She keeps on buzzing just like neon

[Neon, John Mayer]

Due to the high traffic my blog gets from people that are searching for song lyrics, I am going to start putting the name and artist at the beginning of my entries, just like I did above.

Yesterday I went to Raleighwood for a training. It was actually a little more encouraging than I expected. I found out that only 15% of my kids passed the state test. Now, this said test was really hard, but I still was shocked because traditionally students only needed to get like a 60% to pass with a level 3.

Much to my quasi-joy I found out that they had to score an 84% to score a 3. EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT just to pass. How the state came up with that ridiculously high scale, I don't know, but that's why only like ten of my kids passed. If the standard was still 60% to pass then I would have had 90% of my kids with threes and fours. 90%! Even if you get more stringent and make it 70% to pass with a three then 74% of my kids, considered to be some of the lowest in the state, would have passed.

The reason I feel better is, obviously, because my kids did all right, but also these scores won't be counted this year until the state realigns their standards for a three. 85% is ridiculous- in every other subject that's a level 4, the highest possible score. Social Studies is one of the hardest tests, too, because like English it is heavily focused on reading comprehension and my kids read at an average of a 5th or 6th grade level. With science and math kids are mostly tested on if they get the information, but my test really is assessing if they can read or not, and not necessarily if they "get" the content that they learned in my class.

So, though I drove home in tears Monday (primarily because of my heartache in having to tell my kids that they essentially failed, and then in part because I was extremely mistreated by another staff member) I am much better now.

That said, I have a lot of papers to grade because I was gone yesterday and I'd really like to get a ton done during my planning!

Dios le vendiga.