Just a quick note. The same thing is happening with the state tests here -
student performance is being broken down according to teacher with
agonizing results. If the view is that the students' assessments
aggregated by classroom is primarily a measure of the teachers performance,
without due consideration of the interconnections to context, tasks, goals,
community etc. then the results are often disaster. The collins and
frederickson paper on assessments driving the system comes to mind as does
Littles work on norms of teacher collegiality. Yes - you need a system in
which you can have discussions without pointing fingers and driving people
back into classrooms behind closed doors. I've been impressed by what I
have seen of the Orange Grove systems thinking project
http://www.cfsd.k12.az.us/~sysdyn/
You should see the chaos with our new teacher certification tests! Well,
maybe you shouldn't.
Blues lyrics:
Education 'n war,
Education 'n war,
What's it all for?
Make momma happy,
Just even the score.
[harmonica solo]
Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Technology in Education
Lesley College, 31 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
Phone: 617-349-8168 / Fax: 617-349-8169
http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/Barowy.html
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]