I am somewhat amazed at the direction education has taken in the past couple years. Through classes there always seems to be the battle between data driven summative assessment and more informal yet informative formative assessment. Due to technology, it seems to make sense. Data is more readily available and the context is so accessible in any format considered. It is great to review a spreadsheet of a class and highlight skills versus weaknesses to help determine how to teach those students. It still seems like the data driven classroom has left behind the other important life-like factor and this is the formative assessment. During a PLC, these life experiences in the classroom are rarely considered, I would imagine primarily due to time. We are so divulged with data, resources, and school improvement that the topic of a child's personality is kind of forgotten.
I like to think that when all is said and done, the teacher is still using formative assessment in the classroom although it is not shared during benchmarking and evaluation time.
Monday, February 22, 2010
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I'm painting with very broad strokes here, but I think we can all thank NCLB for the great interest in data. Gathering the data is far easier with Pearson Benchmark and Inform, but what to do with that data and how to interpret it is an art. I like being able to extract an individual student's data to monitor progress, but the bigger picture, what to do for the entire district, is difficult in my limited experience. And perhaps the bigger problem is that life isn't a multiple choice question, yet that's what so many of our decisions are based upon: the results of a multiple choice test. (stepping off of soap box now)
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