Untrending in Education: The Next Big Thing

Education has been rife with fads over the years. By this, I mean strategies and services with minimal research to support their startup and minimal evidence of success. We've tried open classrooms, block scheduling, small schools, and more. In reality, there is no simple way to fix schools. Schools are complex institutions with communities of unique learners and diverse constituents. So why do we think that the Common Core will be the next fix when there's no evidence that standardized testing improves learning (Popham, 2005, http://www.edutopia.org/standardized-testing-evaluation-reform)

Decisions about curriculum, learning targets, instruction, classroom management, differentiation, and assessment are each exceedingly multifaceted. So how is it possible that one standardized curriculum and one standardized test will fix all the problems of education? There is no other profession where one written test determines proficiency. Could you imagine if your pilot or doctor only had to pass one test? So why, in education, have we become focused on that strategy? These assessments have one purpose- to rank schools and teachers. One example of this is Connecticut's new School Performance Index (https://state2.measinc.com/ct/micpi/) But, in reality, a variety of measures are necessary to support the multiple purposes of assessment: To inform teaching, identify progress, pinpoint gaps, and develop local and immediate responses.

It is far better to address learning from multiple perspectives and to use a range of assessments from content recall, to demonstrations of higher level thinking, to displays of real-world applications. Embedded assessment that informs teaching and learning is an improvement over one test at the end of learning.

So here are my recommendations for untrending:

• Balanced assessment systems that include formative, interim, and summative assessments:
• A range of assessment strategies from selected choice to authentic performances.
• Inclusion of large scale and classroom assessments to determine student's progress and needs.
• Instructionally useful, short term, formative assessment
• Multiple assessments that display a full range of student's abilities across all curricular areas

A balanced approach to assessment will provide multiple data points. Thoughtfully planned comprehensive assessment will benefit all constituents.