Hello John,

Recently, I had a brief discussion with a new high ranking official about assessment. He told his followers that teachers seem to have the idea of assessment all wrong. He gets that we need to address “teaching to the test,” but that teaching to the test isn’t the problem. According to the test, we should look at assessment for “what it is”:  a tool to find out how teachers can improve their teaching and increase achievement.

I giggled to myself, and I rarely do so.

It’s not that I disagreed with him per se. While the argument he made was generic enough that everyone could agree, I felt the general tenor of his argument made it seem like teachers aren’t “in” on what he’s talking about. His argument hinges on the idea that the resistance to the current political climate stems from teachers not wanting to assess children. It’s a weird argument since I don’t know of a teacher who doesn’t want to find out what their students can do and already know, whether the assessment is teacher-made or otherwise.

Let me be fair, too, because we have plenty of arguments to make about the way we assess children. For one, we don’t always know whether we’re assessing for what the child taught or what the teacher learned. We don’t always get the training for the best assessment methods for any given situation and how to align our assessment to standards or any other criteria. We often have to learn how to create tests and quizzes on the fly, depending on our teaching styles and how the rest of the school views assessment. Many of our schools may become too dependent on assessment via publisher to guide them on how to approach questioning. Some of these arguments have validity in different circles.

But he wasn’t making that argument. His argument assumed teachers (specifically, teachers who strongly voice their concerns about testing) must not understand the purpose of assessment at all.

Of course, after asking a clarifying question, I immediately said, “The problem isn’t assessment. The problem is with the high-stakes part of it. Everyone assesses, formally or otherwise. The difference is in the consequence and material more than the learning.” Of course, others chimed in, but he couldn’t rebut my argument sufficiently enough for me to say he even understood his own argument.

For, educators as a whole want desperately to find out what students learned, how they can better teach their material so kids get it, AND do it in a way that allows them to make sure they can follow it up with the student, regardless of whether they did well on the exam or not. We also want to make sure these exams don’t become a referendum on whether we can teach, especially since study after thorough study shows how inappropriate it is for teachers to use such exams to do anything besides find out what kids know about the questions given right in front of them. on that particular day and that particular year, it seems.

As our high stakes assessments come up starting next week in NYC, we can only hope our students do well, but if they don’t, I’d prefer that these exams not be an indictment or prediction of how good a teacher I am, or the value of the student taking the test for that matter. We ought to use these assessment to take a pulse, not to check the child’s health.

I’ve been in a very meta-aware state since I went back to teaching after being an administrator. The experience of supporting and supervising teachers and then being a teacher again has caused me to re-examine my language as I try to increase quality with the child care givers I supervise now. One shift that has occurred for me is that as I work through minor and major issues of quality I assume good intentions even more than I used to when I was administering full time. I recently had several conversations where I found the need to question a teacher about their practice. In asking the question, “Tell me about why you made that decision?” I am asking a teacher, who had not followed stated policy, to give me a good reason for why she didn’t follow protocol. I learned something from approaching the problem this way. The teacher thought she was doing the best thing for the student. Her answer alluded to individualizing to meet student needs. I reframed the information she gave into the context of what would be a best practice. After honoring her reasoning I found myself offering an opposing view that also would be considered a best practice for the student but respected the stated policy. In approaching the issue this way I found myself helping this teacher find a common ground where she might be open to hearing the official policy and procedure that she had not followed and possibly gaining a deeper understanding for the reasoning behind the policy.

I believe this new way I’ve found of administrating may be closer to the transformed learning ecology we describe in Teaching 2030. It sits better with me than what I found myself doing when I was out of the classroom. From my perspective as an administrator who was delivering, enforcing, and revising policy, as opposed to creating student learning, my patience for teachers who chose to “do their own thing” became thin. Our child development team has prescribed our policies based on Head Start performance standards, best practices, and common sense, with an eye on increasing the quality of services delivered to our students. Darn it, those procedures should be followed, except… And there it is, why policy breaks down, there is always an exception to the rule. Just like there is always an exception to a generalization about any endeavor involving humans. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe that when in doubt, follow the policy is good advice, especially for novice teachers but, there must be room for individualization, even for teachers.

Our charge, in creating a better future, seems to be to create room for humanity within the policies we craft for states, school systems, and classrooms. More importantly, I think we know how to do this, involve teachers, parents, and students in the process of developing these policies and ask questions like, will this help teachers meet students’ needs.

Image: http://www.bizarresigns.com/funny-signs-2/do-not-remove/

Jose,

I really enjoyed your piece on how to change education featuring the queen of all media, Lady Gaga. I have to admit, I am not a big fan of her music but, I knew the minute I saw her second video she was going to stick around. What has always impressed me is her ability to challenge perceptions and constantly evolve, two traits I hope teaching can take on as a profession in the future.

When I think about the story of teaching 2030 as it is becoming, I know that it is the story of a new generation of teachers. Many of these teachers are passionate and even more committed to creating a more equitable society than the group of teachers I started with 15 years ago. These teachers are willing to take risks and do what is right for kids but, they will also expect to be fairly judged on their practice and rewarded for their contribution. Recently a group of young teacher leaders in Denver took on the task of describing what they believe about being evaluated fairly and with the intention of making education better for students. Their report titled, Making Teacher Evaluation Work for Students: Voices from the Classroom (pdf) is a challenging perspective on what it means to evaluate with the intention of making teaching better for students. As I read the report I started thinking of one of your favorite ESPN segments, Odds Makers. The idea of percentages in public education policy has a kind of arm chair quarterback feel so I thought, why not try it here.

As I read the report I started thinking of one of your favorite ESPN segments, OddsMakers. The idea of percentages in public education policy has a kind of arm chair quarterback feel so I thought, why not try it here?

Let’s break down the laws of reason and join each other in this virtual space for a little OddsMakers session on teacher evaluation. Let’s kick it over to Anthony “There’s No Way I Thought I’d End Up In A Blog” Reali!

Reali: Alright, fellas. Here’s the first question. What percentage of the teacher evaluation system should be based on student assessment?

Holland: According to the report, in Colorado this will be 50% beginning next year. One thing I like that the report does is put the qualifier, “meaningful” in front of assessments. If the assessments are to be meaningful, I have to ask, meaningful to whom? I would say that student growth on assessments that are meaningful to the students themselves should be higher than 50%, maybe 70%. If, however, these assessments are meaningful to adults with the usual political and social agendas (like they are now), I think student assessment should be 35%. I say 35% because because I think that the specific context of a school or classroom can account for much more than 50% of a teacher’s effectiveness. I also think a teacher should be held accountable for more than 1/4 of that context. It could actually be higher in lower grades for students have not gone through the DING! process of individualization, like in preschool, but we don’t have time to quibble so, 35% of the evaluation should be assessment based.

Vilson: Yes, John. I’m totally with you there. What concerns me is the clowns who make too much of tests that aren’t supposed to be used for teacher effectiveness. If you ask kids what they prefer, they love the idea of portfolios and student-created assessments. Of course, teachers have their hands in it, but it can still be rigorous and student-created. Mostly. If it’s student and teacher-directed, I’m still with the 50%, but if there’s any tainting of state assessments in there, I’ll go as low as 15%!

Holland: One thing I think we agree on about assessments is that we need to move towards performance based assessments for students AND teachers!

Reali: Next up the importance of school context in teacher evaluation!

Images: It is with great respect and appreciation for Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon that we have “remixed” their images and the concept of Odds Makers from Pardon the Interruption. We also borrowed Anthony Reali’s image for verisimilitude. If you want to watch the image we remixed click here.

Hey Jose,
Last week I had the high privilege of attending the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. You might think the honor due to the company of excellent teacher preparation professors I was able meet and talk to but, it wasn’t. The honor was due to the opportunity to see Renee Moore rock the federal education policy boat. It was a beautiful thing to see truth spoken to power so elegantly. The gentleman on Renee’s left is Michael Dannenberg a representative from the ED. Next to him is Donna Wiseman and Barnett Berry. Barnett’s speech was just at forceful. I will try to upload it soon. Teacher prep seems to be exceptionally interested in Teaching 2030.
Overall, the conference was a highlight of my career since becoming a child development specialist.

Photo by Andy Gray

A former state superintendent will be coming to my Politics of Education class next week. I feel like I have gotten to know her well enough to know that she will ask more than one tough question. I think I know one she will ask.

Virginia was a leader early in the standards based education reform movement. It’s infrastructure for developing and administering effective accountability measures is strong. Currently our third grade reading pass rate is hovering in the 80% range through out the state. The advanced pass rate, students who answered more than 31 out of 35 questions correctly, has been steadily increasing since 2005 from 18.8% to 38.9% in 2008.

I can just hear it now. Dr. Demary will ask us, “So, almost everybody is passing. Isn’t it a good time to raise the bar?”

Every fiber of my teacher being wants to say no, but all of my learning in educational leadership says yes. I am torn. I believe in high standards but, I am not convinced that raising the bar is the best way to get teachers, and more importantly kids, to jump higher.

I think the reason for this internal struggle is that I am not sure that the bar is worth jumping over. It is not what we should be teaching kids to do to prepare them for their future. I think we need them to build their own obstacle courses, not just master hoop jumping. As it stands now, on reading tests kids are asked to identify characters, setting, conflict, etc. They are required to read for comprehension, all worthy goals. We are not asking them to write their own stories, to tell the story where they are the main character. It is as if they are the actors in someone else’s play.

If we buy into the post-modern perspective, that there is no single over arching story, then the reasons for assessment change a little. Our nation is a teaming tangle of stories. Maybe this is why fame has become such a fascination for our young people. The goal is not to help move the plot of the greater human story along but to be famous enough to be featured in the individual stories of the nation.

So what would I do? If it were my decision I would start evaluating beyond basic skills in areas closer to 21st century skills. Maybe it is a voluntary assessment for an additional ribbon on a degree. Maybe it is the certification movement pushed down into high school. Maybe a kid runs track, is in the debate club and earns a social media certification in order to make himself more competitive in college.

When Dr. Demary, (one of my education heroes) asks what do we do now that most of our students are passing the SOL tests, this is what I will say. “When students in your class pass a test you have prepared them for you don’t give them the same test but raise the number of correct answers needed to pass. You teach new content, you expand on their solid foundation evidenced by their test scores. You start teaching them something new, something that might be even more important than what they mastered already, like critical thinking, creativity, and team work. There is only one problem though, it is hard to test those kinds of skills. Maybe the tests have outlived their usefulness? Maybe the kids could help build their own obstacle course to test their learning.”
Image: http://www.japanwindow.com/images/20051012002715_051008_undoukai_041.jpg