What’s going on in the world of Canadian education? Seeking lively, informed commentary on the critical issues of the day? Join in the conversation with “Educhatter”, Director of Schoolhouse Consulting, and founder of “Eduwatch” on Twitter.
EDUCHATTER ranked first in the 2018 rankings of the Top 30 Education Blogs in Canada. Here’s the post: https://blog.feedspot.com/canada_education_blogs/
We specialize in raising critical issues and tracking emerging trends. You will find us always on the alert for new challenges that will require fresh thinking. We maintain a constant policy watch tracking issues being raised in the popular media, professional journals, policy research studies, and government reports in Canada, the United States, and around the world. Our ultimate goal is to make this Blog the “marketplace for ideas” in Canadian education.
When we look at standardized testing especially when it is used to rank schools, educators and researchers know that it, 1) causes marginal kids to drop out. This has been confirmed in a number of stories, most recently in Texas and Michigan 2) Causes the best teachers to leave the school when their seniority allows for it, actually lowering the teacher level in the school confirmed by studies in North Carolina and Florida, 3) Narrows the curriculum taking time away from the arts, social studies and science, 4) Does nothing to raise the education standard of a nation as NCLB and the NAEP have shown in the USA. 5) Leads to cheating, gaming and manipulation of results. 6) The world’s leading education nation, Finland does not use testing yet comes first in the world as ranked by the OECD.
A great case for education reformers to get real.
http://www.educationnews.org/educationnewstoday/62985.html/
Yes, Diane Ravitch’s latest book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System ( NY: Basic Books, 2010) may well be a “game changer” in education reform.
I see that you are impressed with Ravitch’s latest offering. That may mean we have found at least a small piece of common ground.
I have always found her to be close to the mark. Her books and articles do pose the tough questions and really spark fresh thinking. Her classic, Left Back, is still the best book on the history of school reform and The Language Police(2003) alerted us all to the dangers of sanitized textbooks.
The Book Review focuses on her so-called “act of conversion.” But there is another section of the book where she engages in a little self-evaluation. She is quite honest about the tendency of historians to be skeptical about all panaceas. Forgetting that led her astray, she now concedes.
Consider this: Diane Ravitch hasn’t really “seen the light” but rather returned to taking the historian’s longer view.
I wonder what would happen if testing was done independent of the school districts and if there were testing choices?
Think about an age adjusted ACT and/or SAT that parents could use to talk with their children and school district about the progress they are making.
What an interesting question. If testing was not administered by the school districts, I wonder how we could really allow for testing choices as you suggest. The introduction of testing choices implies a learner-centered focus, Yet, could we really be learner-centered if testing was independent of school districts?
My Edublog is generating a lot of stimulating commentary, interspersed with rhetoric, sloganeering, and the odd example of searing insight.
How do you cope with the avalanche of opinions and sort out the good from the purely propagandistic?
A recent Education Week column, written by Sean Cavanagh, puts it best:
“In War of Words, ‘Reform’ a Potent Weapon
The rhetoric of education today tends to divide the world in two: between those who favor “reform” and those who don’t.
Many who consider themselves reformers say they stand in opposition to the “status quo.” Some of them speak of the need to challenge the “education establishment,” or the education bureaucracy. Many also describe their policies as putting the needs of children and students first, as opposed to the ideas favored by their critics, who by implication are focused mostly on the concerns of adults.
A set of stock phrases, sound bites, and buzzwords has come to dominate the public discourse on education, summoned reflexively, it often seems, by elected officials and advocates who speak a shared, accepted language.
The current lexicon groups one set of policies—which generally includes support for charter schools, tougher standards and testing, evaluating and paying teachers based on performance, and challenges to teachers’ unions on traditional job protections—under the favorable heading of reform. Resistance to those ideas is often branded as misguided at best, and obstructionist at worst.”
The Educhatter challenge – let’s raise our game or risk being viewed as members of the nattering class.
Educhatter has become one of the liveliest blogs on education anywhere. Our posters tend to be very passionate and full of ideas, mostly related to education reform.
We welcome all viewpoints and informed opinions on matters relating to the state of Canadian K-12 education.
Here are a few simple guidelines, borrowed from The American Prospect blog:
Educhatter…” tries to foster a constructive, respectful dialogue in its comments. Disagreement is permitted; incivility is not. Please refrain from personal attacks and name-calling.”
That’s a standard we aspire to and pursue in the hope of raising the level of public discourse on education matters.
I write about diversity for The Vancouver Sun newspaper (part of the Postmedia chain). I have a Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network study. It shows “immigrant-background” children do far better in Canada than those whose parents are born in Canada.
I moved from England to Ontario at the beginning of last year. I loved teaching in England, it was always my dream to be a teacher. The English system is far from perfect. Each year 10% of teachers leave the profession because of long work hours, behaviour, workload and government pressure. Not only are tests standardized but students are tracked to review how they have progressed each term. If the student hasn’t progressed enough then questions are asked of the teacher.
In England all teachers would love a system where it’s not soley results driven. There are many amazing teachers in England who go well above and beyond.
I am shocked by what I see in Ontario. There are some great teachers. However most have taken complete advantage of not being assessed or scrutinized. Students are left to fend for themselves but are then awarded high grades which meet the criteria that teachers set themselves, which are never moderated.
It honestly makes me depressed to see how teachers here take complete advantage of what all teachers in England would cherish and utulize to teach in a more engaging way. And yet Canadian teachers are the ones who complain…
I applied for three boards this time last year. Still to hear back from any (even with a Principal’s recommendation to my name too). Currently I work in a private school and we aim to operate in a much of efficient and effective way.
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There are many contributing factors to grade inflation in Alberta and its’ various school divisions. Two major ones are Real-Time Reporting which has had school boards and administrators interfere with the teacher’s ability to provide sound assessments. This includes reducing the range of numerical grades that can be assigned from 0 to 100 down to only down to 8 numerical values (100, 85, 75, 65, 55, 45, 25, 0). The other major contributing factor is the loss of properly administered final exams, in favour of a multitude of re-due and replacements at the end of the assessment period. This has put pressure on teachers by being directed to let all students regardless of academic standing re-write all assessments including unit finals, and projects after the courses have ended. Well, I would suggest that many teachers are inflating grades under the pressure of such directives that are crossing the line and interfering with the teacher’s autonomy to provide sound, fair and accurate assessments.