been thinking a lot about alternate tests lately.tests seem to drive just about everything in public ed. per seth godin - are we spiraling to death - giving up the ghost to charter schools - online courses - and anyone else taking a stand against standardization?
funny - i think we have really accomplished a lot in ed. i work with a lot of brilliant teachers. but perhaps we've failed at the most vital point of learning. the tweaking of ourselves, continually revising the ongoing rough draft of our thinking. and worse yet - i think that's the big piece we haven't passed on to the kids. they think assessment is all about one test at the end. their success lies in a one time shot. no wonder test-anxiety has become such a popular attribute. no wonder cheating makes sense to a lot of them.
so how could we assess to create meaning? to create an attitude that assessment/revision is as vital to learning as breathing is to living.
some thoughts on ways to find what needs tweaking (aka alternative assessments):
1) what you find when you google a kid. this would encourage projects that live on rather than getting trashed after they are graded.
2) what kinds of questions the kid asks - are they rich, or trite
3) how everyone else is doing. we know we learn more when we teach - so how are the others in this kid's community/pln (in class and/or online) doing? define success by how well a kid has brought others along - by who he hangs with
4) how the others view him/her. of the things this kid publishes - how many hits does he/she get... etc...
maybe we should quit trying to taxi kids so much. (public vs audience)
if we just drove our own car better - by continually learning and tweaking ourselves - via plns.... maybe they would glob onto that.
what we do says so much more than what we say. especially to kids