George Bernard Shaw once said: “Live in contact with dreams and you will get something of their charm: live in contact with facts and you get something of their brutality”. When it comes to the current preoccupation with standardized testing in the United States (and, more particularly, in New York State), my fear is that we are replacing dreams and compassion and thoughtful analysis with a quick but brutal search for data and statistics. And it is wrong to do this. We ought not to acquiesce to that which diminishes the quality of life for our children, our teachers, our schools and our communities.
via Standardized Testing — The Brutal Search for Factual Data.
We recently published a blog about a child’s response to the standardised testing regime that they had been subjected to over the past few weeks. Testing that teachers may not necessarily agree with, but are forced to administer and then (in some places) publicly named and shamed in the media – and we are not talking about the ‘banding’ or listing of schools based on their performance (which happens in the UK), we are talking about the names of individual teachers. This is happening in parts of the US. How long before this trend spreads?
The above blog by gilboafox caught our interest. It is well worth a read.
This sentence in particular resonated with us.
“We ought not to acquiesce to that which diminishes the quality of life for our children, our teachers, our schools and our communities.”
We have just completed a 3 day event in Stirling, Scotland. Assessment within ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ was a major theme – something that everyone is working towards. Assessment that encourages learners (of all ages), helps them to progress and involves them from start to finish. Assessment that does not just reduce the learners (of all ages) to a number, a piece of data that can be used by politicians to justify their existence and policies. Every practitioner this week talked about learning and learners with passion, respect, understanding and accountability. If only ‘those in charge’ talked about the teaching profession (who are also learners in their own right) in the same way and applied an ‘indivisibility of principles’ approach. All too often teachers are used as scapegoats…and forced into situations that are incongruent with their principles and values.
If ‘health and well-being’ is high on the agenda, how do we as a profession help to create an assessment system that is not soul-destroying…a system that involves the learner (of all ages) at the centre of the process…a system that is accountable to the learner and not just the politician? Do we, as members of the education profession, have the confidence to stand up, stand tall and be heard? Do we have the confidence to question?
“To question is to grow” (Great line in ‘Proud’, M People)
Now is the time to question more loudly than before. Now is the time to grow.
Related articles
- Where did standardized tests come from, anyway? (breakthestandard.wordpress.com)
- About testing and how to make them meaningful (educationthatmakessense.wordpress.com)
- Thompson: Teach To The Heart (Not Primitive Standardized Tests) (scholasticadministrator.typepad.com)
- Let them be heard: Voice of the Children (singlestepslearning.wordpress.com)
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