Assessments and testing
As the end of March nears and testing season is upon us, I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity to talk about ways to demonstrate student learning beyond tests. Little (if any) research shows that the only way to prepare students for tests is by giving tests, yet this is a default many educators use. I find myself frequently engaged in discussions about this with our teachers. The questions, I ponder with them: what are we trying to measure? What are the different ways we can measure this? What are the advantages and disadvantages to each approach? Using this graphic as a guide may be helpful in the future. George Couros recently shared it in his weekly e-mail and it provides options that should be considered for all students. Some of you know, I’m a firm believer in providing students options to best demonstrate their learning but I also believe it’s part of every teachers job to guide students to selecting how they can best demonstrate their learn...