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I am always struck by how political leaders who haven't been in the classroom think the answer to making education better is to test more, then punish those schools which perform poorly. The focus has too much been on the test and not the learning going on in the class.
an education that respects individual talents and does not dictate what students learn or how teachers teach.
how is it that success has now been reduced to what we can prove we know on paper versus what we are creatively able to produce? Standardized testing certainly has been around for my entire education but there was not so much pressure on student performance, school performance, etc.. For some students, our 8th graders for example, it determines honors placement. Standardized test should be a measurement, a snapshot, not the whole picture. Li
reward schools for offering a diverse set of opportunities
“Most importantly, we need to instill confidence – restore confidence – in our teachers and in our schools, because right now the accountability rhetoric in essence is telling us we don’t trust our educators – that they are not good enough, they are lazy, and that’s not the case.”
"America's increasing reliance on standardized testing as a yardstick for educational success is a flawed policy that threatens to undermine the nation's strengths of creativity and innovation, according to a provocative new book from a Michigan State University scholar."
My quandry is with the approach that our legislators take on pitting public and private schools against each other when what we should be doing is working cooperatively to build a better, stronger community of learners that will lead us into a successful future for all.
How can we participate better in this dialogue? How do we participate now? What do we envision our participation being, lets say in the reauthorization of NCLB?
I believe that the creation of teams of teachers, principals, researchers, students, and parents to review, give feedback, and design changes to NCLB would serve as a more successful approach to problem solving the current educational "crisis". When I have a problem to solve I take the grass roots approach, go to the source, research and reflect on the information, I never pretend to know it all. First hand accounts and dialogue are crucial in developing productive change.
creating a complete picture of our students and our schools with standardized testing being one aspect, but no the only measurement tool.
This is an important point you make. It relates to one of our guiding quesitons: What are the impacts of standardized testing? My hunch is more negative than positive.
Interesting NPR program on the effects on high NCLB