Smartboards in the Classroom

Assessments for Understanding, Not Test Scores

Attached is an article from Edutopia.org, written by Grant Wiggins (Harvard, Ed. D), co-author with Jay McTighe of "Understanding by Design".

Dr. Wiggins discusses assessments as "feedback".  He states that authentic assessment is "simply performances and product requirements that are faithful to real-world demands, opportunities, and constraints. The students are tested on their ability to "do" the subject in context, to transfer their learning effectively."

Excellent!  Do take time to read  this article by one of our leaders in education.

Technorati Tags: Assessments, Test Scores, Wiggins & McTighe, "Understanding by Design"

Attached is a link to a synopsis of Wiggins & McTighe's handbook, "Understanding by Design".

May 2008

May 2008 | Volume 65 | Number 8
Pages 36-41

by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

The high school curriculum should start with the long-term goals of schooling: meaning making and transfer of learning.

A local newspaper reporter asks students attending the town's high school to give their school a letter grade from A to F. One young man, a senior, rates his high school a B. When asked to explain, he replies with a single word: "Boring."

 A first-year algebra teacher tries to remain enthusiastic in the face of student apathy. Although she attempts to engender a love of math in her students, many typically respond with the same questions, "Why do we need to learn this stuff? When are we ever going to use this?" She's aware that her answers are not convincing.

 While lecturing to the vacant-eyed stares of many of his students, the veteran AP U.S. History teacher sometimes feels like the teacher in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, who answers his own dull questions. Yet there's so much material to cover to prepare for the upcoming AP exam. What else can he do?

 In one district, the results of end-of-year science exams reveal a troubling pattern: Students typically perform adequately on items requiring recall and basic skills but do poorly on items requiring application or careful analysis and explanation.

These vignettes reflect recognizable high school challenges—student displays of boredom, passivity, and apathy; external test pressures that demand superficial content coverage; and students who seem to know the material but don't know how to apply it. These different problems are, in fact, interrelated. They can be traced to one underlying factor—the lack of clarity about the goals of a high school education and how those goals should inform instruction, assessment, and curriculum design." ASCD May, 2008 p 36-41

To read more, click on the link below.