[AAACE-NLA] complex relationship betweenlearningtoread&learningto learn

[Marie Cora]

But Nancy is also talking about trying to assess things that there are
just not tests for.  And she's discussing stuff that actually doesn't
have to do with THAT TEST, but rather, it has to do with a person's
notions and experiences (or lack thereof) with testing situations.

Ok, I'm supposed to be an assessment specialist (well, I am according to
my work).  I have a good handle on all this stuff because I focus on it
all day long.  I also was a literacy teacher before doing stuff I do
now.

Here's my thing:  I s**k at taking tests - always have.  I took the GREs
the year that they added the analytical section (and so it didn't count
that year because it was in pilot), and I scored best on that section,
even though I consider that I'm not good at that skill.  For both my
verbal and math scores, I got the lowest possible scores (I consider my
verbal skills to be excellent).  I had to select a grad school that
didn't weigh GREs scores as their high stakes cut off.  As for reading:
I love reading but it's really hard for me.  I'm slow and laborious.  

Even though I know I am highly privileged in my education thankfully, it
wasn't as if I aced my way through ON TESTS.  And I know that my verbal
abilities on paper on that test were not the lowest rung on the ladder -
yet that one measure branded that for me there.

Maybe this is why I work in these areas.  Because I DO see the dilemma:
you need to be able to measure stuff, but measuring stuff is often the
very thing that thwarts the progress or the success.  So I end up going
back to longing for measure in learning in the form of apprenticeships
and mentoring and exhibitions.  If only.

marie
mariecora at hotspurpartners.com



-----Original Message-----
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of
AWilder106 at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 9:08 PM
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] complex relationship
betweenlearningtoread&learningto learn

Colleagues:

I have really offended Nancy and I am sorry.

Numbers don't have to be about testing or the TABE.  The TABE is one
test that some have found useful as a measure of learning, and for some
states it is mandated.  Nancy doesn't use it because it isn't suitable
for her population.  Because of this she looses some funding.

Numbers, and the comparisons they make, can be used in other ways.  One
example, and I am dredging  this up, is from the study I worked on for
NCSALL which used both qualitative methods and quantitative methods
combined in several ways.  The increases in learning, which were
ultimately determined with numbers, were based on qualitative measures
transformed into numbers.  Why numbers?  Because then it could be shown
that the changes in learning between two methods was significant--one
teaching/curriculum method was better than another.

I don't know how the anecdotes in this NCSALL study were chosen.  One
per program? To illustrate specific points? I have no idea as I wasn't
part of that procedure.

The problem I alluded to is in two parts--1) The integration of
anecdotes and what information they are supposed to convey into a study
design,  
2)  The use of numbers to document change. 

I think these two problems have been consuming a lot of energy on the
list.  I think forward progress can be made  when it is understood that
numbers and letters are not necessarily either/or research choices.

Suppose teachers want to convey the meaning that learning to read has
for their students, as both Nancy and George do, how is that best to be
done within a single program?  The NCSALL study did it.  How do list
members think this should be done?

I used to be a teacher, my interest is the development of skilled
readers as rapidly as possible.

Andrea



  
_______________________________________________
AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org