Ryan's Writes #3: Assess the Situation

Today we watched this in class. Can you guess what the topic of discussion was? ASSESSMENT!
Dear Lord I never appreciated my statistics AP class more than I do now.

Testing students is part of the profession. Sometimes, we do so much, I don't know why they don't call us "testers" instead of "teachers". Maybe "dementors" is more appropriate for what we do to these kids. Then again, when we try to herd cattle and get them all going in the same direction, I'm sure some coercive tactics are necessary. Testing is necessary to evaluate all students on the same standards and hold teachers accountable for what is taught in the class.

There are two major types of tests: Summative Assessments and Formative Assessments.

Summative Assessments are typically high-stakes, meaning that there is lots at risk depending on the result of this test. This type of test could be a major portion of the grade, a state mandated test for all students, or even a test to determine their fitness for graduation. This is because a summative assessment is a comprehensive examination of what the student has learned and/or failed to learn. This is the final exam, the proficiency, the standardized test.

Formative Assessments, on the other hand, are much less extreme. These tests are smaller and typically more informal, more with the purpose to inform the teacher where the students are in relation to the lesson. Are they keeping up? What do they understand or what are they not getting at this point? Is my strategy working? Formative assessments occur to give the teacher real time information about student performance. It does not account for much of a student's grade or graduation, but plays a crucial role for an educator's lesson plan. These assessments happen quite frequently and can take the from of a simple cold call question in class, exit ticket questionnaires, pop quizzes, etc.

The Summative assessment in question is a standardized test. Governments have become more hands on with our students learning since No Child Left Behind and (long story short) schools must have students pass a standardized test and be ranked. I don't know if lower performing schools get less government money or whatever, but if I were an administrator I would be scared. There are so many arguments for and against standardized testing that to begin now at 1am ( I can't get out of this late night writing funk) would mean I wouldn't sleep...and I like sleep.

The video made some points I would like to hit on though...

"Maybe more emphasis should be put on the learning process and less on the testing process"
  Right now, testing is regulated. There are standards a student has to meet and that's the bottom line. The teacher is free to choose whatever method they can to get them to that standard. What this message seems to me is that the government should focus more on controlling what is being taught in the class and how it is being taught. The Common Core standards seems like the response to this, as teachers around the nation are falling into the same mold. As with this concept, there is more debate and arguments. Why should the government control what goes on in my classroom, especially considering the fact that each child learns differently and behaves uniquely?

"Life will slap these kids in the face. They aren't prepared to take it."
This is a comment one of my colleagues made....paraphrased as best as possible. I chuckled to myself in class because the only response I could think of was "let's start slapping them in high school so they can be ready then. Oh? They don't like that? I could get fired....well, damn."

The debate rages on and I can't say I have a firm understanding or stance on it yet. I have yet to read the book The Teacher Wars, but maybe it will shed some light on teaching as a profession and our current battle with standardized testing.

Also, I went ahead and read some of the video comments. I had to stop. If you are going to post publicly, at least make an effort to fix your grammar. It's a pet peeve of mine now because I am going to be an educator, but I think that it just makes you look uneducated. We live in a fast paced world where time is money, but it doesn't take too long to "cross your t's and dot your i's" as Mrs. Czerniecki would say. If you aren't going to check your argument to see if it is sound or could use more support, at least fix your typos before you hit submit so you can at least look like you tried posting meaningful content instead of merely adding to the flame.