High Stakes: The Battle to Save Our Schools

Set your VCR to record the CNN Presents Classroom Edition: High Stakes: The Battle to Save Our Schools when it airs commercial-free on Monday, May 9 from 4:00-- 5:00 a.m. ET on CNN.

Program Overview

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is the most comprehensive attempt at educational reform in generations, aimed at dramatically improving the nation's worst schools. Central to the program is the use of testing to prove that children have learned the required skills. But many parents, educators and students across the country are finding that these high stakes tests are having unforeseen and devastating consequences. In this hour, award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson and CNN Presents take a look at the real high stakes for children, especially minority children, as the reform movement sweeps the country.

Grade Levels: 9-12, college

Subject Areas: Education, Teacher Education, Contemporary Issues

Objectives: The CNN Presents Classroom Edition: High Stakes: The Battle to Save Our Schools and its corresponding discussion questions and activities challenge students to:

• Examine how high stakes testing is being implemented in states throughout the country;
• Analyze the potential benefits and drawbacks of using high stakes testing to determine promotion;
• Assess the potential short- and long-term social, economic and political consequences of high stakes testing;
• Investigate how testing in their school district is being implemented;
• Propose alternative solutions for holding schools and their students accountable for meeting standards.

Curriculum Connections

McREL Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education (Copyright 2000 McREL) is published online by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) (http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks), 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, CO 80014; Telephone: 303/337-0990.

Civics

• Standard 14. Understands issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life
• Standard 16. Understands the major responsibilities of the national government for domestic and foreign policy

Life Skills -- Thinking and Reasoning

Standard 6. Applies decision-making techniques (9-12) Benchmark 2. Analyzes current or pending decisions that can affect national or international policy and identifies the consequences of each alternative.

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think that this program was titled High Stakes: The Battle to Save Our Schools? Why do you think that this issue is referred to as a "battle"? According to the program, what are the "high stakes" in this battle?

2. According to the program, what have the Norfolk, Virginia, Houston, Texas, and Pinellas County, Florida, school systems done to improve their test scores? What arguments for and against high stakes testing were presented in the program? With which arguments do you most closely agree?

3. Who is Rod Paige? What corporate models of success did he apply to Houston's failing schools? How did the Houston educators interviewed for this program respond to this model? According to the program, what was the "Houston Miracle"? What are some of the ways that Houston schools were able to raise their test scores? How does school superintendent Abe Saavedra explain the differences between Houston's official and actual dropout rates? According to the program, what is the correlation between rising test scores and actual dropout rates? What is your reaction to this claim?

4. According to the program, what does it mean to give tests "the Wesley way"? What alleged examples of cheating did students and teachers in the program describe? Who do you think should be held accountable if teachers help their students cheat on state or national tests? State your rationale.

5. According to the program, approximately how many 3rd graders across the state of Florida failed the FCAT last year? Approximately how many seniors failed last year's FCAT? What impact do you think that this level of failure might have on students, schools, communities and the state of Florida? What questions might school officials and community leaders need to address in light of these test results?

6. Clayton M. Wilcox, a superintendent for Pinellas County Schools in Florida, states, "One of my greatest fears as a superintendent is that, given high stakes testing, given accountability, given the bottlenecks it's created, given this mandatory retention movement that's starting across this country, as a result of not being successful, we are creating problems of unanticipated consequence." What do you think are some possible "unanticipated" social, political, economic or psychological consequences that could occur as a result of high stakes testing and mandatory retention? Discuss the concepts of academic and social promotion. What do you think are some possible reasons for the push towards academic promotion rather than social promotion? Do you think that students who don't pass state mandated tests should be held back? State your rationale.

7. Superintendent Wilcox later states in the program that the "ugly underbelly of high stakes testing is accountability." His concern is that a generation of students with skills and talents that aren't measured by high stakes testing fail to be moved through the system. Can you think of alternative assessment strategies that schools could use to help those students who have skills and talents that are not measured by these kinds of tests move through the system? Do you think that it is important to find a way to do so? State your rationale.

8. How did high stakes testing impact each of the following people featured in the program:

• Shavonnda Harris, single mom and high school honors student in Norfolk, Virginia;
• Bernard Palmer, former student, Houston Independent School District, held back in 9th grade 3 times;
• Melvin Love, Jr., 3rd grade student in St. Petersburg, Florida, held back in 3rd grade 3 times;
• Jennifer Meredith, high school senior, failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)?

What or whom do you think is responsible for their experiences in the public school system? Do you think that the system failed these students, or did the students fail the system? State your rationale.

9. What is your understanding of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)? Who do you think should set the standards for what kids should know and be able to do at the end of each grade? Who do you think should be held accountable for students reaching these standards? Why do you think that testing is currently state-based? Do you think that there should be national standards and national testing to measure those standards? Why or why not? After watching this program, what questions do you have about NCLB and high stakes testing?

10. What do you think defines a "successful" school? How did some of the people interviewed in this program describe success in school? What do you think is a "successful" student? What factors do you think determine whether students will be successful in school? What challenges do you think that school officials, educators, politicians and parents face as they try to create successful students and schools? Do you think that all students can achieve success in the U.S. public school system? Explain.

Suggested Activities

1. Testing In Your State

According to the program, "High stakes tests are now a part of the landscape of America's public schools. While Texas, Florida and Virginia have pioneered the use of these tests, President Bush's No Child Left Behind calls for them to be used in every school across the nation by 2014." Challenge students to investigate the standardized tests that are currently being used in their state. Refer them to their state's Department of Education Web site, and have them conduct interviews of state or school officials to learn about the tests that are administered to students in grades K-12 and the interviewees' perspectives on testing. Organize students into pairs, and assign each pair one of the tests. Use the following questions to help students gather information:

• What is the name of the test?
• In what grade(s) is it administered?
• What content or skills are being tested?
• Are there any special accommodations for students who are disabled or who are limited English proficient?
• What, if anything, are schools doing to prepare students for the test?
• What have been your school's test scores over the past several years?
• How do your school's test scores compare with the scores of other schools in your state? What are the implications of this ranking?
• What impact might this test have on students? What happens to students who don't pass the tests?

After students have presented their findings, have them discuss the different perspectives on testing, and what they learned about the benefits and drawbacks to implementing these tests. Have students create brochures that inform parents and community members about testing in their state. Encourage students to present their findings at the next school board or PTA meeting, or help them plan a community town hall meeting on the subject of testing. (Note: College students may write papers and present their arguments to the school's Education Department.)

2. No Child Left Behind

Rod Paige, the former Secretary of Education, has said, "What enterprise in the world can you name that's growing and prospering where there are no standards? Why should in 2005 we have to defend the use of standards in education? And the No Child Left Behind Act, the kind of accountability that's embedded in federal policy now is the right thing to do." Have students discuss this quote in the context of what they learned in the program. Ask: Do you think that NCLB provides the right path to reform? Refer small groups of students to their state's Department of Education Web site to research the state's accountability plan for meeting the following NCLB requirements:

• Assessment and Accountability
• Teacher Quality
• School Choice
• Fiscal flexibility

If this program is being used in high school classrooms, in addition to finding out what the state has committed to doing to meet the NCLB standards, assist students as they conduct interviews with school and education officials to find out how their school has responded to the NCLB requirements. After students have presented their findings, ask the following:

• What successes, if any, has the state/school experienced as a result of NCLB reforms?
• What challenges, if any, does the state/school face as it tries to meet NCLB requirements?
• What alternatives, if any, can you think of for improving the nation's public education system? What are the possible consequences for each of these alternatives?

Challenge students to write letters to the editor or letters to their legislators stating their opinions of NCLB.

Suggested Resources

No Child Left Behind (http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml?src=pb)

White House: Education (http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/education/)

White House: No Child Left Behind (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/reports/no-child-left-behind.html)

National Education Association: No Child Left Behind (http://www.nea.org/esea/index.html)

PublicAgenda.org: Education Resources: (http://www.publicagenda.org/issues/sources.cfm?issue_type=education)

Discussion Guide: (http://www.publicagenda.org/issues/debate.cfm?issue_type=education)

American Association of School Administrators: Assessment (http://www.aasa.org/edissues/content.cfm?ItemNumber=968&snItemnumber=2132)

CNN.com Special Report: America's Changing Classrooms (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/back.to.school/)

CNN.com Special Report: The American Student (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/back.to.school/)

CNN.com Special Report: Innovation and Excellence (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2002/back.to.school/)

CNN.com Special Report: The All-Purpose School (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/schools/)

Keywords

High stakes testing, Standards of Living (SOL), SATs, Rod Paige, George W. Bush, Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), retention, dropout, Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), accountability, No Child Left Behind Act