Via Joanne Jacobs, we see a light bulb go on above the head of formerly-skeptical educational consultant Tim DeRoche:
As recently as this past year, I would have told you that the standards and accountability movement was a necessary evil. It was necessary that we raise our expectations for poor and minority students. It was necessary that we make student-achievement data public. It was necessary that we use test results to weed out incompetent or unmotivated teachers.
But, I would have added, certainly the best students and teachers would find this new environment stifling. The creativity of these high performers would certainly be cramped by standards and tests targeted at the lowest common denominator. Standards and testing would make education, well, more standard, more average.
It turns out I was dead wrong...
The districts that we visited were the finalists for the 2004 Broad Prize for Urban Education, given annually to a high-performing district that shows overall gains in student achievement while also closing achievement gaps...I was most astounded by what we heard from classroom teachers. Almost unanimously, they told us that standards and testing have made their jobs both more rigorous and more rewarding. Specifically, they mentioned that the new focus on results fosters more collaboration...
On the one hand - good for him. On the other hand, I want to tear my hair out over the fact that in this day and age, an intelligent educator can be so surprised at the idea that objective standards as measured by standardized exams can be so useful. He is astonished that teachers like clear standards and meaningful feedback on student progress. He is amazed that tests of basic skills don't hamper the development of higher-order thinking and creative lesson plans.
I'm happy his eyes are open, but I'm still frustrated by the prevailing knee-jerk anti-testing ideology that closed his eyes in the first place.
Posted by kswygert at March 1, 2005 10:33 AM