#teacherknowledge

It has been pointed out to me that it is not responsible to drop “local politicos don’t know formative assessment from a hole in the ground” without any context.  It’s not professional, not polite, etc.  So here it is:

Last week, while sitting around a first grade-size table in grown-up sized chairs, feeling cute, in a simply wonderful classroom at a local elementary school, there was a question from the audience (paraphrasing):  “Children are spending 15 days a year doing testing.  How many days do you think are appropriate?”  

The moderator, the always lovely and diplomatic Maya Rabasa, said, (paraphrasing again): “I think the purpose of the question is not to argue over the accuracy of the number 15, but to hear from the candidates your ideas about what is and isn’t appropriate in terms of student assessment.” 

Each candidate had one minute to respond. I went first, so I held on to the FM unit mike for a few seconds thinking about how much I really do think is ok.  “Two days,” I said. “Every three years. Maximum.” 

I am sorry to say I don’t remember Martina’s response because I was not able to “stay in the moment” because I was having a little internal panic / impostor syndrome attack.  (Like, “Wow that was so decisive, do I have the authority to say that? Can I just make something like that up? How come no one is asking me to cite my source?”) But then it occurred to me:  I know my stuff.  I can absolutely speak with authority about these things.  Not gonna say that that’s the last word and if elected that would be the first thing I would implement without any input from anyone, but ... yeah.  I am an expert on this.  

Phew.  OK, so I came back in time to hear Jim Torrey going on for his one minute trying to sound like some kind of anti-testing radical! He’s never been a fan he says of Smarter Balanced (who knew?!) and would like to limit the amount of testing (whaaaaa?).  But my favorite part was him talking about how he would like to see us move away from summative testing to more “informative” testing.  Because the summative testing doesn’t tell the teacher what’s going on until the following fall when it’s too late (sort of true) and the “informative” testing INFORMS the teacher about what the student knows and doesn’t know etc.  Mary Walston followed suit with her non-answer about how testing should be limited but some standardized tests are necessary and (my favorite) “Anyway, it’s the law, it’s not like we can just ‘opt out’ of it.  ...although parents can opt out for their own kids.”

This was an important moment for me in this campaign. These people not only do not know about the issues surrounding testing, they have never, NOT ONCE asked us (the expert team at CAPE) for more information about it. We have appeared before them countless times over the last several years, as supplicants to the pantheon of emotionless board members, using our 3 minutes to BEG them to take some kind of stand (a stand for our children one might say) against this regime of educational violence against our students.  They have ignored us and dismissed us over and over again.