Kaplan test prep program up for reconsideration

The District bought workbooks for high school students last winter and tried a 10-week drill to boost scores.

by Sheila Simmons

With District officials underlining that Kaplan, Inc. is one of the premiere test preparation companies in the world, the School Reform Commission followed last year's $4.5 million Kaplan contract for high school curriculum development with recent approval of a contract for the same amount this school year.

While the new contract covers additional curriculum writing for 12th grade, a "benchmark" testing program, and professional development, one component remains unresolved.

A return of Kaplan's test prep program for the PSSA and TerraNova tests is still being considered, according to Creg Williams, the District's deputy chief academic officer in charge of high schools.

Noting an inherent difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of specific test prep activities, Williams said the District would collect input from teachers and staff on the first year of Kaplan's "Test Advantage Program" in Philadelphia before deciding on whether to use the controversial program again. High school test results have been mixed.

"A lot of new things we have to evaluate," noted Williams.

A decision on the test prep program will be made soon, Williams said during a mid-November interview.

New York-based Kaplan is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Co., with four divisions and company pace-setting revenue of $277 million, according to a July 2004 washingtonpost.com report.

Kaplan's Test Advantage Program was ushered into the District's high schools last winter, aimed at boosting test scores and giving students test-taking skills for the standardized tests they would be taking in the spring. Last year District officials said the program was necessary because the standardized curriculum for the high schools was not yet in place, and so students needed instruction that was aligned with the tests.

Teachers were instructed by District officials to spend 10 weeks covering the material, in blocks of 20 minutes four times a week for 11th graders, and of 20 minutes twice a week for 9th and 10th graders.

The program was workbook-based. A workbook that Kaplan designed for the TerraNova test and called "TerraNova Advantage Mathematics" spanned more than 400 pages.

"Some teachers like it, some teachers don't like it," Williams said of the program. "But the overall response has been favorable."

Geoffrey Winikur, a teacher at Simon Gratz High School, is not one the favorable ones.

"In all, there were some basic test-taking strategies that were useful, but the materials themselves seemed sort of basic," Winikur said.

There were also unfavorable responses from students (see Struggling to make AYP: students views from two schools).

"Last year, the students, in general, hated the test prep books, which they thought were very boring," one veteran high school teacher emailed the Notebook. "A number of them tore them up and threw them out at the end of the testing. They were given the books, so it wasn't technically school property, but there certainly wasn't an attachment to the books."