In what other endeavor would an individual’s job and reputation be measured by the performance of people who had no vested interest in the outcome?
Archive for the ‘Assessment’ Category
No more Xmas-treeing tests?
May 6th, 2012
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Unless everyone—students, teachers, administrators, schools, and school districts– is held accountable for student performance, there is not true accountability.
A Surprising Test Result
April 16th, 2012
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Over the course of my career a number of teachers adopted my “daily quiz” approach to teaching.
Weak Teachers Drain the Entire System
November 5th, 2011
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…the termination procedures in many districts make the process of removing poor educators too slow and tedious.
A High Tolerance: Late Start Dates Hurt College-Bound Students
September 7th, 2011
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A late school start aimed at tourism revenue undermines the efforts of college-bound students and parents. After a friend of mine personally witnessed the horrific traffic in the Washington, D.C. area, he said, “the people here must have a really high tolerance for this craziness.”
In Testing Perfection Can be the Enemy of the Good
August 30th, 2011
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by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader When No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was first presented in the early years of the Bush Administration it represented a significant shift in educational policy. End-of-course exams like Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) were soon to become a measure of a school’s success. The initial requirement of a 70% [...]
The Testing Shell Game
August 23rd, 2011
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By Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader The key to creating an illusion is to distract the viewer. Draw the attention away from the sleight of hand and the audience will believe they have seen magic. Apparently this technique is now a key element when dealing with the analysis of standardized test results. The plan appears [...]
It is still about the poverty!
August 9th, 2011
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by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader The test scores for the Washington D.C. schools are in and while they are generally disappointing what is more informative is the fact they clearly demonstrate one of the fundamental causes of low academic performance—poverty. This is not a new or original discovery. Mel Riddile organized data clearly indicating [...]
Cheap Tests Encourage Cheating, Discourage Thinking
July 27th, 2011
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Master teacher, Sherry Singer, taught Advanced Placement Biology for approximately fourteen years and then switched to International Baccalaureate (IB) Biology for another fourteen years. Sherry taught for much of her career in what National Geographic Magazine called "the most diverse high school in America." When I need an expert teacher’s opinion, Sherry is one of [...]
NHL MVP on Principal Evaluation
June 22nd, 2011
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I could have sworn that goalie Tim Thomas was talking about the evaluation of principals when he met with the press following the Boston Bruins victory in the Stanley Cup Finals. Thomas, whose meteoric rise from minor league obscurity to Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the National Hockey League Finals, had a reaction that reminded [...]
