High stakes testing is a broken system. It is an industry, not an education. It’s a sorting mechanism, not a driver of equity. It discourages differentiation. It discourages student and teacher discretion in learning. It perpetuates low-level learning with crude pass/fail punishment and reward systems. It’s inauthentic. We didn’t start with a blank slate, design … Continue reading
In a democracy, public education should promote models and policies for schools that provide students direct, personal experience with democratic ideals of choice, equality, freedom, and shared power. As much as we want to “teach content” and “cover curriculum,” we can’t drop out of the sky into students’ pre-exisitng communities and the midst of their … Continue reading