Randy Dorn defeated Terry Bergeson in the election for Washington's Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dorn has been outspoken in his desire to remove the WASL as the standardized test of choice here, although it isn't entirely clear what he will implement instead. Are we witnessing the WASL's slow fade into the sunset? How will we better measure student learning, and maintain the facet of public accountability (the A word it is the name of the game)?
This conversation is timely for me, as I am reading Deborah Meier's In Schools We Trust. In the book she points out how in many other fields second opinions are sought. You don't simply look at one reference point and make a judgement. We ask questions about what we are seeing, and also about the proper interventions necessary. Our testing process is decontextualized, much like HMO's that only have access to a patient's symptoms- and thereafter make a diagnosis. This doesn't even get into the history of standardized tests, which were a way of ranking people and putting them above or below the "bell curve." My head is spinning. Anyone want to create a book group, for I fear I'll bug my wife too much with my "ooh check this out..." reactions?
No comments:
Post a Comment