Posted by Dana Bennis on Feb 12, 2010 - 08:27 AM
In this provocative piece, Sam Chaltain of the Forum for Education and Democracy and the Rethink Learning Now campaign offers a comprehensive way to meaningful assess schools and learning. By speaking with the key education dialect of today (standards, achievement) while framing it within a broader perspective that values experiential learning, student involvement, democratic habits of mind, and equity, Chaltain charts a powerful and credible way forward for education policy and reform. Secretary Duncan and President Obama (or your staff members), I hope you are reading what is out here in the public education dialogue. The current approach of teacher and student retention tied to standardized tests without any of what Chaltain describes will only further the inequities and the damage done to young people, teachers, families, and the present and future of our society. Read on...On Feb. 1, President Obama vowed to toss out the nation’s current school accountability system and replace it with a more balanced scorecard of school performance that looks at student growth and school progress.
I love the idea. Mr. Obama and education secretary Arne Duncan have repeatedly criticized the No Child Left Behind Act for keeping the “goals loose but the steps tight.” On their watch, both men aspire to introduce a new law that keeps the “goals tight but the steps loose.”
With that more flexible standard in mind, I have a scorecard to propose: the ABC’s of School Success. It provides both structure and freedom by identifying five universal measurement categories—Achievement, Balance, Climate, Democratic Practices and Equity—and letting individual schools chose which data points to track under each category.
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