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Re: How Bad it Is
Posted:
May 29, 2012 12:04 PM
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Anna:
Your comments are most refreshing. I would surmise that as you read the
missives of this list you likely feel you have fallen through the Alice
in Wonderland hole & emerged into a weird nether-land where the sky is
purple & many moons are in the perpetual heavens. A land fraught with
danger - mafiosi, Ayatollahs, fraudsters and other assorted rascals. "Be
afraid - be very afraid!"
To address your concern with assessments that seem to go nowhere, I
offer the suggestion that they were never intended to go anywhere - the
basic idea is that the tests themselves will lead to improved
performance: the teachers will spend time prepping their students who
will themselves "work harder". A sure fire technique to dampen any
latent educational enthusiasm.
We have a screw ball out-fit up here in BC that collates test results on
a school by school basis & ranks the schools. The idea being that
schools will "try harder" to improve their ranking. Our district went
into a breast-beating hair-tearing frenzy over the fact that our
students were "below average" in literacy and mandated that teachers
should develop strategies to improve and become "above average". As I
look about me & overhear coffee shop conversations I cannot for the life
of me see any reason why we would expect to be above average.
There are those who use the international tests in a similar fashion. I
recall reading a comment from an American who was horrified to learn
that the US ranked 32nd, I believe, in some international assessment.
But where should they be? 45th?, 17th, 1st? I can only assume the fellow
had bought into the concept of "American exceptional-ism" & presumed
that the US should be in the top tier.
Gary Tupper, in sunny Canada
On 5/28/2012 5:08 PM, Anna Roys wrote:
> Robert,
>
> No, we cannot save every student, but that does not mean we should
> not try our best.
>
> In my last post, I was kind of ranting about one of my pet peeves -
> schools administering assessments and then doing nothing with the
> data - giving more assessments and then again, doing nothing with the
> data - a useless cycle that is more about school, district, state and
> national politics than increasing student achievement levels.
>
> Anna
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