In the past I've described Worcester's political machinations as provincial; however, a friend suggested "incestuous" or "inbred" instead, and that may be more accurate.
It would be great to have parents running for school committee. That's how Harriette Chandler got her start.
Re: the common district assessments: Wowzer. What are these? These aren't teacher-made end-of-unit summative assessments but something else? Are these coming from the curricula or textbooks being used? And it's *not* including those screeners (STAR, DIBELS, ACCES) (at least I think those are screeners) . . . wow.
The common assessments, from what I understand, are created by curriculum specialists. They're taken through a program called Renaissance DNA, but created by the district. The students also have to take teacher made summative. And does not include screeners.
Urgh. So this just prompts further questions: Why are these being created by curriculum specialists and how are they being used? Are they being used to compare schools? compare grades across schools? compare classrooms within a school? compare teachers? And why are they being used that way? That is a big chunk out of instructional time. How do the teachers feel about them?
Great column as usual! Excellent questions. Assessment is not the answer. Instruction is. Glad to see push back on testing.
Thank you for reading!
Thank you, thank you!!!!
In the past I've described Worcester's political machinations as provincial; however, a friend suggested "incestuous" or "inbred" instead, and that may be more accurate.
It would be great to have parents running for school committee. That's how Harriette Chandler got her start.
Re: the common district assessments: Wowzer. What are these? These aren't teacher-made end-of-unit summative assessments but something else? Are these coming from the curricula or textbooks being used? And it's *not* including those screeners (STAR, DIBELS, ACCES) (at least I think those are screeners) . . . wow.
The common assessments, from what I understand, are created by curriculum specialists. They're taken through a program called Renaissance DNA, but created by the district. The students also have to take teacher made summative. And does not include screeners.
Urgh. So this just prompts further questions: Why are these being created by curriculum specialists and how are they being used? Are they being used to compare schools? compare grades across schools? compare classrooms within a school? compare teachers? And why are they being used that way? That is a big chunk out of instructional time. How do the teachers feel about them?