Assessments/Accountability
I am not against assessments but I am against the way our education system is using them as a basis of accountability. I think results of assessments should be used by the teacher as a means of planning instruction. Early childhood children should never be assessed just on the cognitive domain. There are many assessments and screening tools that measure the social, emotional, and physical domains. There are also tools that measure any family stressors. All of these factors have an affect on the development of early childhood children. In fact, a problem in one domain could cause a delay in another. In our assignments, we are always asked to define or explain an interplay between domains. This task was rather easy because all the domains are so reliant on the development of the others. Assessments in the early childhood years should be comprehensive enough to include all domains. The results should be used to determine any delays or potential problems a child may have or to plan instruction. The results should NOT be used to put labels on children or to hold a teacher or program accountable.
Finland
When I began my search for assessments used in other countries, I came across something very interesting about Finland's education system. I read an article that spoke about Finland's successful school system. Based on the Programme for International Student Assessment(PISA), Finland has one of the highest performing school systems in the world. The schools are bright and cheerful and are designed with the academic, social, emotional, and physical need of the students needs in mind.
Children are not held back to ensure that they don't lose motivation or feel like failures. So you probably wonder as I did as I read this article, how is their school system such a high performing system? Finland's strategy for education reform does not involve results from standardized testing or holding teachers accountable. Their reform begins with the teacher preparation program. There are only 8 universities that prepare teachers and only 1 of every 10 people that apply are admitted into these elite teacher education programs. Therefore the teaching profession in Finland is a very well respected and prestigious profession. Teachers are given the independence to teach what they want and how they want to teach it based on their own student's ability. There is absolutely no standardized testing in Finland. The article stated that teachers would walk off the job if scores were ever used to judge their abilities. "Finnish education is based on the development of a child as a thinking, active, creative person, not the attainment of higher test scores, and the primary strategy of Finnish education is cooperation, not competition."
Ravitch, D. (2012). Schools we can envy. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved from
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/mar/08/schools-we-can-envy/?pagination=false
Education reform
As I am typing this, there is work being done as a result of our Governor's education reform. ACT 3 is legislation that pertains to the reform of early childhood education programs including private child care, head start, and the public pre-K programs in the schools. Our governor wants assessments done in all of these programs to determine school readiness. A letter grade will be placed on each program based on the results of the assessment. At this time, I do not know what the assessment is going to be. I work for the state's Quality Rating System and I am unsure how our program is going to fit into this new reform. On Nov. 1, we are supposed to attend a meeting where we will be presented the draft version of ACT 3 and I guess I will find out then who, what, how, when or where these reforms will be phased in to our programs. For those of us in the early childhood field, we know the importance of social emotional development. However, our state's public school system looks only at literacy and mathematics to determine school readiness. Hopefully, the stakeholders in child care have been able to collaborate and educate the dept. of education on the importance of social emotional development in school readiness. Whatever is decided, will go through the next legislative session in the Spring and all programs including private child care will have to abide if they want to continue receiving any public funding.
Hi Mary Jo, I enjoyed reading your post, especially the research about Finland. I could really "envy" the way their education systems is in place. It makes sense to have the well prepared teachers choosing the curriculum best fit the children in care. Like the article says, all starts with the preparation of the teachers. If we are sure about the ability of the teachers, and trust on these teacher's methods of teaching, the education system does not need to worry about any tests, just give the teachers opportunity to work the best they kind in bringing children performance to the highest according to children's abilities. Hope the education reform turn out to be a positive one.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you about how unfair is holding teachers accountable and the program, and how ridiculous is to penalize their "failure" when the only one who is failing is our education system in limiting resources.
Hi mary Jo,
ReplyDeleteThat is a very provocative article on Finland's education system. Teacher preparation and continuing professional development is the foundation for intentional teaching and developmentally appropriate practice.
However, I do believe in holding teachers accountable. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that they are supporting the needs of their students. Teachers who lack the skills to educate; maintain an anti-bias environment; provide a culturally appropriate environment; and provide an inclusive environment for all children, do not belong in the classroom. Let's face it not everyone who wears the title of "teacher" earns it. Their are some wonderful teachers out there who are innovative and imaginative and they are leading the way for the future. Unfortunately, there are also some inept, unqualified "teachers" in our classrooms.
What I disagree with is the manner in which teachers are held accountable. Test results do not reflect actual teaching practice. Standardized tests do not measure how well a teacher is supporting students across the domains and how their practice impacts their development.
Dear Mary Jo,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great post. You said " education system is using them [tests] as a basis of accountability",this is so true and right to the core of a - wrong- trend. A trend increased by questionable practices that use screening and tests results to place children,compare and show performance rather than development.
Mary Jo,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post. I dont think educators should be held accountable for the results of standardized test. There are so many factors that play into a child's sucess rate on those sorts of test that exist outside the classroom.
I totally agree that the school system is only using these test on the basis of accountability. I also will never understand why our school system will only teach our children what is on the year test just so our county will score higher than the other schools like it is a competition. But on the other note the school board will let a teacher go if their class did not do well on the test. Now what kind of message is that sending our teachers or students. Why can't out teacher teach outside of the box and give our children more than what they only need to learn for that test.
ReplyDelete