Got the new book by Diane Ravitch from the library, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System". I was prompted to get it after having read an interesting email exchange on edweek.org called "Taking Back School Reform: A Conversation Between Diane Ravitch and Mike Rose". Then woke up to The New York Times on Saturday to see the magazine cover article, "Are Teachers' Unions the Enemy of Reform?...Discuss". It seems the conversation on educational reform is everywhere you look these days powered in part by Race to the Top funds that require states to do more than talk about reform. While it is an exciting time for education and a welcome change to have these issues on everyone's mind my sense is that most of what I read is still focused solely on teacher accountability and testing. I believe in accountability and know that testing is not only necessary but quite useful if done well. Therein lies the rub. Most testing provides little insight into how students think or understand the questions/tasks posed to them. And even less about successful teaching. If we ask yes/no or multiple choice questions we get data that is a grainy, black and white snapshot of what students are thinking. Tests that pose open ended questions are a vast improvement but only as good as those evaluating student responses. Even the best rubrics do little to protect students from reviewers who have slight understanding of the complexity of the content and tasks and what student responses mean. And yet it is with these flawed testing instruments that we are determining the success or failure of students and teachers and ultimately our schools.
I would flip the problem and ask: can we create a profile of the kind of students we hope to produce in our public schools and can we identify and agree on what constitutes good teaching? For starters, I want students to be life long learners more than excellent test takers. I want teachers fascinated in the entire process of learning, eager to learn more themselves. What would be on your must have list for students and teachers?
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