A Pain in the Assessment
From the desk of Leigh Ann . . .
For as long as I can remember I wanted to teach. As a little girl, I would strategically place my stuffed animals around the small chalk board in my room and deliver inspiring lessons that prepared them for life. Not once do I ever remember having my teddy bears sharpen their number two pencils and struggle through a timed test that would label them or their abilities. As Einstein said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” That was, and still is, my dream – to inspire the love for lifelong learning in my students – not to pigeonhole their ability levels. I believe that all children are capable of learning, but in different ways and at different times. If the current mantra of education is differentiation – then why do we still standardize tests and have one size fits all readiness models for everyone?
In the arena of education, the term “college and career readiness” has become the goal, but do we completely know what “readiness” is for every student? David Conley’s report, A New Era for Educational Assessment, states “the most familiar measures of readiness – such as grades and test scores – tend to do a very poor job of predicting how individuals will fare in their lives after high school.” Academic skills and content knowledge do matter, but so do “one’s ability to communicate effectively, to collaborate on projects, to solve complex problems, to persevere in the face of challenges, and to monitor and direct one’s own learning.” He refers to these skills under the heading of “deeper learning.” We are not delving into “deeper learning” skills when we are working on test taking strategies during teaching time and using standardized scores to label a child as “ready.”
As a teacher I always followed the mandates of testing – complaining under my breath about how it took away from quality teaching time and that it was not a true assessment of every child’s ability. Instead of complaining under my breath, now I want to get on a soapbox and shout out the need for meaningful authentic assessments. To build student success we need genuine performance-based assessments that measure knowledge through real-world applications. Multiple measures need to be used to demonstrate the full range of content knowledge and specific skills to gauge student progress over a period of time. To gain knowledge of how to better set goals and support student learning, we need assessments that are ongoing, significant, and meaningful to educators, students, and parents. As Conley’s report says, we need to move assessments from “Parts and Pieces” to the “Big Picture.” After all – our job is to inspire and prepare our students for life – not for tests.
