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Assessing
Learning
We are
nearly finished with our heavy testing period. Similar to a
monsoon, standardized tests such as MCAS, SATs, SAT IIs and AP
exams rain on our students throughout the month of May. While
the scores on these exams will have some impact on our
children’s academic experience, the numbers will have a
relatively short lifespan and none of these scores will have any
enduring meaning.
More
importantly, for many students, the scores and the content
knowledge they measure, unfortunately, do not correlate strongly
with their interests or their imagination. If we want to assess
what captures our children’s curiosity, it is helpful to listen
to what they spontaneously bring up at dinner. When my children
were home, what I heard about at supper often had more to do
with happenings outside, rather than inside the classroom. When
their stories did come from their lessons, however, inevitably
they were linked to a teacher’s ability to spark interest. My
son’s AP biology teacher, for example, somehow captured his
mental energies and gave him a sense of wonder about the
intriguing dynamics of life. None of the stories my son shared
with us from his biology class, however, had any relationship
with the subject matter on his College Board exams.
Nevertheless, I often found myself quietly thanking his biology
teacher for inspiring my son to think and wonder. I am not quite
sure how this teacher did it. He had a calm personality and a
straightforward delivery, but somehow he had developed that
teacher magic that enchants the mind. I also know that he never
let the 1200 pages of the textbook sorted into fifty chapters
overshadow the central themes of his course. One of those themes
focused on the mystery of how life blossoms with incredible
diversity out of simple, unifying components. In an era when
there is pressure on teachers to cover enormous amounts of
material and aim their teaching to tests, this teacher’s
pedagogy was a refreshing and courageous respite.
As this year
draws to a close and I try to assess the effectiveness of our
own school district, I wonder how much our efforts as teachers
and administrators have helped to inspire young people to be
curious about the world around them. Have we helped to nurture
fascination? Has our work helped to intrigue our students? Will
something they have studied in school lead to a self-directed
Internet search for more information some late night in July or
a selection of a book from a local library in August? In the
absence of a homework assignment, will the free time of summer
provide an opportunity to practice a technique learned in art,
or music, or technology?
Without the
pressures of studying for a test, will our students try to
deepen their understanding of an idea during the abundant down
time summer bestows upon them? From my perspective, these are
some of the criteria we should use to assess our own work as
educators. In our efforts to accomplish more and assess it
better, have we unintentionally de-emphasized the value of
curiosity, wonder, and the chance to marvel? Our efforts must
strike a balance, naturally, between providing the discipline
involved in acquiring knowledge and the inspiration that invites
our students to use their imaginations.
One of our
goals has to be to encourage our students to see how they can
connect their knowledge, in countless ways, to the particular
interests and vantage points of their own, unique lives. The
fact that this goal is so hard to measure should not detract
from our efforts to make it happen. If you notice your son or
daughter making these connections to lessons learned in school,
please be sure to treasure it, and if you have time, drop a note
to the teacher who helped nurture it. That kind of
acknowledgment, perhaps, will help spark a new wave educational
reform, one that focuses more keenly on thinking, creating, and
wondering rather than testing.
June 12, 2008
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