During my Independent Reading with my class, I often try to find articles on education and city schools. Recently I read “Trends and Issues Affecting Primary and Secondary Education” by Robert Sexton after it was mentioned during a staff meeting. The website to visit this article is http://www.kltprc.net/books/exploring/PDFs/SEXTON.PDF.
The article focuses very much on assessment and accountability in school systems. It discusses using tests to drive instruction and using instruction to increase test scores and the delicate nature in which this must be done. The article discusses rewards programs, holding high standards for children and utilizing the support of parents and community members.
When I think about this article against the way that Baltimore City Schools functions, I find many similarities with the intentions but am not sure how effective we are in carrying out our plans. We are so assessment driven in our city: people lose jobs because of their low performing outcomes, schools lose their charters and AYP is a word that haunts our city principals. I absolutely agree that assessments and accountability both are essential in a school’s success but I think the weight that we place on assessments and AYP is often too much. I also think that we do a great job presenting ideas and ways to improve our school system but often fall short in the implementation and execution of the proposed plan. I’m not sure what the answer is or if there is one, but I think as a city, we need to focus on consistency and accountability within ourselves as educators before we can place it on the children and families of our city schools.
Posted by Shawn D (REFORMBLOGGER) via Leah's email address because of login issues with REFORM BLOGGER
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As I read this article I thought of the stresses of teachers to make sure their students are meeting the standards of their respective subjects. I thought of the end of the year state exams that would show if they had done their job or not, and thought to what degree is that testing if those children learned in that class. I know for many city school teachers getting students who are performing on grade level is far and few in between. Therefore how can a state assessment show whether those students had gained a year of instruction when they were starting multiple years behind. I believe that accountability and assesment is crucial for evaluating schools and educators, but like our teaching it should be differentiated. Not all students are the same and so their tests shouldn't be either.
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