Teaching to the Test Comes as a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing to PS 154 in the Bronx
On New Year's Day, 2014 the staff of PS 154 received its weekly commandments, er, proclamations, oops, announcements from DR Alison Coviello; PhD and Principal of PS 154 in the Bronx. Several staff members contacted The Crack Team with a directive from DR Alison Coviello; PhD andPrincipal that raised some eyebrows;
....reading and math teachers in grades 3 – 5 identified students (making up 15% of the grade) who have the potential to achieve Levels 3 or 4 on the upcoming State assessments. Please keep these goals in mind and make plans to achieve them. You may have to think out of the box in terms of how you help particular students. For example, some teachers noted that particular students have the intellectual capability, but currently lack the stamina. We discussed working with these students on a weekly basis to take longer and longer practice assessments as a means to simply build their stamina.The Crack Team went hard to work to analyze this and to create a proper response. Right off the bat we all agreed that the poor students of grades 3, 4, and 5 at PS 154 will not be getting a proper
Other teachers talked about the necessity to meet with parents or for me to speak with parents so that students will attend before or after school clubs. I have done this with four parents thus far (as specifically requested by the teacher) and have been successful at getting 2 out of 4 of these students to attend the extra clubs. Speak to me if you’d like assistance with this.