help desk – online instruction for New York Regents geometry course

Any ideas on an online course that might be appropriate for a student who has been struggling with New York State Regents geometry? The course would have to prepare the student to pass the NYS geometry Regents exam. What about online tutoring options? While this student is self-directed in some ways, he is not one to “teach himself” from a book or other resources. He probably needs direct instruction, with targeted feedback and guidance on his progress. Should online even be an option in this case? Does he simply need a traditional tutor? Maybe a blended learning option would work well? Any other alternatives?

Any and all ideas would be welcome.

NY Regents Exam: ELA edition

This year, for the first time, high schools students must score at least 65 on the English exam, as well as on four other state tests — math, science, global history and United States history — to earn a diploma.

The three-hour English test includes 25 multiple choice questions; one essay; and two short responses that are each supposed to be a paragraph long. A short response is scored 0 to 2 points. A student who gets 1’s on both responses has a pretty good shot at scoring 65 and passing the exam.

Here, from the state teachers’ scoring guide, is an excerpt from a short response written by an unnamed student. The guide says it deserves a score of 1:

These two Charater have very different mind Sets because they are creative in away that no one would imagen just put clay together and using leaves to create Art.

Theoretically, passing the English Regents would mean that a student could read and write.

Here is the topic sentence of another student’s short response that, according to the state guide, also deserves a 1:

In the poem, the poets use of language was very depth into it.

Despite Focus on Data, Standards for Diploma May Still Lack Rigor By MICHAEL WINERIP Published: February 5, 2012

There is no excuse for this. None.

Now that I'm teaching the most remedial college writing course at my local college, I see how quickly students can pick up grammatically correct and coherent writing, not to mention proper spelling, when you keep them on track and on task. Granted, it's not so easy keeping students on track and on task when you see them just twice a week for just 14 weeks, but NY public schools have these kids 40 weeks a year for 13 years.

A couple of months ago, Ed and I went to the funeral of our neighbor and close friend's father. He was a 6th grade teacher in the 1960s, I think it was, and after his death our friend's husband had discovered a box of short essays his father in law's students had written about their teacher. The children were supposed to write what they thought of his teaching.

Each of the papers was crystal clear, coherent, grammatically correct, and very dear. The children's prose was vivid and alive, and we saw our friend's father in their words. We remembered him.

In 6th grade, in the 1960s 1950s.

new Regents diplomas - survey

from lgm:

If any NYers would like to give the Regents feedback on College & Career Readiness, their survey is here. 

Several questions ask about the various diplomas and there is plenty of room for comments.

David Steiner on the state tests

This past week I presented research to the Board of Regents that clearly suggests the need to adjust the "cut scores" on the state's grade 3-8 English and math exams to more accurately indicate student proficiency on those exams. The Board endorsed the rationale I presented and I will adjust those scores accordingly.

[snip]

If our tests are to be a useful tool, they have to give us meaningful information — not only about a student's current level of proficiency, but also about that student's future prospects. So we looked at linkages and connections, to better understand the signals that indicate whether a student is on track to pass Regents exams and to go on to higher education prepared to do college-level work.

The research told us many things. Most significantly, it revealed that some students who have scored "proficient" on state exams were unprepared, without remediation, to do the work required of them when they reached college. That must change.

"Proficiency" on our exams has to mean something real; no good purpose is served when we say that a child is proficient when that child simply is not.


a sequenced curriculum

But more rigorous exams are only one piece of the Regents' broader reform vision — a vision that includes a more challenging, sequenced curriculum, stronger preparation for teachers and principals, and a world-class data system.

[snip]

We are embarking on a new era of reform, and the goal is clear: to provide all students with a world-class education that prepares them for college, work, citizenship and lifelong learning.

Changes will make New York's standardized tests more meaningful
by David Steiner
July 25, 2010

Robert Pondiscio on college readiness

at the Irvington Parents Forum:

It seems to me that there is an obvious and probably unresolvable tension at work here.  Tie a high school diploma to a high and meaningful standard and you will have boxcar numbers of children who will not measure up now or in the foreseeable future.  Keep it low and you're essentially misleading a similar number to believe they have achieved a level of preparedness they have not.  Advocate for a two-tier system, and you risk (as others have noted) a return to the bad old days.

At present, "college ready" is little more than a bumper sticker.  The fact that only one in four kids (as based on the most recent ACT results) are prepared to do c-level college work in all tested subjects is ample proof that it's not an operative goal for high schools anywhere.  Given the range of colleges, it's a slippery concept.  Harvard ready is not the same as Hostos ready.  The only possible solution of which I can conceive is for state assessments to give families meaningful feedback not on the equally ephemeral concept of "on grade level" but whether or not a child is on track for acceptance within that state's university system--and guarantee a seat if so.  New York can't say I'm Harvard material.  But they certainly should be able to say if I'm SUNY material.

NY state tests in the TIMES

New York Will Make Standardized Exams Tougher
By JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: July 19, 2010

New York report is out

Regents Approve Scoring Changes to Grade 3-8 Math and English Tests
July 19, 2010

To help inform the Regents deliberations, the Department – together with testing experts Daniel Koretz and Howard Everson (both are members of the State’s Technical Advisory Group) and CTB/McGraw-Hill, the state’s assessment contractor – conducted a series of studies and surveys concerning student cut scores and student proficiency. Among their findings were the following:

• Nearly a quarter of students in all New York State two and four-year institutions of higher education take remedial coursework;

• Students taking more remedial courses in their first year of college are less likely to persist in higher education;

• Students who score below an 80 on their math Regents exam have a much greater likelihood of being placed in a remedial college course;

• Students who score above an 80 on their math Regents exam have a good chance of earning at least a C in college-level math;

• Students who score at least a 75 on their English Regents exam have a good chance of earning at least a C in Freshman Composition;

• Institutions of higher education around the state consider a score of 75-85 on Regents exams to be the bare minimum for college readiness;

• Students at the current Level 3 proficiency standard on their 8th grade math exam have less than a 1 in 3 chance of earning an 80 on their math Regents;

• Students in high need districts at the current Level 3 proficiency standard on their 8th grade ELA exam have about a 50-50 chance of earning a 75 on the English Regents;

• Students scoring below 80 on their math regents and below 75 on their English Regents exams have a high likelihood of scoring below 500 on the SAT.

"awful to be 18 and not have choices"

I was already a devoted fan of David Steiner before he was appointed New York state's Commissioner of Education. I'm rapidly becoming a devoted fan of Meryl Tisch, too.

In today's Wall Street Journal:

Acknowledging that a New York state high-school diploma doesn't mean a student is necessarily ready for college, the chancellor of the Board of Regents said she envisions the state providing two types of diplomas in the near future: one that is marked "college-ready," and one that is not.

There is no formal proposal yet to do so, but Merryl Tisch, the chancellor, said the move would be a natural extension of a broad effort by the Regents to toughen up academic standards. Those efforts are fueled by increasing evidence that even while New York students have been showing marked progress on state tests, their performance on national tests has stagnated.

"It's awful to be 18 and not have choices," Ms. Tisch said.

Nearly a quarter of students in all New York state two- and four-year colleges need to take remedial course work, according to John King, the state education department's deputy commissioner. Students taking remedial courses in their first year of college are less likely to graduate, he said.

According to research by the Department of Education, students who scored below an 80 on their math Regents exam have a much higher likelihood of being placed in remedial college courses. Students only need a 65 to pass the math Regents test in New York.

Regent Eyes New Diploma
By BARBARA MARTINEZ
JULY 17, 2010

score inflation in NY

Over the last few years, student performance has soared on math and English tests across New York State, with the most dramatic improvements evident in urban districts such as Buffalo, leading many to celebrate the progress.

But now, state education officials say the progress may not have been quite what it seemed.

Weaknesses in the state’s testing and scoring systems over the last several years created what Education Commissioner David M. Steiner equates to systemic “grade inflation.”

• Students who score at the “proficient” level in middle school math, for instance, stand only a 1-in-3 chance of doing well enough in high school to succeed in college math, he said.
• Students begin getting “inflated” test scores before they hit high school, state officials said. A student who scores a 3 on a state math test — which is considered “proficient” on the scale of 1 to 4 — stands only a 30 percent chance of getting an 80 on the high school Regents math exam, they said.
• ...a student who scored at the proficient level on a state test in 2006 was in the 45th percentile on the national test, meaning that 55 percent of students in the country scored better. In 2009, the same score on the state test would land a student in the 20th percentile on the national test, meaning that 80 percent of students nationwide scored better.

The state Education Department recently asked a group of experts, led by Harvard University’s Daniel M. Koretz, to determine how closely eighth-grade scores correlate to high school Regents exam scores — and how well those Regents exam scores correlate to success in college.

Flawed tests distort sharp rise in scores by students
By Mary B. Pasciak
Updated: July 06, 2010, 11:42 pm / 19 comments
Published: July 07, 2010, 6:35 am

the sun, the moon, and the stars at instructivist

Incredibly cool post at Instructivist!

C. & Ed are going to love it.

While you're there, be sure to read his post on the NY Regents History exam, too. The suffragette question reminds me of Celebrity Jeopardy.

help desk, part 2

I need a royal road to geometry.

Tomorrow I begin Lesson 88 in Saxon Algebra 2.

I won't finish the book until the very end of the summer, which means I will have taken 12 months to get through the thing.

Next I start Saxon Advanced Mathematics, which will take me another year to get through if I'm lucky.

fyi: Saxon publishes four high school books:

• Saxon Math Algebra 1
• Saxon Math Algebra 2
• Advanced Math
• Calculus
  

Geometry and trigonometry are integrated throughout the first 3 books.

So I'll spend next year working my way through Advanced Mathematics while Christopher, who will be in 8th grade, finishes Math A: algebra and some geometry. (Math A is still a 1 1/2 year course, as far as I can tell, though people keep saying NY is going back to the old algebra 1 - geometry - algebra 2 sequence. His class began Math A in January.)

Freshman year, if he stays on the fully accelerated track which I expect he will, he'll be taking geometry - real geometry, with proofs. Or so I hear. (Is this a separate, souped-up geometry course that's neither Math A nor Math B? Don't know! I get all my info from my neighbor, whose son is a year ahead in school.)

Assuming you aren't hopelessly confused by now,^* you may see the problem.

He's catching me.

I'm 2/3 of the way through Saxon Algebra 2, and I have yet to do a proof. Unless there are a lot of proofs in Advanced Mathematics (which there may be - don't know)^** I'm going to be starting geometry-with-proofs the same time Chris does.

That's not good.

I need a royal road.

Does anyone know whether Tammi Pelli's Proofs Workbook might work?

At 64 pages, it's the right length.


(large image)




(large image)




^**update: proofs in Advanced Mathematics

Just checked the scope and sequence for Advanced Mathematics:

Proofs
Elements of Proofs
Understand basic logic and reasoning
State the contrapositives of conditional statements
State the converses and inverses of conditional
statements
Do proof outlines
Do formal proofs
Theorems
Prove the chord-tangent theorem
Prove theorems about secants and tangents
Prove theorems about chord products
Prove the Pythagorean theorem
Prove similarity of triangles
Prove the law of sines
Prove that equal angles imply proportional sides


questions about Math A
Math A Regents exams (archived)
Math A Toolkit
Home Instruction Schools Regents Exam Review
sample Saxon Math lessons
Saxon scope and sequence



^* I'm hopelessly confused, but I'm used to it