Assessment

Proper assessment helps to steer our schools in the right direction. Assessments allow us to track our progress as we make changes to the curriculum. In many cases, assessment results drive those changes. They provide the measuring stick on the wall that we measure our progress against. Assessments and standards go hand in hand. Since No Child Left Behind, the standards are defined by the state. In this manner, I felt some of the article was out of date. We need to prepare our students for a world very different than we have now. If we follow the same level of advancements we’ve had in the last ten years for the next ten years, the global landscape could be very different. Our students need to master tasks we were never presented with. They also need to be able to master the basic tasks that we learned years ago. With this changing landscape comes changing curriculum. As Simmons and Resnick express, “We have a curriculum…that is more in touch with the 1920’s than the modern day “(1993, p.11).
In an effort to perform better and meet the standards, many school districts have made changes to their curriculum. In most cases, these changes help our students perform better. In some cases though, we need to be mindful of what long term effect these changes have on our students. All too frequently the changes that are made focus on the core subjects such as Language Arts and Math or Science. The electives end up suffering with smaller numbers and lass offerings. Eventually, these programs get cut all together. In my district, we are experiencing this problem now. Family Consumer Science, Business Ed, Tech Ed and Music are all suffering from smaller numbers. Our cooking program has all but been eliminated. As a student that lived off campus, I would have been lost without some cooking experience. Now we rely on these tasks being learned outside the school walls. I have heard some educators say that these are things that can be taught at home, outside of school or that they can be optional after school programs. They can be, but should they be? How focused are we at teaching the standard? What do we lose along the way?
Assessments are good measuring tools. They measure what we predefine as the important things, the standards. How well we teach the standards directly impacts how well we perform on the assessment. We can’t allow our educational system to get into the trap of just teaching the standards. We can’t sacrifice other important programs just to make sure we perform well on the standards. At some point, the standards will change. How do we measure our education then?

References

Simmons, W. (1993). Assessment as the Catalyst of School Reform. Educational leadership, 50(5), 11-15.