Comments about ‘Ogden schools see dramatic spike in student proficiency scores’

Congratulations to Dee Elementary and it's teaches and staff as well as the parents and community that provided one on one mentoring for the children.
Definitely a fine example on what we must do to be successful in education. Parental involvement.........

This is a very dramatic reversal of fortune for a one year period in an education system that has been battling this problem for a hundred years now in trying to establish a method of measuring an impossible task with tens of thousands of variables, like every student enrolled in an education system.

Did the president or NEA finally devise a plan or formula to measure the proficiency of one school in the nation and show such a dramatic improvement of brainwashing and socialized education standards?

All this demonstrates it the power of standardization adjustments to match the available results. Education hasn't improved, the standard have been lowered to meet the level of learning they are achieving and no one is questioning the formula they used. These kinds of tests and accusations of achievements are phony and impossible to prove or measure or test students. I doubt that many college graduates could meet socialized eduction standards of indoctrination and brainwashing. I call it all a fraud, a hoax, a scam our eduction system is famous for. They can do a lot of creative math using standards developed by economist and omission of many facts and data.

2cents - OEA, UEA, NEA - no involvement. This was a result of a unique Turnaround Schools Program and a lot of teachers and administrators willing to adjust their teaching methods and delivery and caring. Why not be glad for their success rather than being critical? Have you visited these schools to observe the instruction?
BTW the word is education not eduction.

I am glad to read of a school that is willing to make the necessary changes in teaching methods to help these children. Now I hope other schools will also do what is necessary to improve. Thank you to the volunteers!

These test scores are unreliable. Either the tests were watered down or the passing scores were modified. That's just the way it is.

E Hindman, your overt reference to OEA, UEA, and NEA NOT being involved is blatantly false. The OEA teachers were involved every step of the way. So please do not spread inaccuracies. If you look to Salt Lake and Glendale Middle School and Horizonte you will see the Association bringing resources and teachers together to solve the issues facing students.

To think this has been accomplished without the teachers and their Association speaks to the misnomer that this kind of work can be achieved without teachers.

Being a teacher and being an OEA member are not synonymous. Of course some of Ogden's teachers are OEA members but that membership did not effect what took place in these classrooms. I never stated the achievements were accomplished without teachers but the teachers membership in a 'union' held no advantage regarding the achievements.

How could the Ogden District water down state test?

Great job by everyone concerned.

Remember, at the outset there was great opposition by the intrenched administrative bureaucracy, and outrage by the teachers' union. Fortunately, those interested in educating kids won out over the "protects incumbents at all costs" folks.

Note also that this was done within existing funding levels, proving that the unions arguments that lousy results stem from poor funding are not true. Lousy results come from lousy methods, and people with the wrong priorities refusing to do what needed to be done.

Again, well done to everyone involved in implementing the changes. And to the kids who willingly responded to higher expectations instead of accepting all the traditional excuses for poor performance.

The bad news is that this year there will still be 10 schools at the bottom of the list, albeit different ones at a slightly higher performance level than last year. What can be replicated from the Ogden experience to improve them as well?

I think the big thing to understand is that all parties bought in to the situation and what needed to be done to improve learning in those schools. The OEA and the UEA have been saying for years that they want to be part of the solution. This turnaround would not have been possible without their input and hard work. And, here's the kicker: this would not have happened without the support of parents making certain that their kids were in school, attending and participating on a regular basis.

Those who are anti-public education would love to throw stones at the glass house. Teacher associations in our state have long said "we can't teach and do our best if kids don't show up". Yet they have been accused of not doing their part to improve education in our state. I would love to see how much attendance improved at those schools and see the correlation between the improvement in attendance and achievement scores. I would bet that the correlation is pretty strong.

DN Subscriber and Utah Dem, it is important that you know that, in fact, through the USU Schools of the Future utilizing the model developed by NEA, the interventions and school-wide systemic data was collected, analyzed and used to inform instruction. As to the turnaround schools in Utah, the locals, UEA and NEA have brought many resources to those schools. KEYES School Climate Survey, CARE training designed to help teachers to develope techniques for classroom instruction intervention, professional development for educators, the Association facilitated planning with the School Improvement Committees,EEL Culture, Equity and Language Training for Closing the Achievement Gap,and too many more to mention. So there are the facts. The association had a great deal to do with the improvement in these schools. The amazing thing is that the people involved with these schools prefer to put student learning at the center of their thinking and collaborate with one another to address the issues.
My question to you both is this, "What has your negative rhetoric accomplished or done to improve the student learning in these schools?" Answer, absolutely nothing.

Reading the article it seems that building level leadership, parents and students buying into their education and the need to be IN school was critical. It is easy to beat up the teacher when things aren't going well, and certainly the teacher bears some responsibility, but there are so many things that need to be in place to educate that child that the teacher has no control over. The reality is the educating a child is a "team" effort that involves the state legislature, district office, principals, teachers, students and parents, and every member of the team must participate. The finger pointing that goes on in education today solves no problems. Leadership solves problems.