Tippecanoe Valley Middle School Principal Scott Backus

By SCOTT BACKUS
Principal, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School

Let me begin by stating openly and honestly that I was the student that I’m going to speak about in this article! I also believe many of the adults I’m speaking to here were just like me. Let me explain. I played “school” really well. I went to school every day. I was well behaved out of respect for the adults and fear of mom. I worked just hard enough to get the grades that were expected by my parents and I felt were needed to get into college. I was a student that was very happy with “good enough.”

The traditional model of school, the model anyone who attended school in the 20th century experienced, created kids who played school very well. The A-F grading system that has traditionally been used in schools and standardized tests that drew a black line at a “cut score” number that had to be met to pass have perpetuated this attitude. We’ve created a society of “good enough” because we have reached that minimum achievement bar. I earned A’s and B’s, went to college, and received a degree. In my mind I was “good enough.”

The 21st century school isn’t the same school most of us remember. Good enough isn’t good enough today. How do you fairly assign a traditional letter grade to problem solving skills, synthesis of information, reasoning, analysis, etc.? These are the primary skills students are being asked to perform in today’s school. Collaboration skills are critical to modern education. How do you fairly assess someone’s capacity for collaboration with a standard A-F scale? How do you determine what measures “good enough”? School leaders across the United States are challenging the traditions of school and looking at ways to address these concerns because adhering to tradition isn’t “good enough.”

When we look at the ISTEP+ state accountability test, students no longer strive for the PASS line alone. The test requires students to demonstrate academic growth. It isn’t good enough to achieve just Pass or Pass+ on the ISTEP anymore. Students have to GROW. Looking at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School specifically, this is what hurt the most on the 2013-14 ISTEP accountability. In our top three math classes, 100 percent, 100 percent, and 98 percent of students passed ISTEP. Fantastic, right? The problem is that less than 20 percent of those students showed HIGH GROWTH. When I talk about these things with students I hear, “…but I passed.” When I talk to parents I hear, “…but she earned a Pass+, isn’t that good enough?” No! It isn’t anymore!

When we look at the overall letter grade of D received by TVMS last year, we were four math students short of earning a “C” overall in growth. In Language Arts we were 13 short of a bonus point in growth, which would have put us in the “B” letter grade range. We were 17 total students out of 445 away from a “B” based on growth alone. The mindset that “I passed” isn’t good enough anymore. Our students must grow.

The teachers at TVMS have been challenged to increase rigor and elevate the expectations in their classrooms. The test we are facing this spring is going to be much more difficult and require much deeper thought processes, problem solving, and grit. Grit is a word we use a lot at TVMS. Can you dig deep, work through difficulties, and keep pushing forward even when it’s tough? If so, you have grit. We want every student who walks out the door to have this life skill.

We can no longer reach for the proverbial bar. We have to grow, have grit, and never settle for “good enough.”