“We are the most tested and least examined kids in the world”
Mostly about Finland’s educational system, but this is a wonderful interview also in considering testing in the US and what our country needs to do in order to catch up to world leaders in education.
(Source: edpolicy.stanford.edu)
she told me an experience she’d had where a little girl had come up to her and said she was really interested in something that came up and she asked could the teacher give her some ideas for how to look into it further
and the teacher was compelled to tell her , I’m sorry but you can’t do that, you have to study to pass this national exam that’s coming , that’s going to determine your future , the teacher didnt say it but it’s going to determine my future whether i’m rehired and so onthe system is geared to getting the children to pass hurdles but not to learn to understand and explore/
(Source: ofotherstuff.blogspot.com, via thelearninglife)
Check out this article on some potential benefits of the Common Core standards. I feel like all I ever hear about them is negative, and I myself have been guilty of assuming that nothing good can come of standardizing the curriculum, but this article makes a really good point that perhaps we don’t have to make all curricula the same despite having a single set of standards for schools. Do I completely agree with the Common Core now? No, but I’m glad to see something written by an educator that puts a positive spin on it.
I take teaching very seriously. The work we do as educators is important. But I also wish so much of it wasn’t so humorless. In fact, teachers and administrators who lack a sense of humor should find another profession. That’s a fairly harsh and rigid position, but teaching and leading in schools without a sense of humor is detrimental for both the educators and the students.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-school-should-be-funnier/2012/03/02/gIQA7OuqoR_blog.html
Why school should be funnier
By Valerie Strauss
(via englishteacheronline)
(via thelearninglife)
Teacher evaluation ratings based on tests are causing all sorts of problems in NYC. I have lots to say but essays to write so I’ll just share it for now.
New York Times -
Speak of the devil! Turns out Steinhardt Professor Sean Corcoran (who just talked up in the below post) has just been consulted by NYT as something of an authority on value-added teacher evaluations.
With press like this, I wonder how long New York will persist in publishing such overly-sensitive, out of date, potentially manipulable data.
And how much is this program costing? And what are the expected outcomes (prof. Corcoran taught me to ask those questions)? And is there really no better use for the money?
(Source: nyulocal.com)
New York Times -
A better piece on the worth of teachers. Although let’s be honest; is there anything surprising in the assertion that good teachers are better than bad teachers?
While this piece explains that a “great teacher” is among the top 16% of educators, it doesn’t explain the criteria behind this ranking. Teacher quality doesn’t have to be directly tied to experience or qualifications, but this article seems to want to make good teaching a question of some inherent ability. I think anyone who has ever stood in front of a class knows it isn’t that simple.
And likely they also know that even if you’re a great teacher, chances are you’re not working in isolation. Just who is doing all the value-adding in these tests?
Anyway, at least there’s some quantified evidence for the potential positive impact of teachers. But what does it count for if we can’t answer the question of how do we make great teachers?
A person can do magnificently on a test, and understand very little.
(via thelearninglife)
Last week, Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education published a really thought-provoking article about the debate over how much (if any) homework schools should assign to students. Thea article really goes into some of the history behind this topic, and it explains how we keep going back and forth from wanting our children to have more versus less homework. It seems like homework is in the media’s spotlight more often now thanks to films such as Race to Nowhere, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the current resistance to homework continues to spread. The article ends with an attempt at finding the balance between assigning excessive amounts of work and the threat of our education system that lags behind those of many other developed nations. Personally, I don’t think the focus should simply be on how much we assign, but why we assign it. Homework should be useful. End of story. What’s the point of making students do monotonous work that won’t help them when they could be doing anything else in the world? We should be dedicated to assigning work that will either prepare students for an upcoming lesson or will solidify and deepen knowledge and skills taught already. Right?
