MOSL Committee Information

Measures of Student Learning

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pretty much the ONLY thing that makes sense to me about the ratings from last year is the data from the observations...the MOSLs are somewhat of a mystery...Here's our data from last year.  Take a look and please do share your comments and questions in this blog!

UAI High School MOSL Selections and Outcomes

Here are some questions and wonderings that came up for me

• Question:  If two teachers are being measured using the same MOSL on the same kids, shouldn't their MOSL scores be the same?  Look at the Math and Science people.  All the math and science people were measured using the Scantron Math Computer based test on their Individual populations (e.g. the kids they taught).  Somehow, all the math people came back "Effective" and all the science people came back "Ineffective".  This also happens on the Scantron ELA where the English teachers got "Highly Effective" and the Science teachers only got "Effective."  It seems to me that if they're gonna make such a big public deal about teacher evaluations, they should at least get it right.
• Comment:  Outside of the Social Studies Regents (which have always been challenging for us and the rest of the city), all teachers being measured using Regents exams were "Effective" or "Highly Effective".
• Comment:  In the case of Social Studies, I noticed that when measured as a School rather than on their own kids, teachers were classified as "Effective".

To quote the kids, this data is mad sus...[pect]

I'm working with the network to get answers to my questions and talking to other principals about their data outcomes to see if this is specific to us and we did or if it's a trend across the city (or at least our network).  Those answers may take some time.  So, in the interim, here's what I plan to choose for the State measures and what I recommend for local selections.

Here are all the options:

MOSL Bottom Lines

As principal, I'm charged with selected all state measures.  Here's my thinking

• We need to focus on our jobs with better clarity and not allow ourselves to get distracted with the noise of all this "data".  Our job is to educate kids to meet NYS graduation requirements and prepare them to flourish in college.  To graduate, NYS requires students to earn 44 credits in specified areas and pass 5 regents exams.  These requirements are not sufficient to guarantee success in college, so at UAI, we also teach self-regulation and student agency through the formats to build student capacity to persist and thrive independently in college.  Of all these things that we are charged to teach kids, MOSLs measure only one minute area - the tests. Bottom line:  Rather than add more unneeded testing,  I'm going to stick to the Regents Exams for All Subjects and All teachers. 

• Additionally, as a community sharing a common goal (our kids' success in college and beyond), we should also bear the weight of accountability together.  Remember that scene from Gladiator where Russell Crowe gets the other gladiators together to survive incredible odds.  He says, "Whatever coms out of these gates, we have a better chance of survival if we work together."  I don't think even the MOSL people know what is coming out of their gates.  So rather than standing alone in our measures, our data shows that we are stronger and more protected when we are measured as a school.  Look at the data for the Social Studies team.  The two measured as a school were "Effective" and the one measured on individual students was "Developing".  It's yet another one of my rocket-science realizations - huh....working as a team really...works!     Bottom line:  Rather than measuring individual students, I'm going to select School populations.

State Measures of Student Learning

• English - All English teachers -  NYS English Regents: School; Growth.  
• Social Studies - All Social Studies teachers - NYS ALL Soc. Studies Regents: School Growth.
• Math - All Math Teachers - NYS ALL Math Regents: School: Growth.  
• Science - All Science Teachers - NYS ALL Science Regents; School; Growth
• Special Ed - 25%each:  ELA, Soc Stud, Math, Sci Measures: School; Growth
• Language - NYS Spanish LOTE Exam
• Physical Education - NYS All Regents Exams; School; Growth

Kiri's Recommendations to the MOSL Committee

• The 3 choices:  Regents, NYC Performance Test, and Scantron:  When you look at the list of available assessment options, only the Regents, the Performance Scantron Series, and the NYC Performance Tests apply to UAI.  None of the other assessments really apply to our school.  We don't have enough students taking the APs,  NYSESLAT, or Alternate Assessements to use them as a measure, and we're not a CTE school.  

• We need to minimize testing.  We spent too much time testing kids last year.  I strongly recommend that all Local Measures of Student Learning are the same as the State Measures.  Again, in looking at the data, for the most part, teachers' ratings were "Effective" or better when measured using State Regents exams.  Having streamlined assessments will also save instructional time and help us achieve our overarching goal of graduating kids and preparing them for college.

• The Performance Scantron Tests are out for UAI! If the committee does recommend other measures, I will not accept using the Performance Series Scantron ELA or Math test.  The computer-based test resulted in inconsistent ratings for our staff and in the case of the math department, very damaging ratings for our teachers.  Plus, the logistics of implementing was outrageously complicated and the kids got frustrated during the test and gave up.  So, don't choose Scantron.

• Some caveats about selecting NYC Performance tests measures.  If the committee selects the NYC Performance Tests,  I strongly recommend against doing so for the seniors or juniors. It's a challenge to get them to take tests that they don't see as "required" - as we are already doing with the DRP.  In addition, the Performance Tests in social studies were particularly confusing for the girls (e.g. They spent a long time completing document analysis, running out of time to write the actual essay.  Then, they got almost no points for their analysis and zero points for the non-existent essay.  So, this data wasn't exactly useful.)  We were better off with the actual Regents exam as a tool to measure progress.