Measuring Achievement

 Mary Lord, State Board of Education (School Board) talking to Ross School parent and child

Measuring Achievement (Tests)

Few things are as controversial as tests.  And it's not just students who dread them.

Put bluntly, a poorly designed test can be misleading and demoralizing.  Experienced and skilled educators will spend hours designing even the simplest quiz.

Yet, the community has a right to know what kind of progress our children are making.  Educators need a way to spot what's working and figure out what needs improvement throughout the school system.

At the moment, city wide testing is both a requirement for Federal funds and about the most cost effective way to track the performance of our school system.

What We're Doing

Laura Slover (School Board member representing Ward 3) and I were part of the District's Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) task force on accountability.  That was a real eye opener!

The list of challenges is daunting:

  • What do we want to hold our schools and students accountable for learning?  That's sort of covered by setting academic standards and absolutely essential before any one can talk about how well or poorly the schools are doing.
  • Many school systems track more than the Federally mandated bare bones reading and math tests.  What do we need to track so our kids will have the education to compete in an increasingly tough job market?
  • What's the best time to check performance with a test?  Should we test at the end of each course, like the New York State Regents?  How about testing for graduation?
  • Is there a cost effective way to dump all or part of the standardized testing in favor of a thoughtful look at each individual student's portfolio and a one-on-one assessment?

Those are a lot of very difficult challenges.  Particularly for a cash strapped school system and a State Board with little or no staff.

Yet one one challenge stands out as both conquerable and essential: Developing sensible Academic Standards.

What can you do?

Sweating over a hot computer to get the promised information

Once I have a moment I'll find some useful tips on what people can do to help.  Your suggestions and comments are always welcome.

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