Standardized tests are canceled and many kids aren’t be graded. So what’s worth learning right now? - The Washington Post

Standardized tests are canceled and many kids aren’t be graded. So what’s worth learning right now? - The Washington Post

Standardized tests are canceled and many kids won’t be graded. So what’s worth learning right now?

For more than a decade, veteran educator Marion Brady has been writing for the Answer Sheet about fundamental problems with what and how schools in the United States teach children to become productive and active adults. His critique has not changed now that American schoolchildren are at home doing distance learning because their school buildings have closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Brady is a retired Florida educator who has for years focused on what he says is the fundamentally flawed curriculum used in schools in the United States and the outdated way students are taught, and today’s circumstances are a perfect time to take a new look at that subject. He has written history and world culture textbooks (Prentice-Hall), professional books, numerous nationally distributed columns and courses of study.

To Brady, boundaries around academic subjects are artificial and are part of stilted education programs that do not provide students with opportunities to think beyond their textbooks and experiment.

His 2011 book, “What’s Worth Learning,” asks and answers this question: What knowledge is absolutely essential for every learner? His course of study for secondary-level students, called “Connections: Investigating Reality,” is free for downloading here. Brady’s website is www.marionbrady.com.

In the post below post, Brady notes that the crisis has the potential for freeing teachers and kids — at least for now — from weeks of test prep for near-useless machine-scored tests. Some of his previous pieces on this blog include:

12 Ideas that help explain what's wrong with most schooling today

34 Problems with standardized tests

By Marion Brady

An old English proverb says, “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.”

The novel coronavirus, or covid-19, certainly qualifies as a very ill wind, and it’s thrown schooling into mass confusion. However, it has the potential for freeing teachers and kids — at least for now — from CONTINUE READING: Standardized tests are canceled and many kids aren’t be graded. So what’s worth learning right now? - The Washington Post