3-D Student Evaluations: Testing, Assessments, and Learning Goals

This is a difficult time for educators to embrace the vocation of teaching.  It's not difficult because there is a lack of passion or desire among the professionals working in the field.  The challenge is the result of shifting paradigms that move like the sands of the Sahara searching for some anchor to attach and expectations that bounce around like an onside kicked football in a political arena that looks only to blame someone for the shortcomings of an entire system.  Assessment has become a dirty word to many professionals in education.  It suggests for some, a means to separate wheat from shaft, winners from losers,  the good from the bad. Testing is a bad thing used by the politicians and administrators to tell us how bad our teachers perform, and how poor our schools compare to the rest of the world.   Learning Goals and Backwards design imply the stifling of creativity and is a paradigm that can only be accomplished in lecture halls by disengaged students.

A recent professional development survey of my staff revealed that of 100 teachers not a single one indicated that assessment was their number 1 interest for future professional development.  ZERO!  It's important to note that the survey asked about assessment not testing.  My teacher's know it's important but who needs another reminder about the big high stakes event at the end of the year. We work hard to focus on the results as opportunities for curriculum evaluation rather than good teacher/bad teacher.  But, for many educators working in this high stakes testing environment, I'm afraid that assessment has become synonymous with testing.  Testing has become a BAD thing.  What I have learned about testing and assessment is that both are critical to effective education.  The problem is when either of these tools are used inappropriately or are used without balance they are ineffective and misleading. 

Assessment is broad term that can take many forms in a classroom.  It might be the observation of a students  creative designs posted on a webpage about a particular area of study. A puzzled look offers one assessment, while another comes from an essay. It could be the evaluation of a students interaction during a classroom discussion or even the evaluation of a students performance on a quiz.  It's an evaluation or quantification of a students progress towards a goal.  It doesn't stifle creativity, it doesn't demoralize a students self-esteem, and it doesn't create unmotivated students.  It's OK to have learning goals and to work towards achieving them.

These formal and informal assessments or evaluations serve the purpose of providing feedback to both the student and the teacher in terms of progress towards the learning goals.  This feedback should be used to provide and prescribe alternate experiences for the student, if needed, to meet the goals.  Using assessments in this manner means recognizing that some kids will get to the end on a completely different highway of thought.  But, in the the end, they will have accomplished the goal.  These evaluations are taking place all the time during instruction.  The great teacher uses them in combining the art and science of teaching.

Testing, whether the unit exam or the state standardized exam are both formal assessments.  They provide a sampling of the learning that has taken place.  It generally comes at the end of a learning activity and provides a sort of post mortem.  I say sort of because the formal assessment provides only a sampling of what has been learned and only single viewpoint.  It is difficult to evaluate a students performance of mastery based on this single perspective.  This is where testing begins to develop the bad rap.  The results, in recent years, have come to be viewed as a single measure of mastery.  I taught the lesson, Johnny failed the exam, therefore Johnny must not have learned the lesson... "F".  As educators we blame the politicians.  But we created this system and based our entire grading structure on it.  The politicians took an unauthentic assessment system that we created and used it to measure us, the way we have been measuring our kids. Testing has become viewed as the X-ray for what must be ailing schools.

An assessment system needs to use both formal and informal evaluations that are mixed into the learning process as both formative and summative assessments.  We need to embrace assessment as a tool for learning. Formal testing is only a tool to provide a partial measure of mastery, but alone it doesn't define mastery.  The current view of assessment is that of a tool all right.  It's an Axe at the end of the lesson to chop the hands off the students that didn't learn the lessons and stole valuable class time with divergent ideas and learning styles.  Testing is viewed as a single definitive measure that comes at the end.  I don't think educators believe this and I know that students don't believe it.  But it's easy.  That is where the challenge is for educators. We need to create an assessment system of measures and evaluations that provide three dimensional pictures of student learning.

Three dimensional systems of assessment would use data from informal observations, learning activities, class discussions, student questions, and yes, formal tests -even standardized tests.  All of these things combined would create an overall evaluation of a students mastery of learning outcomes.  Academia acknowledged a long time ago that quantitative research could not provide all the answers.  Qualitative research was developed to help provide a clearer picture to questions and inquiries that could not be accurately quantified with surveys and tests.  Like this, a three dimensional assessment system needs to be defined and implemented that provides answers to those inquiries about student learning that can not be quantified simply by testing.

Take me out to the ballgame or not, that is the question!

     What if students had the choice of attending class or not?  Would the kids still come to your class?  Would they attend some classes and not others?  What would cause them to choose some classes and not others?  What would happen to education?  These are questions that really should be part of every teacher's daily reflection.  I used to offer a day out of class for high performing students to attend a baseball game for free.  In St. Louis, not many events top a day game at Busch Stadium watching the Cardinal's play baseball.  But, every year there were students that chose not to go because they didn't want to miss this class or that class.  What was it about those classes and those teachers?  The kids chose to attend class rather than take a free day with the St. Louis Cardinals.  As  the principal, I was fortunate enough to observe these  teachers that had World Series quality classes and I can say that they all shared a number of particular qualities.World Series Qualities if you will.

     First, and I believe foremost, these World Series Championship teachers are passionate about kids.  They truly take interest in their students lives and they demonstrate their interest on a regular basis.  The kids know it too. These teachers attend events that their kids participate in outside of class.  They celebrate the events in their lives and take the time to build relationships.  These teachers make an effort to understand the challenges each one their students face and make efforts to help them see their own successes.  They also help their kids to believe in themselves and their power to control their destiny.  The kids turn to these teacher when they need help because they know they care.  Remember the old expression, kids don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

     Secondly,  these World Series teachers have high expectations.  The kids understand that they are expected to master the lessons and that nothing less will be acceptable.  Everyday is business and class starts at the bell; Learning takes place until the bell rings to end class.  These teachers don't grade papers in class unless the purpose is review.  Above all,  students are not allowed to fail. They don't lower the standards.  They find ways to make it work.  The standard is high but these teachers will not  allow kids to give anything but their best effort.  John Wooden, in his book My Personal Best,  talked about not getting upset when his team, the UCLA Men's Basketball team lost a game, so long as they played their best.  However,  John never thought they lost a game when they played their best!  He was one of the most successful coaches in NCAA history and these have been some of my most successful teachers.

      Learning is the focus in these classes.  Many teachers have a great deal of potential but their focus is all wrong.  They concentrate on how they they teach to evaluate their performance rather than what their students have learned.  Pedagogy, by definition, is the framework and methods to achieve the goal. The goal is for students to learn and reach a level of mastery.  World Series type teachers focus on student outcomes.  They only look at teaching methods if students aren't learning.  These teachers understand that lectures, power points, videos, projects and computers are only tools used to accomplish the goal which is students learning.  Kids know that each and every day these classes result in personal and academic growth.  A teacher evaluation that focuses on teaching rather than learning in class is like evaluating a fisherman based on how he casts rather than on how many fish caught, neither identifies the successful practitioners. Educators struggle with this but kids don't.  Ask them.  They will tell you where the learning takes place.

      World Series type teachers engage their students and because the students are engaged they don't want to miss class.  Engaged students have ownership in their learning.  They value every lesson because they are part of the learning process.  These teachers engage their students in a variety of ways.  The lessons are active and students interact with the teacher and fellow students.  Some of these teachers use technology to engage students and others use a variety of learning techniques like jigsaws, labs, and projects.  These classrooms are student centered.  It's clear that the teacher is a "guide from the side" rather than a "sage on the stage."  These kids have ownership in their learning and therefore missing class is a big sacrifice.
      Finally, World series classrooms are a  place that students feel safe with a sense of autonomy.  These teachers provide an environment where kids have a voice in their learning and every student in the room is valued.  They can express themselves without fear of ridicule and there is an atmosphere of respect between all the students and the teacher.  Bullying doesn't take place in these classrooms.  In fact, these classrooms create a system of support for academics, emotional well-being, and personal development.  At the end of the school year kids don't want to leave.  The have a strong relationship with the teacher and their classmates.

So, if attendance in class was not required, would the kids still show up in your room?  Do you have a World Series kind of a classroom?  I hope that you do.  The good news is this: It's never too late to create a class that kids won't want to miss!  Be passionate about your students and become a part of their life. Have high expectations for your kids, keep your focus on learning and engage your students in their learning and create a place where kids don't feel threatened to express themselves.  Make your classroom a World Series caliber classroom and I'll bet students will skip a day game at Busch Stadium to be in your room!