If you haven't had a chance to check out Move to Outsource Teacher Licensing Process Draws Protest in a recent New York Times, you should.
The article discusses one group of student teachers at the University of Massachusetts who are refusing to participate in a pilot program for new licensing procedures.
In the article, the student teachers said “their professors and the classroom teachers who observe them for six months in real school settings can do a better job judging their skills than a corporation that has never seen them.”
The argument the student teachers make is that observation is the best assessment and the best way to receive feedback, not an easy-to-manipulate assessment.
Wayne Au, a University of Washington professor, said in the article, as with other mass-produced assessments students have already learned to manipulate it. “Their answers are shaped by what the test requires. “They’re not expressing who they are as teachers. It will do bad things.”
What do you think about these kinds of assessments?
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