The subject matter of this report from Sarah Downey is nothing new, regrettably. She is in a really backwards-looking school and requests help from the group:
Here’s the story:
Earlier this month my principal visited a school and came back with the form below that we all need to fill in monthly. I am 100% using CI (OWIs, the invisibles, sometimes a MovieTalk, SSR…) my 8th grade colleague is not. We agreed to make our monthly common assessment a free write that we would track monthly. My principal is unsure of what we are planning to do and might not allow us to deviate from a multiple choice test.
Our principal also loves the 7th grade teachers who teach page by page from the textbook. Currently I want to change proficiency targets to writing proficiency (novice mid) that I would like for them to be at by the end of the year. I also want to change that entire row that states % mastered.
I think this form only works for a multiple choice test from a textbook that tracks the questions and standards with reports on percentage of students mastering certain standards from a generated test.
I do not want to put my students through this. I want to make it as painless as possible for them and I want to appease my principal but have great suggestions and research to backup my suggestions so she can’t do anything but accept the final product I present her. She’s not a bad principal – she was a math teacher originally, she doesn’t understand and doesn’t want to learn. She also listens to my misinformed and lazy 7th grade colleague who wants to be a principal (could not happen soon enough).
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.