[AAACE-NLA] Where's the teaching?
Bickerton, Robert P
RBickerton at doe.mass.edu
Fri May 4 08:32:56 EDT 2007
Dear Colleagues,
I know and respect Marie and her work a great deal, but on this issue I will
disagree. Well conceived and constructed testing is not necessarily
"oppressive" or an "ineffective experience for students" -- on both counts,
the educators and policy leaders involved have more to do with these factors
than good tests do. Over the years I've listened to too many adult
educators argue that unlimited positive regard is what students want and
need while they fail to hear many of their own students asking for more
"real and objective" feedback about how they're doing than these teachers
share with them. I am not suggesting that this attitude is at the heart of
the testing debate, but it is present at one of the extremes. At the other
extreme are policy leaders who embrace so called easy "off the shelf
testing" "solutions" that can be accomplished "on the cheap" by swallowing
the unsupported claims of test publishers.
When large numbers of practitioners and researchers working together have
been involved in the development of learning standards and tests ALIGNED
with those standards, and when the state has invested in building and
supporting programs in properly administering and interpreting the results
of valid and reliable assessments, several positive and beneficial
opportunities are presented:
* students get feedback about where they stand relative to standards that a
large cross-section of the field agree are important for the current and
future endeavors that most students name as their reasons for pursuing adult
education;
* programs can analyze item level results from groups and subgroups of
students that will aid them in their efforts to continuously improve their
programs, curricula, methods, materials, and professional development;
e.g., "why are our students doing so well with calculating the percent of a
number and so poorly with finding what the percentage difference is between
two quantities? and does this have anything to do with the struggles our
students are having with ratio and proportion?"
* states can add "data" to the factors used (too often limited to anecdotes,
assertion and relationships) to target professional development and funding
-- and yes, although many educators bristle that someone (anyone) is making
"judgments from afar," this is a necessary part of a publicly funded
process.
We've worked hard to meet the standard referenced in the paragraph above the
3 bulleted "opportunities" -- yet we appreciate we can still do better and
that some of the steps remain undone -- for example, we are still in the
process of building tools that will enable Massachusetts adult educators to
analyze item level responses for their students, classes, teachers, and
programs overall. Further, we really do get that classroom and program
developed formative assessments are absolutely essential -- it's how I and
all the adult educators in our (state) office helped our students and
ourselves understand how we were doing and where we needed to do better.
But having developed many dozens of classroom and program level tests myself
over a long career as an ABE teacher, I also know their shortcomings quite
well. These "shortcomings" are not a problem at the class or program level
because they are supplemented / complemented by extensive interactions and
observations of our students -- so we automatically make adjustments when
our home grown instruments give us less than reliable results. Larger scale
testing cannot rely on this dynamic, however, the policy framework for large
scale testing MUST acknowledge and support that both approaches play an
important role in the teaching and learning process.
I firmly believe that "testing" is not in and of itself the problem -- it's
the expertise, attitudes and ideologies of the educators and policy leaders
who bring too many confounding variables into the process that cause most of
the major problems with testing. I'm not suggesting that the technology of
testing itself is not without it's faults and limitations -- but if you dig
deep enough to understand these, you can still get very useful results. And
the technology of testing is growing by leaps and bounds -- almost as fast
as computer technology has grown, and at an accelerating pace.
Finally, from a political perspective: Many on this list know that I've
been an adult educator for over 35 years -- and that this work is my life's
passion. More recently I have accepted expanded responsibilities at the
Mass. Dept. of Education -- including oversight of our state's K-12 large
scale assessment program, including MCAS (the Massachusetts Comprehensive
Assessment System). It's a very good set of tests with half of the
student's score derived from "constructed response" items -- and 100% of the
items are released each year for students, teachers, and other interested
parties to review, analyze and critique. But that's on the technical side.
On the political side, I'm one of just a very small number of my friends,
acquaintances and colleagues whose children were educated in an inner city
public school system, the Boston Public Schools. I spent a great deal of
time providing additional support to my children each evening even though
they were always getting very positive report cards, including lots of A's
and B's as they progressed into the higher grades. What I knew then, and
what they know now is that those positive reports were for a curriculum that
was always a year or two years behind their peers going to school in
affluent suburbs. Education reform, including MCAS have changed this --
which I not only see from a state perspective, but every evening as I talk
with my wife who is a first grade teacher in the Boston P.S. Poor students,
particularly minority students are no longer being told they're doing well
when they are not -- and that's a good thing because very powerful research
out of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University
confirms what several other researchers have been finding -- that the SKILLS
of the individual predict their job choices and earning potential far better
than simply looking at their degrees. In other words, a degree without the
skills to back it up doesn't get you to the same place as those who have
both.
By the way, I am NOT one who places the "blame" for lagging student
performance on the inner city schools and teachers. They could do better --
and they know this to be the case -- but almost all the teachers I know in
the Boston system are just as passionately dedicated to the success of their
students as the best adult educators are. But here's the typical profile of
the students who enter my wife's first grade classroom in September: 4 or 5
can read and write simple sentences while more than half of her (average of
20) students (typically 11) CANNOT recognize half the letters of the
alphabet! Compare this profile to a first grade classroom in September in
an affluent suburb -- the vast majority of these children in September are
already close to meeting the June promotion standards to move on to second
grade. I firmly believe that my middle class friends and colleagues are not
choosing "better schools" for their own children -- they are choosing to
locate their children within a more advantaged student body. In order to
know whether my assertion is or is not the case, we need to build tools --
and yes, these will include large scale assessments -- that enable us to
look at the amount of GROWTH our K-12 teacher colleagues are accomplishing
each year, rather than simply how their students compare to each other
without regard to their relative advantages and disadvantages.
take care,
bob bickerton, sr. associate commissioner of education, MA
-----Original Message-----
From: Marie Cora [mailto:marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 9:19 AM
To: 'National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE'
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Where's the teaching?
Hi Kearney and everyone,
I really don't know about any of the rest of your discussion, but the point
about testing - that it creates an oppressive an ineffective experience for
students - in my experience at the k12 and the adult ed level is certainly
true. At least in terms of the testing that is associated with funding and
politics. Any types of assessment related to teaching and learning would
not fall into this category for me (and unfortunately this type of
assessment is not of interest to politicians who determine funding). This
is hardly a fringe agenda item for our nation's schools since No Child Left
Behind is failing our children so miserably. Adult Education is already
feeling the effects of that ill-conceived policy.
A question: what is "advocating social promotion of 7th graders?"
Marie Cora
-----Original Message-----
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of Kearney
Lykins
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 5:46 PM
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Where's the teaching?
All,
The subject line of the Ms. Kashdan's post is spectacularly misleading. The
website she recommends ( http://www.nycore.org/ <http://www.nycore.org/> )
has nothing to do with teaching, but everything to do with promoting leftist
propaganda, on the tax-payers dime. As the homepage of "New York Collective
of Radical Educators", it is a cookbook for extreme extra-pedagogical
techniques, centered on brainwashing young minds about assorted fringe
agenda items like:
1. the "hidden evils" of service on the U. S. Military
2. how testing creates "an oppressive and ineffective experience for
students"
3. advocating social promotion of 7th graders
The material recommended by Ms. Kashdan is not at all surprising considering
the content of the addendum to her post. Note her attempt to change the
terms of the illegal immigration debate, by equating the opposition's term,
"illegal alien" with "illegal human." This sort of tactic gets us nowhere
because it promotes a rhetorical environment in which adversaries talk past
one another. I do not side with those who marched in the streets (and
apparently straight out of Ms. Kashdan's recommended activist classrooms)
because I generally oppose illegal actions. Indeed, the humans that cross
our border without permission have broken U.S. law, and because they have
decided to do so, their alien status is in fact illegal.
Anyway, I searched her post and links for any materials or resources related
to "teaching about immigration" and found none.
Kearney Lykins
ESOL Teacher
Virginia Beach, VA
----- Original Message ----
From: "aaace-nla-request at lists.literacytent.org"
<aaace-nla-request at lists.literacytent.org>
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 2, 2007 12:00:03 PM
Subject: AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 48, Issue 1
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Today's Topics:
1. teaching about immigration (Kaizen Program)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 10:45:19 -0700
From: "Kaizen Program" <kaizen at literacyworks.org>
Subject: [AAACE-NLA] teaching about immigration
To: "National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE"
<aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Message-ID: <002901c78c18$7d2aa900$7100a8c0 at Cablespeed>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Greetings all,
The below teaching guide on the issue of immigration is highly relevant for
teachers who work with adults as well as those who work with children. It
contains reference to many useful resources. Although there are quite a few
that are primarily related to activities in the New York City area, many of
the resources also contain information that is useful for teachers and
students nationwide.
Much of the information can be of great use to teachers of beginning English
language learners even though it will not be appropriate for using with such
students directly. And some of the resources can be used directly with
intermediate and advanced new English learners too.
Although this guide was put together last year, it is still definitely
relevant!
Because the teacher's guide is available for downloading in MS Word format
as well as PDF format, it is fully accessible to educators and students who
are blind or visually impaired or need to use computer screen readers and
synthesized speech for other reasons. And, many of the resources referenced
are also accessible to those using screen readers and synthesized speech.
So, if you have not already checked it out, I hope you do soon.
Sylvie Kashdan, M.A.
Instructor/Curriculum Coordinator
KAIZEN PROGRAM for New English Learners with Visual Limitations
810-A Hiawatha Place South
Seattle, WA 98144, U.S.A.
phone: (206) 784-5619
email: kaizen at literacyworks.org
web: http://www.nwlincs.org/kaizen/ <http://www.nwlincs.org/kaizen/>
----- Original Message -----
From: "bree" <breebree at mindspring.com>
To: <nycoreUpdates at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 7:59 PM
Subject: [NYCoRE] TEACHERS: SUPPORT MAY 1st WALKOUTS
For any educators looking for resources to support student
immigration walkouts, the NYCoRE curriculum "NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL" is
available as a free download at http://www.nycore.org/
<http://www.nycore.org/>
immigrantrights.html.
This curriculum was created last year as a response to student
organizing efforts. The information on the protest and walkouts are
dated, but the curricular resources are still very usable.
?
1) The No Human Is Illegal Resource Guide: This guide is for
educators to take on the important issues that teachers and students
have been tackling in their activism INSIDE the classroom. We must
not let our sense of civic duty to engage these critical issues begin
once the school day is over?we must weave them into our teaching and
learning. This resource can be best utilized online as a web
resource. The links and topics will be relevant long past the next
few marches and protests. It is organized into the following three
sections and we encourage teachers to join us in fulfilling each goal:
Let us join voices as teachers, students, and community members to
oppose this anti-immigrant, anti-human legislation! As teachers we
can do so in the classroom and in the streets!
For questions about the demonstration:
info at nycore.org
Download No Human is Illegal - Click here for PDF or Word Doc
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
No Human is Illegal!
HR 4437, the controversial immigration bill that has been hotly
contested by Congressman and the American public alike?is affecting
students? lives all across the nation. Whether they are marching in
protest or conversing with friends, we have seen students taking
center stage during the debates over the status of immigrants in this
country. How can educators engage their students in these critical
issues in the classroom? How can we serve as the liaison between
students and the mixed messages the media and politicians are
sending? Most importantly, how can we support our students?
initiative to make their voices heard locally and nationally? The
debate over immigrant rights in the United States, the supposed
?land of the free and home of the brave?, will continue to
increase in intensity and will peak on May 1st ? with the Great
American Boycott. We offer this curricular resource to educators, as
a guide to discussing the complex issues surrounding the immigration
debate and the decision to protest with their students. The topics
touched on in this guide and in the debate at large, touch on
economic, historic, political, national, and emotional themes. We
encourage and support educators everywhere to have the courage to
bring these concepts from the streets into the classroom and then
back onto the streets?united as teacher and student activists in the
struggle for human rights for all humans? because, no human is
illegal!
?Ning?n Ser Humano es Ilegal!
HR 4437, el proyecto de ley sobre la inmigraci?n que ha sido debatido
furiosamente tanto por miembros del Congreso como el p?blico
Americano?est? afectando la vida de estudiantes por todas partes de
la naci?n. Ya sea en manifestaciones o conversaciones con amigos,
hemos visto estudiantes ubic?ndose en el medio del debate acerca del
estatus de inmigrantes en este pa?s. ?C?mo es que educadores puedan
envolver sus estudiantes en estos temas cr?ticos dentro del sal?n de
clase? ?C?mo podemos ser un fuerte vinculo entre nuestros
estudiantes y los mensajes confusos que emiten los pol?ticos y los
medios de comunicaci?n? Y aun m?s importante, ?c?mo podemos apoyar
iniciativas estudiantiles de levantar sus voces localmente y a escala
nacional? El debate sobre los derechos de inmigrantes en los Estados
Unidos, la supuesta ?tierra de los libres, y hogar de los
valientes?, continuar? a crecer y tendr? su cima el 1 de mayo?
con el Gran Paro Americano. Ofrecemos este recurso curricular a
educadores como gu?a para di?logos sobre estos temas complicados
trat?ndose del debate sobre la inmigraci?n y la decisi?n de
manifestar sobre ellos. Los temas incluidos en este gu?a en el debate
nacional incluyen temas de la econom?a, historia, pol?tica, naci?n,
u emoci?n?animamos y apoyamos educadores en todas partes que
traigan estos temas de la calle al sal?n?unidos como activistas
educadores y estudiantiles en la lucha para derechos humanos para
todos los humanos?porque, ?ning?n ser humano es ilegal!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
For any educators looking for resources to support student immigration
walkouts, the NYCoRE curriculum "NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL" is available as a free
download at http://www.nycore.org/immigrantrights.html
<http://www.nycore.org/immigrantrights.html> .
This curriculum was created last year as a response to student organizing
efforts. The information on the protest and walkouts are dated, but the
curricular resources are still very usable.
1) The No Human Is Illegal Resource Guide: This guide is for educators to
take on the important issues that teachers and students have been tackling
in their activism INSIDE the classroom. We must not let our sense of civic
duty to engage these critical issues begin once the school day is over?we
must weave them into our teaching and learning. This resource can be best
utilized online as a web resource. The links and topics will be relevant
long past the next few marches and protests. It is organized into the
following three sections and we encourage teachers to join us in fulfilling
each goal:
Let us join voices as teachers, students, and community members to oppose
this anti-immigrant, anti-human legislation! As teachers we can do so in the
classroom and in the streets!
For questions about the demonstration:
info at nycore.org
Download No Human is Illegal - Click here for PDF or Word Doc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
No Human is Illegal!
HR 4437, the controversial immigration bill that has been hotly contested by
Congressman and the American public alike?is affecting students? lives all
across the nation. Whether they are marching in protest or conversing with
friends, we have seen students taking center stage during the debates over
the status of immigrants in this country. How can educators engage their
students in these critical issues in the classroom? How can we serve as the
liaison between students and the mixed messages the media and politicians
are sending? Most importantly, how can we support our students? initiative
to make their voices heard locally and nationally? The debate over immigrant
rights in the United States, the supposed ?land of the free and home of the
brave?, will continue to increase in intensity and will peak on May 1st ?
with the Great American Boycott. We offer this curricular resource to
educators, as a guide to discussing the complex issues surrounding the
immigration debate and the decision to protest with their students. The
topics touched on in this guide and in the debate at large, touch on
economic, historic, political, national, and emotional themes. We encourage
and support educators everywhere to have the courage to bring these concepts
from the streets into the classroom and then back onto the streets?united as
teacher and student activists in the struggle for human rights for all
humans? because, no human is illegal!
?Ning?n Ser Humano es Ilegal!
HR 4437, el proyecto de ley sobre la inmigraci?n que ha sido debatido
furiosamente tanto por miembros del Congreso como el p?blico Americano?est?
afectando la vida de estudiantes por todas partes de la naci?n. Ya sea en
manifestaciones o conversaciones con amigos, hemos visto estudiantes
ubic?ndose en el medio del debate acerca del estatus de inmigrantes en este
pa?s. ?C?mo es que educadores puedan envolver sus estudiantes en estos temas
cr?ticos dentro del sal?n de clase? ?C?mo podemos ser un fuerte vinculo
entre nuestros estudiantes y los mensajes confusos que emiten los pol?ticos
y los medios de comunicaci?n? Y aun m?s importante, ?c?mo podemos apoyar
iniciativas estudiantiles de levantar sus voces localmente y a escala
nacional? El debate sobre los derechos de inmigrantes en los Estados Unidos,
la supuesta ?tierra de los libres, y hogar de los valientes?, continuar? a
crecer y tendr? su cima el 1 de mayo?con el Gran Paro Americano. Ofrecemos
este recurso curricular a educadores como gu?a para di?logos sobre estos
temas complicados trat?ndose del debate sobre la inmigraci?n y la decisi?n
de manifestar sobre ellos. Los temas incluidos en este gu?a en el debate
nacional incluyen temas de la econom?a, historia, pol?tica, naci?n, u
emoci?n?animamos y apoyamos educadores en todas partes que traigan estos
temas de la calle al sal?n?unidos como activistas educadores y estudiantiles
en la lucha para derechos humanos para todos los humanos?porque, ?ning?n ser
humano es ilegal!
------------------------------
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