Re: A request for an explanation from a Congressional staffer

[aburke5054@aol.com]

The world does not divide so neatly into people who make money by 
bashing teachers and want to privatize education and cool guys who 
think that turning over assessment to teachers are all that public 
education needs.  The issue isn't simply about the utility of teachers' 
assessments versus the utility of standardized assessments.  The issue 
in NCLB is assessment that compels public education to take 
responsibility for all children.  That's why we need something more 
than the George Schmidts of this world deciding on what kids should 
know and be able to do and doing the assessments.  When you have some 
of the nation's leading civil-rights groups and advocates for poor 
children, minority children, and children with disabilities arguing in 
support of NCLB's assessment requirements, it's hard to chalk it all up 
to being corporate shills or hornswoggled by George Bush's 
silver-tongued rhetoric about all children learning.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Csubstance@aol.com
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 5:05 am
Subject: Re: [arn-l] A request for an explanation from a Congressional 
staffer


In a message dated 7/26/07 9:31:43 AM, monty@fairtest.org writes:

<< As I began to note yesterday, teachers do a large amount of 
assessing.
Done

well, and in proper amounts, it fosters learning via a feedback loop

(including students learning to self assess) >>

Teacher assessment is at the essence of teacher professionalism. 
Imagine if
other professionals were bashed until McGraw Hill had a monopoly on 
both the
assessement instruments and the definition of assessment. Suddenly, 
you'd have
to wait six months for your MD to tell you what the MRI or x-ray you 
just had
said (and maybe you'd be dead by then).

A lot of education pundits with little or no K-12 classroom experience 
have
been subtly teacher bashing for decades. One of the cliches is that 
"teachers"
don't understand "assessment." That kind of bullshit. It's common even 
here,
or at least is quoted from other sources here.

Fact it, "assessment" varies at various levels and with the course of 
study.
My son's kindergarten teacher (and her aide) last school year at a CPS 
school
was "assessing" (appropriately) every damned day. Sam did homework. 
Someone
read it and commented on it, usually both in writing on the paper and 
to Sam
himself (who is still just learning to read).

That's "assessment" except when people are writing scholarly books 
bashing
teachers (ever so subtly) or pontificating at AERA.

When I taught novels in my "English" classes, I prepped and assessed 
each day
and once a week (with a "test"). The "assessment" was based on what we 
had
read and discussed in class that week. You can't "assess" whether a 
14-year-old
child has understood the first four chapters of "To Kill a Mockingbird" 
with a
McGraw Hill assessment any more than you could get any real information 
about
my five-year-old son Sam without the teacher talking to the family.

The reason I'm so angry about passing along the Toch thingy is that the 
Toch
thingy (especially that glow in the dark assertion of data as fact) is 
so
dishonest, so filled with teacher bashing.

For a year I taught drafting and shop classes. Most of the claims 
embedded in
the Toch essay look even more ridiculous when played out against 
teenagers
learning to tune up an engine or, say, replace the brakes in an old 
car. Give me

a break (brake?). These guys are like the priests of the Middle Ages. 
They
interpret the Word of God to the peasants, and we're supposed to sit 
there and
affirm things like Virgin Births and the existence of Angels or face 
the fires
of Hell.

It's the same kind of theology disguised as fact that used to be passed 
off
when religion was hegemonic. Only nowadays, corporate dogmas (markets;
"choice") hold sway.

But in order for them to win, they have to have enablers, like some 
here, who
go along with the teacher bashing implicit in the nonsense like those 
"facts"
bandied about by Toch (not only this time, but traditionally in his 
stuff).
If this were 1700, the guy would be an archbishop and watch out.

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

www.substancenews.com  
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