Education - high stakes testing
Originally posted by Pat Buoncristiani
As an educator I am deeply disturbed by the grip that high stakes testing has taken on American schools. I watched the breadth and depth of curriculum and learning shrink as the focus was more and more relentlessly on the raising of test scores. This was particularly true in so called low achieving, low socio-economic schools. I am presently in Australia and fear a similar trend is developing here. Learning how to think takes time. How do we protect thinking time and creativity in our schools when our teachers are anxious and fearful about the next round of test scores? We work with schools introducing and implementing Habits of Mind and I am conscious that the schools that seek our help are typically schools with middle class populations, where parent involvement is acceptable, where there are books at home and time for conversation. How do we ensure that the teaching of thinking is central in the schools where most of the kids come from single parent families, where the breadwinner holds down two (and sometimes three) different jobs, where there are few or no books and where fatigue makes conversation a chore rather than a pleasure. These schools struggle with test scores and the pressures on teachers are huge. Communities of generational poverty will perpetuate if we cannot break the cycle and help them become thought filled, creative communities.
As an educator I am deeply disturbed by the grip that high stakes testing has taken on American schools. I watched the breadth and depth of curriculum and learning shrink as the focus was more and more relentlessly on the raising of test scores. This was particularly true in so called low achieving, low socio-economic schools. I am presently in Australia and fear a similar trend is developing here. Learning how to think takes time. How do we protect thinking time and creativity in our schools when our teachers are anxious and fearful about the next round of test scores? We work with schools introducing and implementing Habits of Mind and I am conscious that the schools that seek our help are typically schools with middle class populations, where parent involvement is acceptable, where there are books at home and time for conversation. How do we ensure that the teaching of thinking is central in the schools where most of the kids come from single parent families, where the breadwinner holds down two (and sometimes three) different jobs, where there are few or no books and where fatigue makes conversation a chore rather than a pleasure. These schools struggle with test scores and the pressures on teachers are huge. Communities of generational poverty will perpetuate if we cannot break the cycle and help them become thought filled, creative communities.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bhuvaneshwar Joshi on -
Your point is well taken.The problem,in my view,is even more serious because the teaching of 'creative Thinking' is taken up as routine teaching and expected to be evaluated in rutine way. The fact of the matter is that 'evaluation" is a critical thinking process and before using it against creative thinking performance one needs to develop standard norms for performance,particularly for the low socio economic schools. This is a major task which should be udertaken by the governments across countries that have introduced creative thinking courses.
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Permalink Reply by Graeme Allan on
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First I'm keen to learn what 'creative thinking' might be. OK, I can find a dictionary definition, but what do teachers in your experience actually do when they claim to teach 'creative thinking?'
'Routine' presupposes formality - teaching creative thinking formally. Does this happen in your experience? If so, where?
No, 'evaluation' need not be a critical thinking process, if the teacher organizing the evaluation is operating in the parallel thinking mode. Students sometimes ask, at the end of such a session: So what is the answer? There may be no 'answer'. Life is like that. Schools are not necessarily reflections of the real world. There's the pity.
I'm also keen to learn what governments have introduced 'creative thinking courses'. Is this a formal part of a national/regional curiculum or a speculation?
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