Response to the last posting

Hey, folks. I had a great exchange with someone who gets this blog and wanted to share it in the spirit of openness and the value of free-flowing ideas to make discussions stronger...

In no way is this meant to offend, but it's to highlight some of the on-the-ground conversations that people are having about the "teaching to the test" phenomenon. This is all up for debate...

READER'S ORIGINAL RESPONSE
Sounds like teachers engaging students in a test-retest cycle that is instruction free. Feedback and scores are different than instruction, and are only important if accompanied by specific targeted instruction- targeted test questions don't teach no matter how many online banks generate. I wonder how much time is spent taking tests, reviewing tests and retaking tests that could be spend engaged in authentic (real life) instructional activities that encourage a learning-orientation instead of a performance -orientation...something the motivation folks talk about when they study what students do well on tests and beyond (learning-orientation) instead of kids that stress about tests, but just learn material to perform well, not to internalize or apply or accumulate knowledge. I want to hear more about how these teachers used extra loads of testing and questions to make their teaching (rather than their testing) better.

Also, what do you see the community's role being in supporting teacher innovation? Can you be more specific about help and support?

MY RESPONSE (to the original response)

You’re right that they are looking at the test to help students master concepts. In some ways, some people may be thinking this is the epitome of “teaching to the test,” and they may be right. (At the risk of sounding like a testing guru) if we can devise tests to assess the concepts we want students to learn, and incorporate critical thinking, what’s wrong with teaching students to perform well on those tests? This model also seemed to make testing not seem as hard-nosed as the typical high-stakes testing you normally hear about. If you can get students to see a test as honestly a barometer of where they are, with the opportunity to go back and work on concepts that they’re not understanding, it might make testing a bit less intimidating.

I’ll be up front with you in telling you that their presentation was about how they assess student learning—not on their teaching strategies. So there very well may be more to the equation that I don’t know about…

These teachers started off in thinking about whether or not teachers understood the state standards in a way that would allow them to teach more in line with what the standards lay out. So, he gave me an example of where he was misreading some of the standards and was therefore teaching out of sync with what kids would see on the test. Again, this does smack of “teaching to the test.” But it’s important to think about whether or not teachers understand the very standards they’re trying to teach to the students. So, in their quest to do standards-based assessment, he uncovered this major issue. A good thing, I think.

Also, a cool point they brought up was when students get back a bad test grade, they usually throw it away and try to forget it. They’re trying to encourage students to go back, look at what you missed, and work hard to understand and master that concept so that they don’t’ fall behind…

I think there are a couple of ways the community can support teacher innovation and teacher effectiveness.

Parents: Be asking questions to your kids about what they’re learning. Be actively trying to follow what your child is learning in school. Ask teachers how they can best reinforce class concepts in the kids are learning at school. Plug into data that teachers provide to give them accurate pictures of where their students are re: learning.

Businesses: Help fund data systems. Provide teachers internships either during the year or during the summer that would allow them to see the relevance of course concepts. Make themselves available to guest teach some concepts. Provide real-world learning opportunities for students through class projects.

Non-profit agencies: Reinforce concepts in after-school programs. Make intentional attempts to touch base with school administrators to find out how they’re teaching concepts. Share their experiences in how they present concepts to students. Align program objectives with school curricular and extra-curricular objectives.

Are these pie in the sky? They’ve been on my mind a lot.

See the reader's 2nd response in my next post...
My post got too big and it won't let me post it all!