It's funny that the blog question for chapter 9 should be about education and how grades and standardized tests dictate how students and teachers behave in relation to school. It's a subject I've talked about and studied to some extent in my master of arts in teaching classes here at Hamline. As idealistic young teachers-to-be, my classmates and I regularly bemoan the importance and primacy of grades and standardized tests. We would rather focus on learning for learning's sake and focus on real educational progress in our students rather than teach to the test or focus on some faceless standardized test.
The reality of the situation is that we all need to assign grades and give final assessments of our students in a standardized way that everyone understands; we need to make sure our students are prepared for the mandatory high school graduation tests and college prep tests they will be taking; and we have to make sure students do well on national benchmark tests so we maintain federal funding. For as much as we would like to abolish the use of standardized tests, what other systematic way do we have of assessing student performance? Yes, looking at a combination of standardized test scores, class grades, in-class performance, creativity in projects, effectiveness in group work would be ideal, but it's simply not practical to take into account all of these factors sometimes.
As for me... I'm in a bit of strange situation caught in transition from one role in the educational institute to another. Save for the awkward 2.5 year dead zone after I graduated undergrad in 08, I've been a student since I was 3 years old. In many ways, being involved in the education process has defined who I am, and will continue to define me when I become a high school teacher. Fortunately, it's an institution I am comfortable and successful in, and one that I feel passionate and excited about being a part of as an adult from the teacher side of things.
Given that you believe it's impossible to take all of the different measures of student performance into account, in your experience which assessment do you feel best measures student achievement??
ReplyDeleteTo be honest... the grade that teachers give them. A final grade measures the quality of the work, the effort a student has put in, and the level of proficiency the student achieved by the end of the term from a professional who has worked with and gotten to know that student for an entire semester or trimester. It reflects the work of many assignments and assessments both formative and summative. It's more personal because it comes from someone who knows that student on an individual level; they're not just some random number that flies across the desk of a standardized test grader or scantron machine.
ReplyDeleteEven that is incomplete though. A thorough assessment of student achievement should be based on a variety of factors: their grades, their test scores, their achievements outside of the classroom, letters of recommendation from teachers and coaches, a view of their PROGRESS rather than just their final score...