Stop the Pendulum

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Stop the Pendulum

As I sat at my desk this morning catching up on recent news and views I couldn’t help but feel like I was swinging on the end of a pendulum. Not so much Edgar Allen Poe’s the Pit and the Pendulum where doom awaited the narrator but rather like a lab rat in an experiment where I never moved forward towards success but rather covered the same ground again and again. For decades educational assessment has been plagued by a pendulum of reforms and initiatives.

The swings have gone from linear learning to non-linear learning, from teacher led to student directed, from predetermined to emergent, from standardized to differentiated, and from differentiated to personalized. Yet, we still assess students by asking them to read regardless of whether they are learning through phonics, or whole language, or another emerging initiative. We argue about the value of standardized testing vs. performance assessment in a world where students need to do both well. One test cannot possibly hold all the answers. Assessing a narrow spectrum of knowledge is not acceptable if we aim to assess the whole child. A multi metric system is far superior.

Instructional opportunities are lost when teachers spend the better part of a year learning a new curriculum or preparing students for the latest test. Essential learning is lost when students spend time unlearning prior learning, such as double digit addition, and relearn it in a new way. Even Bill Gates said “We may not know for a decade if this stuff works” (Harvard Interview, 2013)

pendulum maze

So many of these changes are funded and promoted by vendors who enjoy substantial profits when their materials are selected for the new way of teaching, learning, and assessing. Billions of dollars are spent each year to purchase materials and train teachers on the latest strategy. At the same time, we know that it is not the text, type of board, or technology that makes the difference.

Schools are complex systems where all the parts are mutually dependent. Think of a chess board or a football field where one move substantially changes the game. These interdependent pieces must work together in order to reach the goal and foster an effective system.

Rapid pendulum swings continue to change the path, distract us from our real purpose, and make us run ever faster through continuously changing mazes. Working together we can find the right path for today’s learners by maintaining a focus on the big picture, providing sufficient structures and supports, balancing rigorous knowledge with real-world applications, and synthesizing mandates with proven practice.


4 Comments

Chris McGrath

June 29, 2015at 5:03 pm

Laura,

I wholeheartedly agree with you in terms of this ever moving “pendulum.” We spend so much of our time learning the new “flavor of the week,” which is time away from the classroom and more beneficial forms of assessments. People like Bill Gates may have great intentions, but they are monitoring new standards and new tests similar to the way scientists observe rats in a maze. The federal government is looking at the “maze” of the states, while the states look at the “maze” of school districts, while the districts look at teachers, and the teachers look at students. We become expendable in this regard, as the terms by which we keep our jobs are going to be tied to test scores and how we follow the standards. This forces us to be as up to date as possible, which means less time in the classroom.

I am not saying the standards don’t have a place, nor am I anti-standardized testing. I am however, against them being the sole means by which we judge the quality of teachers. Time in the classroom allows us to experiment with lesson creation and delivery. It allows us to better gauge how well students understand our content, and allows us to judge (PRACTICALLY) how well students are learning the skills that we want them to master. Self-confidence and self-actualization are manifested when students are presented varied assessments and a classroom that is open to their ideas and aspirations, rather than whatever the “pendulum” deems they need to know.

I think through your class, we have understood that assessment and learning isn’t necessarily confined to a “box,” or what one person deems acceptable. I think/hope that most teachers would place the learning of their students above all else, and be able to work in their best interest to ensure that they are appropriately assessed.

Olivia Navickis

June 30, 2015at 10:41 am

I think that your comparison of our countries education reform to a pendulum that cant stop swinging is a great representation of what is going on. Schools are constantly changing curriculum, teaching strategies, and differentiation techniques. It is hard to keep up with all of the changes. The latest change has been the common core state standards, which have provoked mixed feelings from educators around the nation. The fact that there are big businesses very involved i the decision making of our country’s educational reform is terrifying. Most of these people have never been in the classroom or even worked in a school. On top of these people being responsible for the decision making, no one knows if the reform in place will actually work. The quote from Bill Gates is a perfect example of this. I think that one way for us to get off of this swinging pendulum is to change the people that are allowed to make the decisions for educational reform. If teachers were given more of the power to make these choices then maybe we would see better results and there would not be so much change and more clarity about what really works.

Melissa Manning

June 30, 2015at 5:22 pm

I can relate to this post a lot. As a pre-service teacher, it will be my responsibility to assess students and to prepare them for the dozens of standardized tests or their upcoming project. We learned about different reforms in The History of American Education, and I was shocked to find how many different reforms are implemented into the school systems. Not only was I shocked to find out how many different reforms there were, but how quickly they are ruled out and how there is no time to see if progress occurs or to make changes. The constant changes and reforms are driving those involved in education away from the main purpose – allowing children the opportunity to learn and make meaning of their learning and the world around them. I do not think the issues arise from failing changes and reforms, but from our lack of communication and a constant. There are so many brilliant educators in the world, and if the trust was put into their hands, then maybe things could move smoothly. With constant communication and discussion, everyone can provide their insight. Educators who spend their time in the school, with the students, for five days a week, those are the people who should be making big decisions or providing their input on decisions. Education, today, has been made more into a business with standardized testing and preparations for these tests. Many of these people, and I’m only guessing here, have not been in a classroom or have taught students. Why not allow the real educators to help with the decision making and why not value their opinion?

Michael

July 1, 2015at 9:31 pm

I liked this post about the pendulum constantly swinging because I’ve noticed it even in my short time as an intern. There are all sorts of new initiatives, strategies, and ideas about assessment and teaching in general that it seems impossible to keep up. In my History of Education class we discussed how when new reforms are implemented they often don’t last long enough to ever tell if they have an effect. By the time enough time has passed to really understand the costs and benefits of a new system it has already been modified and changed into something else that is much different. As a result, we don’t usually understand the impacts of these changes because they keep happening so quickly. I feel that the current emphasis on standards and the common core might follow a similar path. I wonder if, by the time we have collected enough information to determine the strengths and weaknesses of these standardized tests they will already be getting phased out or modified into something else. I also see this pendulum swing taking things in a technological direction currently. There is so much technology in many classrooms that it seems unreal. I did my project and presentation on how technology can be used for formative assessment and yet I still don’t really believe that it is necessary or even all that important. Technology makes some things more convenient but I don’t think that it drastically improves the educational experience of students. I can’t even remember how many times I wanted to do something on the board but couldn’t because the smart board wasn’t working or wouldn’t allow me. In those cases the technology was present, but I couldn’t do much with it. Which brings me to my final point on the matter, whether it be technology, new initiatives, or even the CCSS, these reforms, concepts, and pendulum swings are nothing unless we do something meaningful with them, and we need time to do that. We need to slow the pendulum swings so that we can spend time working through the issues that new ideas present and so that we can better understand what we are doing.

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