Well, well. There appears to be a clash between teachers and SAU administrators in New Hampshire's North Hampton school district:
The School Board voted not to test North Hampton School students next year using a standardized test recommended by SAU 21 administrators. The NorthWest Educational Association tests were used this year, but teachers at NHS unanimously said they believe the tests are not useful and should not be continued. School Administrative Unit administrators suggested that teachers at NHS were not trained to properly use the tests and so cannot judge their effectiveness.
Ouch! But it's worth asking - who was in charge of making sure the teachers were properly trained? The NWEA is a computer-adaptive exam, so the students would have needed a bit of training as well.
NHS Principal Peter Sweet said teachers "tried to make (the test) meaningful," adding, "They used and shared the data, but they don’t want to do it again." Sweet said he would prefer that the school focus on grade-level assessments developed by the teachers to monitor students’ learning.
Teachers have complained that because of the structure of the test, students might end up being asked questions usually meant for much-older kids, and this kind of data is not helpful for how they want to teach.
SAU administrators pointed out that other districts in which more teacher training took place seem happier with the test, and more able to use the scores.
Posted by kswygert at July 21, 2004 12:56 PM