe with the Open Records law?
Unfortunately I didn't write down their answers. I'm guessing they didn't have any that impressed me enough to write them down.
If I were a parent of a KISD student today, I would make sure I reviewed Board Policies FL (Local and Legal) and EF (Legal). There is also an FL item in the Administrative Regulations and good luck getting a copy of that! That's obviously where they have hidden the requirements regarding returning tests to students and/or their parents. Since 1993 there have been a lot of legal issues concerned with student access and privacy. Parents need to be aware of those and especially a student's rights with regard to the social/psychological testing and information acquisition that transpires. It is a parent's responsibility to protect their child's privacy and records. After a cursory look at the current policy, I noted that they had removed Board members from the list of those who can review individual student records. That's as it should be.
As always I suggest to parents that they obtain copies of their child's permanent records whenever they move to another school (after 5th grade and 8th grade) and before their child turns 18. After 18 the student can obtain his own records and sometimes, but not always, parents cannot. You should be sure your high school graduate obtains a copy of his permanent record file. He/she does not want there to be anything that might negatively affect future college admissions or employment. If there IS something in the file that is disputable, your child can ask that HIS side/opinion of the matter be included in written form within the file. Be sure you review the Board Policy (those noted above) that tell you what you may ask for and which they must give you.
I strenuously object to the use of the word reteaching. If you use that word, your computer will highlight it as being an error. There is no such thing as "reteaching." There is teaching, period. One can review, but something once taught, is taught. It's like saying "redrinking" or "rebathing" or "resmelling" or any other nonsensical combination that makes no sense. It's just another dumb educrat manifestation of ignorance.
The bottom line of my posting here is that I believe that parents and students should be given a copy of any test that they take and that they be allowed to keep it. Teachers need to make new tests each time. The "test bank" concept is just baloney.