It's Not Business; It's Personal

There are many prevailing myths in education: more testing will produce better students, charter schools outperform public schools, computers can teach as well as humans, student test scores are a reflection of the quality of their teacher.

According to George Madaus “tests can and should be used to judge and hold schools accountable but not students because tests don’t adequately represent what kids know and can do.” He explains that there is always a statistical margin of error that could be due to factors such as the temperature in the testing room, a hungry child, or one who just had a fight with her best friend.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/interviews/madaus.html

  

Let’s consider that argument for a moment. He is saying that we should be concerned with how well the teachers at a school teach to the test but should not take into account the learner’s prior achievement, aptitudes, attitudes or settings. He believes that children and their individual circumstances are unique. But, isn’t that true of teachers too? 

It is not unusual for teachers to need extra desks delivered to an already packed classroom when 6 new students arrive on the first day of the school year, or to find that the computer randomly assigned 5 special needs students (including serious physical, cognitive, and behavioral challenges) but due to budget cuts, half the paraprofessionals in the district have been dismissed.

Madaus says that children don’t have control over their environment, but then again, teachers don’t either. If the test “doesn’t adequately represent what the child knows or is able to do” how can those same tests show what the teacher knows or is able to do?  This is especially significant considering the diversity of today’s classrooms where each child brings unique talents and capabilities.

No one would dispute that every child deserves the highest and best opportunities for learning. But, education is not a business where teachers choose their raw materials. It is far better to start where the students are, build on what they bring to the classroom, encourage and support deep learning, and measure the progress of each one along their pathway of learning. Let’s make learning personal.