Re: Fw: [care] High-stakes assessment underming reform

[aburke5054@aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
 From: monty@fairtest.org
 To: RScriticalteach@lists.execpc.com; ARN-state@yahoogroups.com; arn-l@interversity.org; arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com
 Sent: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 11:25 AM
 Subject: [arn-l] Fw: [care] High-stakes assessment underming reform
 
    ----- Original Message ----- From: Anne Wheelock  To: care@yahoogroups.com ; care@yahoogroups.com  Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 2:04 PM Subject: [care] High-stakes assessment underming reform
 ...
 
   UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF HIGH-STAKES ASSESSMENT UNDERMINE EDUCATION REFORM, REPORT FINDS
 
 ... "In effect, high-stakes systems may result in practitioners changing their behavior from what they consider ethical best practice to altered, undesirable behavior in order to achieve the mandated outcomes and avoid punitive consequences," Laitsch writes.
 _____________________________________________
 Leaving aside the double-talk of calling requirements to improve schools "punitive consequences," let's quit kidding ourselves that there is something transcendently powerful called "high-stakes testing" that transforms otherwise upright teachers and administrators into cheaters. Teachers and administrators cheat in order to advance their interests over the interests of parents and children. The stakes that parents and children have in public education are always high and it is both disingenuous and unethical to pretend that "stakes" are only for "practitioners." 
 
 Art
 
 
 
 
 
   
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.