We need a radical change in the way we rate our schools
| You know, buy a house near a Level 1 school and pay $20K more for not much of a house. |
Watching my 2-year-old granddaughter, Izzy, learn is one of the great pleasures in my life. Whether she's helping her grandma cook up some eggs, finding a worm while digging on the lawn, pedaling a trike, or stomping around with a tap dancer at a recent birthday party, it's a joy to actually watch her grow and develop physically and intellectually at the moment it's happening.
It's authentic learning. No standardized testing required.
I bring this up once more after reading about another CPS plan to tweak the way the system rates its schools; i.e., Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, etc... in a high-stakes competition where the loser may have their school closed. I always thought these ratings were more for the benefit of realtors than educators. You know, buy a house near a Level 1 school and pay $20K more for not much of a house.
The new tweaked plan will be presented at Wednesday's first meeting of the mayor's newly-appointed school board.
According to Chalkbeat:
Chicago Public Schools has proposed tweaking its school rating policy to reflect how well elementary schools prepare students for high school and how well high schools help students plan life after graduation — and the district also will finally grade dozens of specialty high schools that had lacked rating systems.CPS says its School Quality Rating Policy (SQRP) is "a five-tiered performance system based on CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: We need a radical change in the way we rate our schools
