Does CSCOPE Translate into Higher TAKS Scores?
The main focus of this action research project came from my district’s lower than desirable TAKS scores in third through eighth grades. A needs assessment uncovered several factors that may be contributing to our mediocrity. The CARE model planning tool (Harris, Edmonson, & Combs, 2009) was used to list some possibilities as a result of my “wonderings” and my needs assessment. Three main issues arose and correcting them could bring about changes that would help raise TAKS scores. First, we need to maintain a consistent vertically-aligned curriculum and CSCOPE has been purchased to improve this issue. Also, we have had extremely low teacher morale for several years. Unknown to me when beginning this action research project, all of the troublemakers would quit, retire or be fired by the new administrators who proved to have no patience for bad behavior. A third area that must change is the lack of technology integration at all levels in our district.
My district hopes to raise 3rd through 8th grade TAKS scores by aligning the curriculum using CSCOPE district-wide. The administration purchased the product in the summer of 2010 and required all teachers to attend training at our Education Service Center. The intended outcomes of using CSCOPE are to increase teacher content knowledge, raise TAKS scores in grades 3 through 8 and to increase special education TAKS scores. My findings are incomplete at this time regarding the assessment scores since the 2011 data has yet to be released. The information I currently have is charted on the following page.
Passing Rates
Passing Rates
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
CSCOPE
CSCOPE
CSCOPE
CSCOPE
2010
2011
2010
2011
3rd
6th
Reading
64%
*
Reading
80%
*
Math
50%
*
Math
87%
*
All
43%
*
All
80%
*
4th
7th
Reading
55%
*
Reading
83%
*
Math
83%
*
Math
58%
*
Writing
57%
*
Writing
92%
*
All
36%
*
All
50%
*
5th
8th
Reading
63%
*
Reading
85%
*
Math
80%
*
Math
65%
*
Science
99%
*
Science
75%
*
All
56%
*
Social St.
95%
*
All
70%
*
* 2011 TAKS scores are currently unavailable.
My informal interviews with teachers provided me with information regarding their concerns and feelings towards CSCOPE. The new teachers seemed to like the structure that is provided. They had lessons clearly laid out with notes, guided practice and timelines, while the veteran teachers disliked the curriculum immensely. They didn’t believe that the lessons had enough independent practice, especially in math, and the timeline was too strict with no time for reteaching. Both groups, however, liked the ability to display lessons on their Promethean boards for whole-class interaction. As a side note, I attended both the teacher and the administrator trainings for CSCOPE in the summer of 2010. With both audiences, the ESC pushed CSCOPE as a complete curriculum and even created a whole CSCOPE department. However, after seeing both 6 weeks grades and TAKS scores fall and hearing a multitude of complaints from the districts, the ESC has recanted their claims that CSCOPE is a complete curriculum and are now saying that it was always intended to be used as a support program for already established curriculums.
My needs assessment also uncovered the issue of low teacher morale as a possible cause of low TAKS scores. Low teacher morale has been a growing problem in our district for several years. There are many factors that contributed to the problem including nepotism, unchecked insubordination and an agenda-driven school board. Regardless of how the district descended into malcontent, it must address the issues and I believe that restoring teacher incentives will help with morale, in addition to the exit of many of the people causing the grief. Also, the very fact that our district has so many new employees with no bad history or hard feelings should improve morale immensely. School pride has suffered due to the problems stemming from a whole group of unhappy teachers. We need the parents, teachers, and community stakeholders to come together for the common good of all of our students. If the school employees aren’t proud of the school, how can anyone else be proud?
The final area of improvement is technology integration. “Technology makes it possible to target the right approaches for each student in order to provide individualized and differentiated instruction.” (Solomon, & Schrum, 2007) Technology has changed the way today’s youth approach life. This is the way they communicate, research, learn, play and are challenged. Simply sitting in a classroom taking notes everyday doesn’t help them learn, it makes them resist. During the course of the last year, I see that the challenge of providing our students with the technology tools they need to be successful in the world, both today and tomorrow, isn’t an isolated problem. I sometimes feel like West Texas is in a fishbowl looking out at everyone else making leaps and bounds with technology, but it seems from reading Solomon and Schrum, “you will notice that there are not a lot of examples as of yet in which an entire school system has reconceptualized itself to incorporate technology…” (Schrum & Solomon, 2007) It seems that the same obstacles abound in many areas and there are many reasons for this. We have administrators who don’t want to try any new technology due to fiscal or logistical issues or to competing demands on time and resources. Solomon and Schrum go on to say, however, that some schools are taking the first steps in the process of including full integration of technology into their classrooms. I have had my teaching schedule freed up somewhat this year to work with teachers more to show them strategies to integrate more technology into their lessons.
Although all districts have areas in need of change, many also have aspects that need to be sustained. In our case, we need to maintain our current state assessment scores, which are all currently acceptable, and raise the bar to reach our goals of recognized and exemplary status. Also, we need to raise teacher morale and retain our faculty in order to maintain continuity for our programs and curriculum. However, maintaining the current faculty did not happen this year. My district ended the school year with 19 fewer employees. My district also needs to maintain and grow our student population and it is believed that this can be done through technology incentives for students and by providing a safe and happy environment for them as well. The technology incentives include providing iPads for every junior high student. There are hopes that this will draw students to our school.
In order to evaluate my action research project, analyzing TAKS scores, before and after, implementing CSCOPE will be conducted for 3rd through 8th grade. Also, informal interviews will continue to be conducted with faculty and community to ascertain whether or not morale has increased. This will be a bit skewed due to the exit of 19 employees since I began the project. The decision-making process consisted of a needs assessment and my knowledge of deficits in our curriculum that have needed attention for several years. I chose the topics based on my position as District TAKS Coordinator and as a witness to the low morale and lack of vertical alignment. I will share my findings with my Lamar cohort members and Lamar professors. I will not be able to share my project information with my coworkers because many of the variables I based the original project on have changed drastically and the lack of uniform CSCOPE implementation will not produce usable data. My project was totally managed by me and I will compare the TAKS scores from our pre-and post CSCOPE years. Also, I will continue to informally interview teachers and parents about the use of CSCOPE, asking for their thoughts and concerns. Employment records were used to evaluate teacher retention and my own paycheck reflected no restored teacher incentives.
The operations of my action research project will lead by me. The administration was all new and hadn't been present during any of the issues addressed in my project. The TAKS score analysis before and after implementing CSCOPE will be very straightforward because I will use the TEA's multi-year data for the comparison. The portion of the project concerning teacher morale was a bit more covert and significantly more immeasureable. However, both are unreliable due to exiting staff and inconsistent CSCOPE implementation.
No group processes, consensus building or conflict resolution were used. One of my goals was to indicate whether or not CSCOPE increased third through eighth grade special education TAKS scores. As it appears, this data may not be entirely reliable due to the exceptional special education teacher we had, quitting her job after three weeks of school. The teacher who took her place was not familiar with any subjects except Math. Is my hope that the special education students will excel with the CSCOPE curriculum.
References
de'anna, . (2007, October 14). How do i raise test scores? [proteacher]. Retrieved from http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=60478
drpezz, Initials. (2009, July 30). Raising test scores [The doc is in]. Retrieved from http://drpezz.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/raising-test-scores/
Gulick, J. (2010, August 15). New curriculum cscope to bring big changes to lubbock, across state. Lubbock Avalanhce Journal, _on_cscope_in_lubbock_isd.pdf.
Harris, S, Edmonson, S, & Combs, J. (2009). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
Jinkins, S. (2011, February 12). Texas educators divided over cscope curriculum management program. Star-Telegram, http://www.star telegram.com/2011/02/12/2844512/texas-educators-divided-over- cscope.html.
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
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