BLOG 701 3/7/21 Education Evolution
This week, please blog about how implementation of such policies could affect change in education and in public schools. Include both the moral/ethical imperative stated in John Dewey’s quote made one hundred years ago, “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, we must want for all children in the community. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.” The last few chapters we have read in Flat World Education have been very eye opening for me. I have been a teacher for almost 18 years now and did not fully grasp the power of assessments and the damage they can do to the quality of teaching and learning that happens in classrooms. I feel like I have been a naive part of the machine, administering tests, preparing and coaching kids for state “test season” like we were getting ready for a CIF championship game. I am just embarrassed remembering a school wide plan to have kids fill out a table top tent style card which they would put on their desks during testing (NCLB days). The card had the names of people they were dedicating their test performance to, usually moms and dads, or supportive grandmas and grandpas, maybe a past teacher that had made a difference. All this to motivate / manipulate students to do their best on the test so we could prove student growth and avoid having our school put in the dreaded “program improvement” status. This was such an unhealthy approach to assessment. I saw exactly what Hammond described in Ch 3 and Ch 9. People began teaching to the test and less time was given to an actual hands on practicing of science skills and problem solving. Testing styles reflected the standardized tests with mostly recall of facts and very little true problem solving, experimental design, or deep thinking. All of this seems exactly opposite to how we know brains work best. The testing environment is far from nurturing or creative, and the stress levels experienced by students and teachers during testing would surely shift the brain down into what Dr. Pat Wolfe refers to as the “reptilian” brain, where survival is the primary purpose. (Wolfe, 2010). I can imagine a more brain compatible testing style that includes collaborative problem solving like Swartz describes in his Good Thinking presentation and Gee refers to in Good Video Games + Good Learning. Gee suggests that completing the quest in a video game would prove student proficiency at problem solving, require collaboration and knowledge on a topic, and be engaging in a way that the brain experiences as pleasure, versus stress. Completing the quest would be the test. In science, I am happy to report, the new science standards, NGSS, focus heavily on problem solving and thinking skills. Every unit in our new Amplify curriculum starts with a hook style phenomena or problem, then builds content, science skills, and vocabulary as needed to describe events happening in the inquiry. After students have multiple opportunities to explore the problem and solutions as they play the role of student chemist, geologist, or physicist, they evaluate evidence using set criteria and then have a discussion about the best solution. The final part of each unit is a new problem where they can apply what they have learned to a new yet similar problem. The assessments are definitely not spitting back memorized facts, but they are multiple choice. I have been supplementing the units with writing activities and also some assignments that require creating with technology because I just know my students enjoy and need this right now. One point that Hammond makes is that assessments in other higher performing countries are not tied to diplomas, school funding, or used to shame underperforming schools like we find in the U.S. testing system. In these high performing countries, the assessments are used to guide the learning, to assess pupil progress. It’s almost like the assessments are what we would call a formative assessment. Another point that Hammond makes throughout The Flat World and Education is the equity issues. Even within our own school district I see these equity issues from school site to school site. If we struggle to even the playing field in a fairly small district like NVUSD, I can’t imagine what a huge problem it must be across states with counties of poverty next door to counties of affluence. This problem really has to be a top priority because it is so basic to the foundation of our democracy. Education is supposed to be that great equalizer, everybody gets a fair chance. This is the idea we communicate to people from the time they are young, “work hard and you can reach your dreams.” I grew up believing this idea, believing in this idea. For many young people this idea is a frustrating lie because the playing field is not level, it is a giant slope, and they are at the bottom and see all the opportunities other people are given because of where they live or what family they belong to. I am just bewildered by how we got this so wrong for so long. How can so many well educated, intelligent people working in U.S. education systems and in our federal branch of education not figure out how to effectively get resources to these needy communities and implement an assessment plan that shows student progress in a useful, student honoring way? I don’t have the answers, but I know what I need to work on in the realm where I have the greatest influence, within the walls and halls of Redwood Middle School.
4 Comments
Jamie Allison Lutz
3/7/2021 09:31:27 pm
Betsy,
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Janine Burt
3/8/2021 09:28:35 am
HI Betsy, I share your feelings about the mistakes of the past and present. I have always hated "test season". I used to try to explain it to well meaning non-educator friends that don't understand how hard on kids it is by describing it as something out of a Dickens novel. We have little children who have to sit for hours over the course of several days to complete tests that are biased, not authentic, and don't really give us much information about what they can actually do. Wow, I can get on my soapbox fast.
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Kimberlee Nelson
3/9/2021 11:51:42 am
Betsy,
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Amy Bardwell
3/9/2021 05:20:39 pm
Hi Betsy: Your statement, "Education is suppossed to be the great equalizer, everybody gets a fair chance." I agree too. I always understto that education was not fair and some get more than others. However, to see it in Napa Valley Unified is upsetting. WE need to change the system and the policies. I was want political leaders to ask educators how we would reform and to implement our suggesstions. Hopefully, the pandemic will shed major light on inequality of our education system.
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AuthorHello! Welcome to my blog! This will be a fun place to share thoughts about teaching and learning. I am a middle school science teacher at Redwood. When I'm not teaching, I'm hanging out at home with my family or enjoying nature somewhere in the valley. Archives
March 2021
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