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Education Reform

Teaching to the Test Ain’t Working


By Richard Martin, 8-07-07

Almost exactly one year after Denver School Superintendent Michael Bennet announced his ambitious education reform plan for the district, scores on the latest Colorado Student Assessment Program were announced. "In the eight grades that took the CSAP in 2007," the Post reports, "scores were either flat or down over all grades in almost all subjects: math, reading, writing and science."

Now, Gov. Bill Ritter has formed yet another committee to come up with yet another education reform model -- the so-called P-20 Council convened this week, even as Bennet and Denver chief academic officer Jaime Aquino were exhorting educators at the Principal Institute at the Convention Center.

Am I the only one who thinks that these two goals – true education reform that benefits students and educators, and doing well on the CSAPs – are mutually exclusive?



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By Richard Martin, 8-07-07 | comments (2) | email story | print story

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Comments

By Craig Moore, 8-07-07
Richard, I feel your pain. I assume you may have kids affected by this mess. I live in another state but the problem has been much the same about teaching to the test. The test tends to require quantity over quality and the ability to assembly the puzzle pieces of information into innovative and coherent expression of knowledge. This was true for both the state test and the honors courses that may qualify for college credit depending on results from "the test." My kids are now through with all of that but their complaint was that they were not learning anything they felt was useful or taught how to learn about the subject in question. In my opinion, we need more process learning to develop a tool box of skills that enable a person to grasp the data and make sense out of it.
By Bob Wire, 8-07-07
Yeah.

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