THE EDITOR'S PAGE
What Will You Do on Summer Vacation?
By Bruce M. Smith
ONCE AGAIN it's June, and readers will find in this issue Roger Soder's Books for Summer Reading, a feature we've been doing in the Kappan since 1991. I usually end up with at least a couple of new additions to my shelves after reading all the suggestions offered.
This year, though, I want to get in the game too and offer my own suggestion of a book for Kappan readers to digest and share with friends and colleagues over the summer months. A prepublication copy just crossed my desk in April. The title is America's "Failing" Schools. It's published by RoutledgeFalmer, and it's written by W. James Popham, whose byline has appeared in these pages on many occasions. (There's a good reason for the quotation marks around "failing" in the title; it's the unvarnished descriptor Popham settles on for schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years.) The subtitle explains my reason for endorsing this book: "How Parents and Teachers Can Cope with No Child Left Behind."
Popham's is as evenhanded a presentation as I've seen of the most important parts of NCLB. Indeed, Part I, which lays out the basic features of the law, is both clear and sensible -- something that can't always be said for some of the law's requirements. Kappan readers would do well to share this section with parents and other community members, for while more and more people seem to have heard something about NCLB, few know very much. And these three short chapters do an admirable job of explaining the major accountability-related items.
One reason Popham is able to maintain his equanimity, even in the wilds of darkest NCLB, is that he approaches his quarry from the dual perspective of an educator and a psychometrician. Part II of America's "Failing" Schools lays out some basic information about tests, test construction, and the concept of "instructionally supportive" tests. While some of the information in these chapters might not be on the tip of every educator's tongue, it is delivered in clear and simple language. And Popham never strays far from the central question of whether a particular kind of test and its reported results will help teachers and parents help children learn.
Part III, the final section of this small book -- it's just 150 pages -- lays out what sort of evidence is really necessary to do a good job of evaluating a school. And it's more than test scores -- even those generated by good tests. In addition to instructionally supportive tests, Popham recommends student work samples, affective data, and a variety of nontest academic indicators. When considered together, these four kinds of evidence can give a reasonably accurate picture of a particular school's effectiveness.
But Jim Popham is no Pollyanna.
Most states are far from having a good system of school evaluation
in place. And a concluding chapter moves readers beyond the covers
of the book and into the world of activism. It offers a set of
questions that educators might want to ask of their state department
of education and a set that parents might want to ask of the principal
of their child's school. The goal of both sets of questions is
to find out whether a state's accoutability system is a defensible
one, and if it's not, to begin lobbying to make it better. Popham
is under no illusions that this will be an easy task.
Perhaps you don't find the prospect of professional reading an
appealing one for whiling away those vacation hours at the seashore
or in the mountains? Fair enough. Then get a copy of America's
"Failing" Schools right now, and read it before
you leave town. You won't regret it. -- BMS
Last modified 25 May 2004
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