Good learners understand what others do well and adopt those skills that have proven to work. This is how success happens - by learning from others. Can this be said about education?
New Zealand, who ranks much higher than the US in the global standardized PISA test (7th in both Science and Reading and 13th in Math), approaches education in a fundamentally opposite way than the US. They believe in a system with a high trust/low stakes model of accountability whereas the US approaches education with a low trust/high stakes model of accountability. New Zealand feels that when you educate the whole child, you must believe in your teachers to try different, innovative ways to meet the standards (or “principles” if in New Zealand). Furthermore, standardized testing should be a powerful diagnostic tool to help get positive insights into what a student’s learning challenges may be. This does not sound very radical, and it is what some would say happens across thousands of schools in the US.
I think what the US can learn most from New Zealand is their view on education. According to Dr. Hipkins who is a distinguished Chief Researcher of New Zealand’s Council for Educational Research, New Zealand doesn’t believe that school learning should be entirely based on epistemology, but rather a central focus on shaping who children are and who they can become. Furthermore, learning must focus on who students are and what they can become, not just on what they know and can do.
I couldn’t agree more with this view and it seems I would be hard pressed to find a parent or teacher who does not feel the same. However, I can say with confidence that this is not what the current school systems in the US practice. If it were, the first thing to be ousted would be high stakes testing. Maryland State Assessment data doesn’t come in until students are dismissed for the summer. If the data is not used to shape instruction specifically to each child the following year than what good does it really server? Yes it holds schools and districts accountable and informs us on what students know but at what cost?
http://www.educationnews.org/political/158758.html
1 comment:
I definitely agree with the position you took in this post. As a sixth grade teacher at a middle school, I'm rather concerned that at the start of this school year I will have no way of knowing what my students have read, learned, mastered, and not mastered in their various elementary schools aside from the data I glean from diagnostics I give.
I realize that my students aren't merely the scores they earn on high stakes tests and diagnostics, but the information about my students as whole children and learners is not readily available. I know that cumulative folders exist, but I do not know where to find them in my school, have not heard them mentioned as a tool to improve my instructional approach, and have not received any training on what to do with the information I do find. In terms of my personal goals as an educator, I will be sure to hunt down these folders as soon as possible. In terms of widespread educational goals, I think there is something to be said about making information about students' experiences in schools (in addition to the scores they earn on the MSA) more readily available and uniform while training teachers to interpret this information in order to apply it to their instruction.
It saddens me that my sixth graders will be names on rosters and diagnostic data until I am able to spend substantial time with them in the classroom to better understand their needs, goals, and personalities.
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