The MSTA Blog

Teacher Licensing Protest

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?

Participate in a Survey About Internet Search for Classroom Resources

As an educator, it can be frustrating to search for and find quality learning resources on the Internet. If you are tired of sifting through pages and pages of search results to find the right content or products for your lessons, participate in the LRMI Educator Survey and have your opinions heard.  

The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) aims to improve the way educational materials are found on the Internet. Through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the initiative, which is co-led by the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) and Creative Commons, will help educators and students quickly and easily search for educational resources by enabling the use of criteria such as grade level, content area, time required, learning resource type and interactivity type.

The LRMI has released a survey in the hopes of gauging educators’ current experiences and opinions on search. The data collected will be used to help inform the way educational publishers and content providers present their resources online. The LRMI is hoping to reach as many educators as possible with this survey to ensure the collective voice of the education community is heard.

The survey takes approximately five minutes to complete and must be submitted by Friday, April 27, 2012. Those who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 Amazon gift card.