3/28/13
The recent passing of a former student reminded many who knew
him to recall learning experiences in high school. In this case it was a class play. From the
discussion the impact of school memories brought recall of past teachers and
student interpersonal interactions and reopened long past debates about who had
the most impact. In many ways it
recalled Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland memories with an occasional nod to
Glee. However, the educational experience
today is changing with a new world economy and international measures and
debates about moneys and debts and achievement standards. The two of us have
worked in education on many fronts, a rural agricultural community in
California, a tribal reservation south of Tucson, and the suburbs of
Phoenix. All of this started at a
community dance at a teacher training institute in Sierra Leone. This was where
Sharron ran into the formerly slim Virgil and recognized a good opportunity to
move to the capital, Freetown. Both went
on to more degrees and several positions of instruction and administration. And both recognize that the business is
changing and both would like to foster a lively discussion on the merits and
pitfalls of prospective efforts and their impact, both positive and negative.
Arizona, borrowing from many other states, is seeking a way
to hold schools to higher standards. At
this time the governor is trying to link new school funds to results in student
achievement. The current thinking is that
schools should be rewarded with more money when achievement test scores are
higher or drop-out rates go down. There are other various yet to be clarified performance
indicators also under consideration for annual comparison. The state has
adopted a policy that we have seen in place and have seen both positive and
negative outcomes. Before being promoted
from third grade, the student must demonstrate grade level performance in
reading. There is a high school
graduation requirement in the current AIMS system which will block a diploma
unless the student meets proficiency on the test. Some members of the
legislature are seeking to block the very tests which were intended to indicate
progress or failure because the tests may have federal overtones. If the puppy chases its own tail, who
wins? Here’s the solution. Tie it all to graduation or promotion
requirements. That will build a better
puppy.
The real goal is to evaluate and determine which school
practices make for the best results.
What results are reviewed? Should basic skills be the target or critical-thinking
be the goal? The most common approach is to adopt a multiple choice exam of
academic skills. If the stakes are to be raised to promotion and salary
decisions, objective outcomes have to be standardized and the scoring must be
efficient.
The objective assumptions of such measures can be challenged
on several grounds. What skills are to
be measured? What is the standard to be
met? Should the exams be based on
adopted skills hierarchies for grade levels (criteria referenced) or should the
assessment be of the performance strength against peer groups (norm referenced)? The actual exams when adopted do not tend to
be one or the other exclusively, but when results are compiled the norm
referenced approach is dominant and the criteria are seldom available to the
general consumer. Once an exam item is
known to many, it cannot be reused.
There is another approach that would replace or supplement
the multiple choice format. This is the
project format which might be an original composition or designing a science
experiment or conducting and analyzing public surveys. This product allows for
individual excellence and rewards the willingness to work in the real world. It also requires a skilled and trained evaluator
who can recognize the skills demonstrated and also rate the product’s success
on an objective scale. This requires a
lot of man hours and more than one state has warehouses full student projects
yet to be scored. The criteria to be
assessed must be standardized to allow for consistency amongst evaluators and
efficiency for feedback. This can lead to emphasizing basic skills and predictable
approaches at the expense of creativity and originality. In the present state of I phones, Google and Face
Book, monitoring these assessments is a major issue.
Whatever the assessment system, the impact of these external
exam systems will be far greater and more direct than in the past and
instruction and evaluation of schools, administration, teachers, and students
will be dominated by the results.
Examples of current efforts:
A student has to reach a certain score to move to the next
grade or get a diploma. A teacher will
be evaluated on a 60/40 scale with 40% of the employment decision based on test
score results.
A school is graded A-F with an F resulting in a state
take-over of school board decisions.
An administrator’s salary and retention will depend on score
growth or decline.
A school or district or employee will get added funds for
scores or score improvement.
The school will be granted new funds in the federal program
of the race to the top which will replace no child left behind.
While objective external evaluation of student progress is
certainly not new, the test will dominate educational programs in a much more
direct and systematic form than in the past. What leads to improvement? What is
improvement? Should we compare
districts, states, or nations?
Vocational or academic prep?
Challenging to excel or remediating
what’s missing?
As a participant- reader of this opening article, do you
recall any specific scores that opened or closed doors for you? What was the relationship between the daily
classroom activities and the external tests?
Do you recall any particular teacher or course that provided the
insights that proved most helpful? If
you have kids or younger siblings, do you want the scores to be major
objectives? What was your best performance on an external measure? Do you feel comfortable reducing activity
components of school interactions with the multiple choice format? Did
administration over- emphasize test outcomes?
What does the public know about school outcomes? Is the educator a professional? What motivates students to learn? Between teaching values and teaching
information which comes first? Which is dominant? Which one- a winning varsity football team or
a tougher math curriculum? What are the
real world experiences in school?
How can administrations measure achievement if there is a lack of curriculum that a large segment of the student population finds relevant or at least interesting? I am speaking of Arizona's recent prohibition of teaching Hispanic Studies in High School. With the teen Hispanic dropout rates at record levels in Arizona, Hispanic Studies was providing a conduit for disenfranchised youth to re-enter classrooms with purpose and pride. I find it a travesty to close doors to participation under the guise of patriotism, when it really is the cloak of bigotry in action.
Posted by: Jim Bronson | 03/29/2013 at 01:56 AM
Thankyou Jim. The Tucson issue shows a number of misunderstandings in accountability. Ironically, the Hispanic curriculum started in response to desegregation orders and it got very complex with dissent about who is running the school board. Initially, the program was hailed as a major advance in achievement, but later reviews decided this was more an issue of stats than growth. Such bumps in scores often happen when new standards for promotion are enforced, but later growth is much less as retentions and student enrollment balance out. Now the whole state is on a standards binge and if the pattern holds, initial growth will be hailed and a few years later a significant loss will be discovered among those left behind. This is further complicated in that students grow skeptical about whether the standards will ever be actually enforced, and, as in Tucson, political posturing becomes the focus of discussion rather than what is to be learned. When it comes to local control, who are the controllers and who gets controlled?
Posted by: Sharron and Virgil Walker | 03/29/2013 at 07:10 AM