With all the pressures to raise student achievement, finding and using examples of the cultural, historic and everyday lived experiences of my students takes valuable time away from teaching and learning what matters most.
Background
In many schools throughout the country, high-stakes accountability programs have pressured teachers to narrow curricula and focus on the short-run task of having students do well on the next standardized test. If this means that teachers do not have time or motivation to try to understand how their students' dispositions and experiences related to race and ethnicity can influence their learning, the likely result will be lower student achievement, especially for students who may be struggling the most. Good teaching requires that teachers build on their students' prior knowledge experiences. Moreover, students learn best when they feel recognized and acknowledged for the aspects of their identity they deem important. When students feel that their identities are ignored or not respected, they often disengage from learning and adopt a stance of outsider among strangers. As most teachers recognize, achievement tests measure only part of what it is important for students to learn, and test-taking "achievement" is not the same as learning.
Questions to Consider
- How might teachers make time to better understand their students, even when there is pressure to significantly improve student scores on high-stakes tests?
- Why is it important that teachers use students' individual knowledge values and experiences in facilitating their learning? Is this more important to some educational outcomes than others?
To explore these and other questions, take a closer look at the resources below. At any time, add your comments to the Discussion by starting a new discussion or viewing an ongoing discussion.
- Linda Darling-Hammond explains that tests represent a sort of language that children need to understand, while explaining that teachers need to teach in deep and thoughtful ways rather than teaching "to the test":
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- Kris Gutierrez argues that assessment for racially and ethnically diverse students needs to involve multiple measures of robust forms of learning:
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- Explore Dealing with Standardized Schooling: Lessons from Teaching Tolerance, in which teachers from around the country offer suggestions for balancing testing with substantial teaching, and for addressing the needs of all children.
