Are we going too far? Where are the teachable moments? Many of the teachers I interact with share that they teach to the test until March. Then, they begin to teach the children. How sad?
When will the format of standardized tests catch up with the research on student learning?
Tests that determine the success of our students continue to focus on paper and pencil, reading and writing. While these are effective ways to assess certain types of learning, they are certainly not the only ways. Instead of allowing our students to demonstrate their abilities in authentic ways, we continue to force a square peg into a round hole.
I'm interested in learning more about state initiatives that have attempted forms for authentic assessment. How has the effectiveness of these tests been measured? Which have been successful? Failures? Why?
The value about the "race" analogy for me is in remembering that an assessor was (I believe) someone who "sat beside" someone giving information. But we've turned the word into a synonym for testing...and have thus lost is meaning.
The other value for me is in thinking about the priority of the millions of dollars going to the test when we have prior conditions that are obviously in need of those resources (food, safety, learning resources)...so the talk is doing a great job of helping me rethink things!
Why have we not become more vocal in advocating for ourselves? Are we guilty of not being courageous, accountable for making our voices heard? We need to ally ourselves with the labor movement, because we ARE labor, as well as advocates for rational and equitable educational policies.
As I was delivering the keynote, here's what was going on in Boston...sigh...
Campus leaders discuss ...costs, tests By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff | March 21, 2006 Members of a Bush administration commission on higher education heard testimony yesterday from seven Massachusetts college presidents on issues affecting their institutions, including accountability, cost, and quality.
Read the rest of the article at http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/03/21/campus_leaders_discuss_major_issues/
5 Comments:
Are we going too far? Where are the teachable moments? Many of the teachers I interact with share that they teach to the test until March. Then, they begin to teach the children. How sad?
When will the format of standardized tests catch up with the research on student learning?
Tests that determine the success of our students continue to focus on paper and pencil, reading and writing. While these are effective ways to assess certain types of learning, they are certainly not the only ways. Instead of allowing our students to demonstrate their abilities in authentic ways, we continue to force a square peg into a round hole.
I'm interested in learning more about state initiatives that have attempted forms for authentic assessment. How has the effectiveness of these tests been measured? Which have been successful? Failures? Why?
The value about the "race" analogy for me is in remembering that an assessor was (I believe) someone who "sat beside" someone giving information. But we've turned the word into a synonym for testing...and have thus lost is meaning.
The other value for me is in thinking about the priority of the millions of dollars going to the test when we have prior conditions that are obviously in need of those resources (food, safety, learning resources)...so the talk is doing a great job of helping me rethink things!
Why have we not become more vocal in advocating for ourselves? Are we guilty of not being courageous, accountable for making our voices heard?
We need to ally ourselves with the labor movement, because we ARE labor, as well as advocates for rational and equitable educational policies.
As I was delivering the keynote, here's what was going on in Boston...sigh...
Campus leaders discuss ...costs, tests
By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff | March 21, 2006
Members of a Bush administration commission on higher education heard testimony yesterday from seven Massachusetts college presidents on issues affecting their institutions, including accountability, cost, and quality.
Read the rest of the article at
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/03/21/campus_leaders_discuss_major_issues/
Post a Comment
<< Home