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September 4, 2010

Veteran teachers reflect on changes in student body

By Mark Boshnack Staff Writer

Returning area students from kindergarten through 12th grade received a good grade from some longtime area educators assessing the current state of learning.

Factors such as state standardized testing and technology have played a role in keeping students on a par with their counterparts and helping them go to the head of the class, educators from several schools said.

"Trends may come and go, but I don't think the kids have really changed over the years," Sidney sixth-grade teacher Claudia Jenkins said.

Reflecting on her 29-year career with the district, she said the state testing that is part of various efforts to improve standards may have "pushed content up a notch over the years."

But it can't change the fact that "different people mature at different rates," she said.

Standardized testing, with the addition of document-based questions, has helped teach children "to think rather than memorize," she said. "You have to know how to do that," especially at this time when so much information is available through technology, Jenkins said.

Standardized tests are routinely given to students in third through eighth grades in such subjects as English and language arts, known as ELA tests, and math. Regents tests are given to middle and high school students on specific core subjects such as social studies, math, science and English.

Richard Townsend is starting his 23rd year in teaching. All but one have been at Sidney High School. He started in Earth science, and 14 years ago started teaching physics.

Students are being educated differently than they were about a decade because of changing state standards, he said.

Teaching science focuses more on problem-solving than on content, he said.

More time is being spent on such skills as interpreting graphs or learning how to design experiments with certain equipment.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," with the ability to work on a team being important in many jobs, Townsend said.

But he doesn't agree that so much emphasis should be placed on the standardized state Regents test as a measure of what students learn.

"Such tests do serve a purpose," but they should not be "the be-all and end-all," he said.

Lisa Huyck started as a business teacher at Franklin Central School in 1986. She said she finds students entering school may be a little brighter than their counterparts a generation ago.

This should not come as a surprise, because "they are exposed to so many more things because of technology," such as the Internet and Smartboards, she said.

"There's a whole world out there that was opened to students" because of that, she said, making them more prepared to learn new things. "They are more aware of what's going in the world" than their peers were a generation ago.

This is despite more rigorous state testing.

"Schools are constantly improving what they offer," she said.

Unless there is a movement to a national standard, state test scores can be manipulated by educational officials to say whatever they want them to, Huyck said.

Oneonta City School District Superintendent Michael Shea started as a middle school social studies teacher 30 years ago at Tri-Valley Central School.

"Today's students have a broader base of knowledge" than those in previous periods, he said. The most significant reason has been the Internet, providing more access to information for students and teachers.

To succeed on standardized testing, a core level of knowledge is needed, but students and community expect more than that, he said. Oneonta schools regularly go beyond what is needed, Shea said, and he said it was too soon to say what the federal Race to the Top education initiative will mean for state schools and student success. It was not yet clear how the increase in funding will filter down to districts.

Claire Chastaine retired from Stamford Central School last spring after teaching second grade for 37 years.

"Students today are as intellectually curious and excited about learning" as they were when she started, Chastaine said. They are much more computer- and technology-literate, which is good because they are expected to learn more, she said.

The district started its Reading First program about six years ago, she said. It's an intense reading development program for students in kindergarten through third grade.

Because of this, "I see students coming through much more aware of phonics," she said.

As a result, second-graders read much better than they used to.

The comprehension may be on par, but they are reading harder material, she said.

She has not seen a big difference on state tests. But she said she thinks they are valuable because they get resources to the children who need them.

Stephanie Dibble has taught foreign languages at Jefferson Central School for about 24 years.

She doesn't see any difference in the preparedness of students starting to learn a new language.

But they are different learners, because of technology _ such as cell phones and Facebook.

When a teacher stands in front of them, "talking just doesn't cut it anymore," she said.

"They have to be engaged."

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