Reflections on Teaching

I thought I’d come back to a topic I spent a lot of time on in the last month, assessment.
First, the new secretary of education was chosen, Education Week: Obama: Duncan ‘Doesn’t Blink’ on Tough Decisions, but I hadn’t commented on it. I thought the “Doesn’t Blink” comment was a bit “tin-eared” after the Palin [...]

[Read more]

One of the reasons that some folks would like teachers to be judged by tests is because they feel other methods (teacher observation, etc.) are too subjective. This recently got a re-run in a “best of” post from Killian Betlach, and it brings up some issues I’ve had with “accountability” in teaching.
“You get up on [...]

[Read more]

DONE FOREVER from mr. nightshades photostream
Testing, it is the only objective criteria for assessment isn’t it? How can you be sure that students have “gotten” it if they can spit it back up on a test three months later? How can a test be fair if kids use aids like a calculator, how do we [...]

[Read more]

“Not every thing that can be measured is important. Not everything that is important cannot be measured” — Einstein
Brian Crosby at In Practice recently discussed the “safety” that educators can find in using set instructional programs. It got me thinking about how we love our numbers. Recent financial events show where an uncritical romance with [...]

[Read more]