I think as assessment is designed today, it is very dangerous to our students. To place the future in the hands of one test as NCLB does can cause pressure on children in an environment that should be doing everything possible to facilitate learning. I think the problem with making a change is that many teachers are unsure as to what other forms of assessment they can use. As it was said in class, at least with summative assessment, you know what you are dealing with. However, this change must be made if we are to truly know that our students are learning. Formative assessment is not only a better judge of how students are doing, it also encourages them to learn. Any child who is receiving encouragement and reinforcement in education is going to be more willing to continue to want to learn. At the same time we do need to assure that we are using a wholistic approach in assessing children. As England explains this is looking at the big picture of the student and not simply a snapshot at one point in time. We need to look at the economic factors, parents participation and how the child learns. All children are not the same as NCLB would like to believe. They have different styles of learning, different subjects they like to learn and some they are better at learning. Because of all of these factors, I feel students need a flexibility in how they are assessed. I think rather than comparing one student to the others as tends to happen in schools today, they need to be judged individually. This will allow choice to enter into assessment. Let's play to the strengths of children rather than assuming a single form of assessment is going to tell us the true story. Sure this is going to create more work for the teacher, but it can also be beneficial. I've never had to sit down and read 30 papers on one subject, but I can assume it will become repetitive and dare I say boring. I think a teacher would enjoy shaking things up a bit and instead of 30 essays on the meaning of Hamlet, they would get to assess an art project, song or oral presentation along with those essays. The students would enjoy it as well as the teachers. Sounds like a win-win solution to me. Here is a video that shows how formative assessment is used in the classroom: http://www.teachers.tv/video/581. The teachers encourage these students to take control of their own learning. These students certainly seem to be enjoying the lesson, certainly a problem in schools today, and the teacher is receiving feedback that displays the students are in fact learning both information and concepts.
One thing that bothers me is the idea that it is okay to play the system when trying to get your child into a desired school. Sure there are problems with the system and people feel the need to work around the rules to benefit their child. Donated money to a school, gets your child enrolled, a well placed friend allows a student to get into a college they may not otherwise, or claiming an address where you don't live to assure more benefits for a child all seem to be accepted as acceptable because you are using the resources available to you. Even if all this is done legally it still leads to the ultimate problem in education, unequal resources. We have talked a lot and Kozol based an entire book on this subject. We have acknowledged that resources go well beyond what students have in school. If we are to truly equalize education these forms of "who you know" must also be taken into account. Perhaps it is because of the background I came from, but to see a student get a place where they may not have earned while another, without those contacts, from a lower economic status is left outside seems to represent many of the problems we have in education. I'm not saying these practices will stop, that would be unrealistic, but we need to stop saying that "who you know, not what you know" is acceptable. These are the hard choices we are making in equalizing resources. It is easy to say that we need to give money to those who need it, it is difficult to truly put everyone on the same playing field and say that they will all have the same access and opportunities and will get what they deserve based on merit rather than who we know and how much we earn. Instead of finding ways around the system, maybe we should be finding ways to fix it, so all can benefit.
One thing that bothers me is the idea that it is okay to play the system when trying to get your child into a desired school. Sure there are problems with the system and people feel the need to work around the rules to benefit their child. Donated money to a school, gets your child enrolled, a well placed friend allows a student to get into a college they may not otherwise, or claiming an address where you don't live to assure more benefits for a child all seem to be accepted as acceptable because you are using the resources available to you. Even if all this is done legally it still leads to the ultimate problem in education, unequal resources. We have talked a lot and Kozol based an entire book on this subject. We have acknowledged that resources go well beyond what students have in school. If we are to truly equalize education these forms of "who you know" must also be taken into account. Perhaps it is because of the background I came from, but to see a student get a place where they may not have earned while another, without those contacts, from a lower economic status is left outside seems to represent many of the problems we have in education. I'm not saying these practices will stop, that would be unrealistic, but we need to stop saying that "who you know, not what you know" is acceptable. These are the hard choices we are making in equalizing resources. It is easy to say that we need to give money to those who need it, it is difficult to truly put everyone on the same playing field and say that they will all have the same access and opportunities and will get what they deserve based on merit rather than who we know and how much we earn. Instead of finding ways around the system, maybe we should be finding ways to fix it, so all can benefit.
2 comments:
Great video; thanks for that. I enjoyed watching the "plan in action" with explanations for why it is being done and demonstrations of how it works. Also, as you said, "unequal resources" plays a bit role in how much formative assessment can be evaluated. I do wish the video would have addressed long-term memory solutions -- perhaps showing how lessons build off each other so that what was learned the day before is built-in to the next lesson so that learning is cumulative instead of "chunked" like a lot of subjects I experienced. I think that would be the true indicator of progress and assessment: whether students can take what they've learned and relate and apply it in other areas. I think helping them to draw connections between subjects might help them also maintain interest in a subject they're not too passionate about. For example, if a student enjoys music but not math, drawing a connection between the two can show how math and music are related (such as the counts of the notes, etc.). I think this opens up another realm of "possibilities" and curiosities for students to explore.
I think formative assessment as shown in the video is a good way to empower students in their education, but I also think we still need to be able to assess whether they are indeed learning and retaining the concepts though. I agree with you that this can also be done by student choice in terms of papers, art projects, etc. as you mentioned. How can something similar be implemented at a state-wide or national level since funding is supposedly based on progress while also ensuring equity in the assessment (as England depicted in her example of assessing the essays for the scholarship)? (I now hear Ms. Smith's voice echoing "RUBRICS" in my head... scary)
I think also the current outcomes of assessment are detrimental -- as evidenced by the stress/PTSD students report. They're almost used to "punish" students -- if they don't do well, the result is a negative "punishment" for the student instead of taking a more positive approach by using them to understand whether a student should be assessed differently (ex. as with ESL students) or just needs more feedback/different methods of presenting and learning the material.
Is there ever going to be an equal society where people don't use their contacts to get ahead in life? I must admit that if I had the right contacts, I would certainly make full use of them all. Nice video! I think we ought to keep coming up with more creative ways to assess students in classrooms
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