For members of the East Mountain High School community who wish to keep a dialogue going. Topics include school programs and initiatives or just educational thought in general. What is the educational process all about?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Assessment
Use this thread to comment on educational assessment tools. How can we evaluate learning? Are standardized tests effective?
One thing that I am learning and beginning to LOVE is the idea that proper assesment of information taught to students should come through the students ability to understand and explain in depth the concepts and ideas in any given subject. I Believe this is a hundred times more effective in producing a life long learner (though we all are in one way or another) than simply asking a question (like who was involved in a praticular war) and getting a straight answer that takes no thought.
I too question standardized tests. I also agree with deuxexnilo in the fact that gauging intelligence with a number may be making everyone miss the point of all of this education and learning. Instead of these tests maybe we (the students) should be evaluated through explanation, effort, and our actual "learning" . I believe the reason things aren’t done this way, though, is because it is too "hard" to evaluate us in such a way. Maybe?
I don't believe in standardized education per se, so it follows that I feel that standardized tests are 100% counterproductive in furthering liberatory, participatory education in public schools.
One powerful way to assess learning is to compare an individual to her(him)self. What have I learned in the past x period of time? How can I demonstrate what I've learned? What kind of person am I compared to the last assessement? If we really did Inquiry Projects, they would be, in part, the student taking a stand in a difficult, complex question, offering their views after careful self examination.
Unfortunately, policymakers have elected to use standardized testing as a means for evaluating the success of a school. In fact, many parents decide to send their kids to EMHS because it is one of the only schools that consistently "meets AYP."
Schools can loose funding and can even be shut down for poor performance on these tests. How can a visionary school like EMHS function in this kind of world?
Other methods of assessment are so much more valuable. For instance, one student in my class recently said that because of a bridge-building project we were doing, she thinks she would like to become an architect. That kind of answer will never show up on a standardized test.
I wonder about standardized testing myself. I have heard a lot about the idea of an, "Authentic Education," but I think that even then something is missing. Authentic Education has always been approached with quantitative tests, such as, "How much does this student know? How fast can the student process information?" etc. Though this may be better than standardized tests, I think that if we stay in the paradigm of making intelligence a simple number, then we might be missing the point.
As I understand it, standardized testing is not for the student, but rather for everyone else. The tests tell parents how wonderful their sons and daughters are, the state how wonderful the school as a whole is, the teachers how wonderful their teaching methods are, and the nation how wonderful its population is. If your grades are low, you need to work harder. If your grades are high, you need to keep up the good work. I am not sure that these tests are meant to evaluate you for your own improvement. Efficiency on all levels in the schooling system seems to be desireable, even the report card part. Many entities are interested in our performance as students (government, parents, teachers) and these tests seem to be a fast way to report to them.
The attitude I pick up on from almost everyone at our school is "I don't believe in this, but here's your standardized test" or "I know this is dumb, but the State says you have to take this"
Are we truly demonstrating integrity by acting like this? Will our students learn to act in the same way... Where our beliefs do match our actions?
11 comments:
One thing that I am learning and beginning to LOVE is the idea that proper assesment of information taught to students should come through the students ability to understand and explain in depth the concepts and ideas in any given subject. I Believe this is a hundred times more effective in producing a life long learner (though we all are in one way or another) than simply asking a question (like who was involved in a praticular war) and getting a straight answer that takes no thought.
I too question standardized tests. I also agree with deuxexnilo in the fact that gauging intelligence with a number may be making everyone miss the point of all of this education and learning. Instead of these tests maybe we (the students) should be evaluated through explanation, effort, and our actual "learning" . I believe the reason things aren’t done this way, though, is because it is too "hard" to evaluate us in such a way. Maybe?
I don't believe in standardized education per se, so it follows that I feel that standardized tests are 100% counterproductive in furthering liberatory, participatory education in public schools.
One powerful way to assess learning is to compare an individual to her(him)self. What have I learned in the past x period of time? How can I demonstrate what I've learned? What kind of person am I compared to the last assessement? If we really did Inquiry Projects, they would be, in part, the student taking a stand in a difficult, complex question, offering their views after careful self examination.
Unfortunately, policymakers have elected to use standardized testing as a means for evaluating the success of a school. In fact, many parents decide to send their kids to EMHS because it is one of the only schools that consistently "meets AYP."
Schools can loose funding and can even be shut down for poor performance on these tests. How can a visionary school like EMHS function in this kind of world?
Other methods of assessment are so much more valuable. For instance, one student in my class recently said that because of a bridge-building project we were doing, she thinks she would like to become an architect. That kind of answer will never show up on a standardized test.
I wonder about standardized testing myself. I have heard a lot about the idea of an, "Authentic Education," but I think that even then something is missing. Authentic Education has always been approached with quantitative tests, such as, "How much does this student know? How fast can the student process information?" etc. Though this may be better than standardized tests, I think that if we stay in the paradigm of making intelligence a simple number, then we might be missing the point.
As I understand it, standardized testing is not for the student, but rather for everyone else. The tests tell parents how wonderful their sons and daughters are, the state how wonderful the school as a whole is, the teachers how wonderful their teaching methods are, and the nation how wonderful its population is. If your grades are low, you need to work harder. If your grades are high, you need to keep up the good work. I am not sure that these tests are meant to evaluate you for your own improvement. Efficiency on all levels in the schooling system seems to be desireable, even the report card part. Many entities are interested in our performance as students (government, parents, teachers) and these tests seem to be a fast way to report to them.
The attitude I pick up on from almost everyone at our school is "I don't believe in this, but here's your standardized test" or "I know this is dumb, but the State says you have to take this"
Are we truly demonstrating integrity by acting like this? Will our students learn to act in the same way... Where our beliefs do match our actions?
How do we stop this?
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