Julia Steiny: Test results don’t accurately write a school’s story
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 23, 2010
Last fall, on the days of the NECAP testing, Beacon Charter School for the Arts cordoned off the fourth floor of its Woonsocket building for the exclusive use of juniors, the all-important test-takers.
The New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) is the set of tests on which the state relies — too heavily, to my mind — to “classify” or grade schools. The previous fall, Beacon suffered what the staff still calls the “11-percent shock,” a drop in writing scores. As soon as their heart rates settled back to normal, they rolled up their sleeves to design and carry out a full-court press to boost test scores, especially in writing.
In the latest release of scores, Beacon got a well-earned 28-point boost in writing. But to everyone’s surprise, it also reaped a bonanza in the reading score — 98 percent proficient, second-highest reading score in the state. I’ll get to the reason for that in a moment.
On those testing days, Beacon fed its juniors a hearty and encouraging breakfast. To cope with the nerve-wracking half-hour before the test, kids had three choices: They could take a walk outside with a teacher. They could get physical and aggressive with Wii games set up for the purpose. Or they could listen to an iPod and chill. Whatever worked for them.
When they took their seats that first day, at each of their desks they found a mechanical pencil — a little luxury most urban kids don’t