[etni] The recent Native Speakers Debacle

From: "Robert and Jodi Schenck" <rojo1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 07:09:25 +0200
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Dear All,

I have been reading your comments, and nodding my head, but have been unsure
how to put into words what I feel.

While Candy is right that the blame does not lie at the doorstep of the
English teachers, myself included, whose students scored much lower than
expected, (albeit, like Candy not as badly as some) I do feel that something
was drastically wrong with this test.  I have been teaching Native Speakers
for 14 years, and this year I had the best and brightest group I have ever
been blessed with, and they scored on average ten points below the "magen" I
gave them.  Yes, some scored 98 as well, but a few also scored 69, so on the
whole, it was rather a let-down, for them more than for me.

It is true they can redo it, and most did this past Thursday, but they were
desperately disappointed that they had to, and going into it with such low
expectations and injured confidence did not help.  One of my best girls came
out of the moed bet "g" in tears saying "that's twice I blew it, I guess I'm
not as smart as you think I am..."  This is a crime against these kids, some
of our best and brightest, and defeats the purpose of the NBA: to allow each
child to rise to his/her natural level at his/her own pace...

Further, in the ire of the Native Speakers, we have forgotten that the test
overall, was nothing to write home about.  My three point classes scored
twenty points or more below their magen grades overall which has never
happened even once in my career(and I'm no pushover when it comes to grades,
they really deserved the final grades they received). Of the hundreds of 4
point tests I graded this summer, I did not come across a single 90!

I too am worried,that in the final analysis, instead of learning a valuable
lesson that could really improve a theoretically excellent program (the new
bagrut)the blame that is assessed will simply be pushed off onto the
teachers.  Part of this fear is fueled by the fact that not one person "in
charge" has seen fit to reply to any of the comments voiced here, positive
or negative.  Please, give us a clue....

Let's hope that this "radio silence" is because they are hard at work
compiling a reasonable set of solutions.

Have a lovely rest of the summer,

Jodi Schenck
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[etni] The recent Native Speakers Debacle

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