An interesting article in the Sunday New York Times about how test performance is affected by social and psychological factors.
Our public policy today seems built on the assumption that standardized tests accurately measure what was taught and learned. Teachers and most test experts know how fallible the tests are.
The author, Annie Murphy Paul, concludes:
This research has important implications for the way we educate our children. For one thing, we should replace high-stakes, one-shot tests with the kind of unobtrusive and ongoing assessments that give teachers and parents a more accurate sense of children’s true abilities. We should also put in place techniques for reducing anxiety and building self-confidence that take advantage of our social natures. And we should ensure that the social climate at our children’s schools is one of warmth and trust, not competition and exclusion.
I honestly think you should focus on the psychological testing that is going on with these students. Read from Beverly Eakman if you want more info on that.
AS you can see, Romney wants Title I funds to follow the Child. Again, GET THE FEDS OUT OF EDUCATION. Had we done that under Obama, you wouldn’t have Romney offering this bad idea: http://mathwizards.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/dear-governor-romney-about-that-school-choice-idea/
Gee, it sounds like we should use the kind of mechanisms that teachers have normally used to assess their students- “…unobtrusive and ongoing assessments that give teachers and parents a more accurate sense of children’s true abilities.”
While I don’t always agree with Annie Murphy Paul, I respect the sanity and clarity of her writing.
Her book The Cult of Personality Testing: How Peronality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves is important and interesting.
This is too much like right. How profound. :>)
…unobtrusive and ongoing assessments that give teachers and parents a more accurate sense of children’s true abilities.”
“For one thing, we should replace high-stakes, one-shot tests with the kind of unobtrusive and ongoing assessments that give teachers and parents a more accurate sense of children’s true abilities. We should also put in place techniques for reducing anxiety and building self-confidence that take advantage of our social natures. And we should ensure that the social climate at our children’s schools is one of warmth and trust, not competition and exclusion.”
I have filed this under D for “duh.”
This is normally the point where I suggest that the Rheeformers shut their word-holes, get out of the way, and let the PROFESSIONALS handle education. However, we all know that they are actually interested in something other than education per se.
That concluding paragraph says, essentially, we should go back to what most of us were doing, to authentic education. We should also find schools/teachers who have not been functioning in that way, and provide the necessary support and resources to allow them to do so, addressing the underlying social issues in the process. This is a comforting article, but sad to read that we had the solution before the deformers succeeded in highjacking the truth.
Are there any schools or districts that have managed to protect authentic education from the test-mania?
Yes, but even they are fighting. Look to the wealthier districts. When your district is high performing and well off, there are ways around the asinine pronouncements coming down from on high.