School Board Speaks Out on High Stakes Testing

An overreliance on standardized, high stakes testing can strangle our schools. Change the system to include more balanced assessment. That’s the message our School Board sent the General Assembly of Virginia via a resolution it passed unanimously earlier this week.

The resolution makes several key points:

·         there is little research verifying Virginia’s use of criterion-referenced test results as measures of the growth of student achievement or staff performance;

·         we value deep, meaningful learning, as opposed to the superficial level of learning that results from an over-emphasis on that which can be easily tested by standardized tests;

·         focusing only on test prep steals the joy of learning and teaching from students and educators; and

·         accountability is important, but an accountability system based primarily on high stakes, standardized testing will not prepare our students for the future.

While calling on the Virginia General Assembly to improve the accountability system, the School Board recognizes that we are not powerless. The Board emphasized that even in an era of high stakes testing, we need to stick with the instructional approaches that we know effectively promote student engagement and achievement. The Board called on staff members

to help students master the content and skills of the curriculum by continuing to promote the joy of teaching and learning with a focus on deep, meaningful, transformative learning, rather than an over-emphasis on just covering content that can be easily assessed by standardized tests.

It is hard work to focus on deep, meaningful learning that helps students master the content and skills of the curriculum, including that which is assessed by state exams. But at least it is a little easier when you work in a division with a School Board, other teachers, principals and a superintendent who do not expect you to focus exclusively on boring memorization of facts to enhance test performance.

Kudos to our School Board for sticking up for deep, meaningful learning.

Related Links:

Washington Post article featuring the resolution passed by our division and others
Daily Press editorial calling for reform of Virginia's approach to standardized testing
3 Steps to Decreasing Teacher Dropouts

The Joy of Teaching and Learning

The resolution adopted by the School Board was adapted from a template provided by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents and echoes similar statements from other School Boards and professional associations in the United States.

Obvious Facts About School Board Members

#obviousfact1: effective School Board members want to learn more about great teaching & learning

#obviousfact2: effective School Board members’ knowledge of great teaching & learning affects decision-making

Given these #obviousfacts, how should district-level leaders cultivate School Board members’ instructional understanding and vision?

Hold an off-camera, business-casual workshop for your School Board regarding the instructional vision of you district. Don’t serve your Board members a death-by-powerpoint lecture regarding instruction. Instead, provide opportunities to share their perspectives, collaboratively articulate important concepts, and make connections among big instructional ideas.

Our School Board members endorse the importance of engaging students in rigorous work, work that is challenging in the sense advocated by Ken Kay, Tony Wagner, Bill Daggett and others. They believe that learning must prepare students to make productive contributions in the world. Our Board members also know that we promote Transformative Learning as a means to engaging students in rigorous work that prepares them to make productive contributions.

And after last Monday’s workshop, our School Board members have constructed a better understanding of Transformative Learning as an instructional vision. It helps that instructional matters greatly interest our Board members and that they were willing to give up another evening as part of their Board commitment!

Here is an overview of our workshop, which was designed primarily by Ashley Ellis (@afellis) and Mike Lombardo (@mlombardo99) with input from Stephanie Guy (@Guy726) and me (@ewilliams65). Ashley Ellis and Mike Lombardo facilitated the workshop. Participants included the five School Board members, Stephanie Guy, and me.

• We read a definition of Transformative Learning and shared phrases with a partner that they found particularly compelling.

• We reviewed two examples of Transformative Learning in our district, and identified and discussed the defining characteristics in the examples. One example involved elementary students blogging. The other example involved middle school students creating and publishing safety videos regarding severe weather.

      

• We reviewed two more examples of Transformative Learning in our district and articulated how we would respond to a teacher or a principal sharing the example in a Board meeting. (We have monthly presentations at Board meetings of exemplary lessons.) One example involved students creating a humorous, informative physics tutorial. The other example involved high school students and elementary students within our district Skyping with one another in order to teach each other about habitats.

• We watched a humorous video illustrating the importance of problem-solving skills and discussed how transformative learning better prepares our students to handle the situation.

• We watched a video regarding project-based learning and identified how the eight essential elements of project-based learning were reflected in the profiled lesson.

• We watched a second video profiling another PBL lesson and made connections between project-based learning and transformative learning.

• Each participant then shared a few final reflections regarding their insights from the workshop.

School Board members greatly appreciated the workshop. They have fuller understanding of and greater commitment to our instructional vision. Although it may be #obvious that effective Board members want to learn more about great teaching and learning, last week’s workshop reinforced the importance of further cultivating their instructional knowledge and vision.

 

Are There Any School Board Members on Twitter?

Want to connect with School Board members via Twitter? Don’t know how to find School Board members on Twitter?

If you want to read the tweets of School Board members, candidates, and associations, click on this link to view a list of School Board members that I curate. Then select “Subscribe.”

To view just the stream of tweets from this group, go to your Profile page. Click the Lists tab on the left side of the screen. Choose the list entitled School Board.  You will immediately see the stream of Tweets from individuals on in this group. If you see the members of the group, rather than the stream, click on the “Tweets” button just below the subscribe/unsubscribe button.

I am not included on this list so please consider following me (@ewilliams65) as well.

As #NSBAConf proceeds, I will add tweeting School Board members to this list.

To see who is on the list, visit the link above and select “List Members” below the subscribe/unsubscribe button.

If you are a School Board member, but are not yet included in the list just mention me (@ewilliams65) in a tweet and let me know that you are a Board member.

Click here to learn more about Twitter Lists, including how to see what lists you are on and how to create lists.

You may also wish to view my post regarding tweeting at conferences.

Also, click here to follow a list of superintendents curated by @DanielLFrazier.