Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher

I hear what you are saying.  I had a very similar meeting today where I was given a laundry list of assessments to complete by the end of September.  Everything has to be quantified...it's sick.  They're 6 and 7 years old.  And while I see the value of using data to inform one's teaching, I think this whole measuring and hard data thing is getting taken WAY too far.  Good numbers don't necessarily indicate best practice or meaningful learning.

Learning does seem like a process to me.  Students don't always get things at the same time.  It might be years down the road before something finally makes sense and becomes useful.  That's still happening to me.:)

I'm not a fan of all the testing that is done, but measurement has a place.  One of the issues with testing is that there are now potentially serious negative consequences to teachers and schools when scores are deemed too low.  The consequence of testing could simply be to get feedback about progress; rather like market-testing a product, or surveying customers on their service experience.  Such testing allows a company to correct course and adust the product or service being delivered.  This rational process, however, does not seem to be considered in the public education system - unless I'm mistaken - do test scores influence class size or instruction methods?

Years ago I had a student who I thought was very low in reading.  When he came to me I had been told that he tested low.  It turns out, he had a test anxiety problem.  He was one of the smartest kids I have ever taught.  During test time, I worked very hard to help my students relax.  We took timed tests all year with the idea that they were natural.  He ended up doing great that year.  I think tests and all this testing stinks.  We are not teaching children anymore, we are teaching to the test.  Where are they going to get their love of learning from?  We need to go back to the old ways where learning the process of learning was the most important thing.