Standards and Testing.
I came across a thoughtful piece by Alfie Kohn on the the issue of standards and testing. Although written in 2001, it certainly has meaning today as the high-stakes testing mania seems to be an ever-expanding movement.
For example, Kohn writes, "Consider a comment made by Sandra Stotsky, the deputy commissioner of education in Massachusetts: 'Explore isn't a word that can be put into a standard because it can't be assessed.' This assertion is obviously false because there are plenty of ways to assess the quality of students' exploration---unless, of course, "assessment" is equated with standardized testing. But suppose for the moment that Ms. Stotsky was correct. What if we really were faced with a trade-off between an emphasis on exploration in the classroom and the demands of measurement? Most thoughtful educators would unhesitatingly choose the former, whereas those who write and enforce state standards often opt for the latter. Clearly, it is much easier to quantify the number of times a semicolon has been used correctly in an essay than it is to quantify how well the student has explored ideas in that essay. Thus, the more emphasis that is placed on picking standards that are measurable, the less ambitious the teaching will become."
Kohn says the standards should be examined on the basis of four criteria:
1. How specific are they?
2. How quantifiable are they?
3. How uniform are they?
4. Are they guidelines or mandates?
Read the whole article.
For example, Kohn writes, "Consider a comment made by Sandra Stotsky, the deputy commissioner of education in Massachusetts: 'Explore isn't a word that can be put into a standard because it can't be assessed.' This assertion is obviously false because there are plenty of ways to assess the quality of students' exploration---unless, of course, "assessment" is equated with standardized testing. But suppose for the moment that Ms. Stotsky was correct. What if we really were faced with a trade-off between an emphasis on exploration in the classroom and the demands of measurement? Most thoughtful educators would unhesitatingly choose the former, whereas those who write and enforce state standards often opt for the latter. Clearly, it is much easier to quantify the number of times a semicolon has been used correctly in an essay than it is to quantify how well the student has explored ideas in that essay. Thus, the more emphasis that is placed on picking standards that are measurable, the less ambitious the teaching will become."
Kohn says the standards should be examined on the basis of four criteria:
1. How specific are they?
2. How quantifiable are they?
3. How uniform are they?
4. Are they guidelines or mandates?
Read the whole article.
posted by Fred Klonsky at 12/13/2005
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