The Chicago teachers’ strike is over, but we hear questions about teacher evaluation across the country.
For example, how can we effectively assess teachers’ performance? The thought of having one’s teaching weighted so heavily on students’ one-time snap-shot evaluation using high-stakes, or Scantron-type tests for which they were not designed is unsatisfactory.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urges that we craft “multiple measures” for teacher assessment and these should include how we currently assess students’ performances in any subject:
Teacher observations, students’ journals and postings on paper and in the cloud--Google Docs, Groups, Plus, wikis, Twitter--project reports, performance tests, self-reflections and the like.
These direct, long-term, reliable measures become more important when we consider not only the subjects we teach, but our school mission statements as well:
“We hold high academic standards for all students and expect each will become a responsible citizen of our American democracy. We want all students to dream, achieve and contribute to a global society.”
One school district (Greenwich, CT) paints a portrait of the graduate that calls for her to be able, assuming content knowledge, “to pose and pursue substantive questions” and then engage in the problem solving, critical thinking and ethical, collaborative behaviors required.
To become responsible, active contributors to our society we need students to become good inquirers who pose problems and think critically and creatively. It is not sufficient to understand Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and determine theme in Charlotte’s Web. We need students to be able to ask good questions, identify/solve problems and analyze information critically. Process is content.
But how do we assess these all important intellectual processes? How Do We Know They’re Getting Better? reflects recent research on assessment of 21st century skills, K-8.
John Barell
Learning Forward Session Tuesday 12/4 @ 3-5, I26
No comments:
Post a Comment