WE MUST TAKE BACK THE NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF EDUCATION
Corporate Education Reformers and their ilk have usurped the positive language of education.
Positive public perception is key to successfully getting across our message. If we are against things people perceive of as positive then we lose.
We must regain control of the narrative. We must take back the message.
For example, let’s assess, not test.
“What is assessment? That depends on whom you ask. When I was a kid in school, we were never assessed. We were tested. We took in-class tests, IQ tests, and entrance tests to specialized high schools, and, of course, those other standardized tests: the New York State Regents and SATs. I taught for over twenty years before I was introduced to the term “assessment,” when I first heard Grant Wiggins speak about “Authentic Assessment.” “Holy Cow,” I exclaimed, “I didn’t know I had been doing that for so many years.”
“Ever since I started teaching, I was trained to “assess” how my students were doing at reaching the outcomes I had laid out for them. Teachers, need to know if students have gotten the “its” of the lesson then let their students know if they have or haven’t. Additionally, we must have the means to give them the best feedback, to either tell them they have it, or that they don’t. Most importantly, if they don’t have it, our feedback, based on the results of the use of authentic assessments, must tell them how to get it.”
“There is a huge difference between being data driven and data guided. Assessments of all types, not just fill-in-the-bubble, multiple-choice tests, must be analyzed to see how students progress with particular skills of WE MUST TAKE BACK THE NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF EDUCATION | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing: