Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 4, 1997 Page: 26
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In Breaking Ranks curriculum and
instructional strategies were addressed
with specific recommendations, "...
Teachers will integrate assessment into
instruction so that assessment does
not merely measure students, but be-
comes part of the learning process...."
and "...Assessment of student learn-
ing will align itself with the curricu-
lum so that students' progress is mea-
sured by what is taught..." As simple
as it sounds, the key is to assess what
we teach. That means alignment of the
curriculum and vertical planning. It
also means we should teach the things
that need to be assessed, not just our
pet topics. As a classroom teacher, I
was taught to make my test then teach
the unit. In practice I often made a test
over what I thought the students knew.
Sometimes the two ideas were in con-
flict and it was the students who lost
out. The use of data can keep teachers
from "teaching to the test" and allow
them to teach for the test. Teach in
your comfort zone and use the data to
adjust where there are gaps. Everyone
wins and no one has to be a failure.
Kids succeed and teachers don't have
to explain failure rates.
It helped me to read Mike Schmoker' s
book Results: The Key To Continuous
Improvement. If you don't have time
to read Peter Senge, you think TQM
means tender, quiet moments or you
thought Glickman, Goodlad and
Guskey were the three musketeers,
then this book is for you. He explains
how to use data to guide improve-
ment, not point blame. Although the
Career Ladder has gone away, it still
is risky to most of us to collaborate
and look at improvement without see-
ing it as a condemnation of ourselves.
Schmoker explains ways to take the
sting out of accountability with these
guidelines:
* Do not use data primarily to iden-
tify or eliminate poor teachers.
* Do not introduce high stakes pre-maturely.
* Try to collect and analyze data
collaboratively and anonymously by
team, department, grade level or
school.
* Be cautious in implementing pay-
for-performance schemes, especially
in the beginning.
* Allow teachers, by school or team,
as much autonomy as possible in se-
lecting the kind of data they think will
be most useful.
* Inundate practitioners with suc-
cess stories that include data.
As educators we are not adept at toot-
ing our own horn. Often the public
doesn't understand what we do be-
cause they don't have the opportunity
to come to school and see what we do.
If we begin to collect data, adjust our
teaching to improve the areas of con-
cern, then we can track and prove
progress without a visit to school.
Community involvement can take on
amore positive role because they aren't
coming to see what mystic rites we
practice on their children, but they
come to celebrate the success we dem-
onstrate. Use of data to evaluate can
help us avoid the remediation cycle
that is crippling classrooms today. ESP
References:
Carnegie Foundation and National Asso-
ciation of Secondary School Principals.
(1995). Breaking ranks: Changing an
American institution. Reston, VA: Au-
thor.
Schmoker, M. (1996). Results: The key to
continuous school improvement. Alex-
andria, VA: ASCD.
Senge, P. (1990). Thefifth discipline: The
art and practice of the learning organi-
zation. New York: Doubleday.
Glickman, C. (1993).Renewing America 's
schools: A guide for school-based ac-
tion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Goodlad, J. I. (1984). A place called
school. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Guskey, T. R. (March 1994). What youAlthough the
Career Ladder has
gone away, it still is
risky to most of us
to collaborate and
look at improvement
without seeing it
as a condemnation
of ourselves.assess may not be what you get. Educa-
tional Leadership, 51, 51-54.26
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Tarleton State University. Effective Schools Project. Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 4, 1997, periodical, 1997; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201681/m1/33/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.