this is ridiculous... this video is over 10 years old....
notes on the video:
the reason there are no standardized tests in Japan, when the government proposed to administer such tests, the teachers organized themselves to fight it, because they knew the damage standardized tests did, and they won.
tests for colorado teachers:
1. your job is on the line - to raise standards for these tests
2. just make sure you are doing a good job
#1 did a poorer job
upstate ny: similar but didn't test kids, but looked at what went on in the classroom
in #1 group - teachers became drill sergeants
teachers were controlled and responded by being controlling
heavy handed, top down, test driven, is in violation in basic laws of psychology and don't work
no longer a good teacher, because i don't do projects any more.. now i'm held accountable to raise test scores.
standardized testing dumb down schools
even worse when they're high stakes... with bribes, etc
1. misunderstands motivation
big difference on getting kids focused on what they're doing in school
and getting them focused on how well they're doing it
focus needs to be on stuff i want to figure out, to love learning and keep doing it on their own time.
first, kids lose interest in the learning itself, now it's not stuff i want to figure out, it's stuff i have to get better at.
when we overemphasize results and performance, it may be at the expense of engagement and long term motivation to learn.
with high stakes, kids will pick the easiest way to do things... or the easiest things to do.
kids aren't being lazy, they are being very smart in disfunctional situations - when given the job of better grades and test scores... they are smart to take the short cut
kids become less interested in learning itself
kids gravitate to easier tasks
kids think more superficially
as opposed to kids doing the same tasks with no grades at all
it's possible to get so carried away with standards that you are no longer talking about a learning environment
what did you get on that essay, what did the teacher think of it
vs
how did you pick your topic, did you discover anything that surprised you
2. get teaching and learning wrong
tougher standards vs back to basics (a misnomer we never left), schools are overwhelmingly traditional,
still get letter or number grades
still separated by age
hw is assigned unilaterally by teacher
rewards/punishment as determined utilaterally by adults
bell schedule
tracking - honors vs basic
a lot of us get nervous in a district where teachers are doing innovative things, the kinds of learning experiences that the best teachers offer make parents nervous..
the listerine theory of ed: it tastes bad but it's good for you
the very ed that turns out to be so unpalitable for out kids, also turns out to be the least productive.
in the name of tougher standards, we accelerate the bad teaching that has lead us to where we are now
the reason we're behind? we've held to back to basics
in japan, they use like 1 problem in an entire class
craming kids full of facts and skills
3. get assessments wrong
raising standards = raising scores on dreadful tests
a) multiple choice - means kids can't explain their own answers
b) timed - no time for kids to reflect and think
c) early age - kids under 3rd grade should never be given a standardized test
if kids can't remember on command a simple fact, they may not get to graduate, no student should be expected to do what a cross section of the community cannot
norm referenced tests (percentile tests) - designed to artificially space out the scores in order to sort kids..
if a question is on it that most kids get right - it is replaced with another problem, it's not to celebrate success, but to rank
passing kids along is not nearly as devastating as flunking them
they can't lose the way they've set up the argument
if they get better - bravo - more basics
they get worse - more basics
parents should be enraged if teachers are teaching to the test
any test that teachers are drilling in their kids is no longer a valid test
quality goes down when you offer rewards
4. get the idea of how you do school reform wrong
people don't resist change, they resist being changed
5. get the whole notion of improvement wrong
assumption: harder is better
we place too much emphasis on making it harder - there are so many more meaningful criteria for improvement
if a kid is bored, it's not that the work isn't hard enough, it's that they are doing a worksheet, memorizing, etc. it's not that things need to be tougher, or move ahead a couple of grades, just needs to be more about thinking.
the most enthusiastic proponents of change, tend to be those the least educated on best practices
2 things completely lacking:
1. democracy
2. common sense
q&a
japan math teacher: goal is to have kids understand
american math teacher: goal is to have kids nail skills
educating hearts and minds - by Catherine Lewis
John Dewey, talked about more in Japan than here
great questions to ask:
is that the only way you can get the answer?
a lot of stuff we did as kids - was as pointless as we thought it was at the time.
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