Will Richardson

Speaker, consultant, writer, learner, parent

“None of the Teachers Know What I Can Do”

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Yesterday, Irving, Texas police arrested 14-year-old Mohammed Ahmed when they and his teachers mistook a homemade clock he had constructed out of circuit boards and wires for a bomb. This despite his repeated denials and attempts to explain his project. Handcuffed. Suspended. Called a liar. All over a clock. 

Now it would be easy, and probably appropriate, to suspect at least a pinch of racisim in the mix here. But as was suggested in yesterday’s post, the bigger problem may be a lack of understanding and savvy on the part of the adults as to what’s possible these days with technology. 

And Mohammed agrees:

“Here in high school, none of the teachers know what I can do.”

That just speaks volumes.

And it begs the question, why are we ok with that? We spend boatloads of time and treasure on all sorts of stuff like differentiated instruction and assessment strategies and response to intervention and god knows what other stuff. But we refuse to spend time on making sure that everyone in the building at least has a clue of what’s possible with technology and what kids (and adults) are doing with it. I’m not even talking about getting people to actually make stuff in their classrooms with technology; I’m just suggesting that we understand what’s happening with tech in the real world. 

And finally, what does it say about a culture that chooses suspicion over trust when it comes to kids? I know, there are bad 14-year olds out there, but not enough to suggest that we don’t give kids every benefit of the doubt at the start. 

Sad. 

Update: The principal’s response.

Sadder still. 

Why the Tests Don’t Work

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This is about as succinct an argument against standardized tests as I’ve come across yet. Written by William Wraga, a professor in the program in educational administration and policy at the College of Education, University of Georgia, it’s in response to the cheating scandal now rocking the Atlanta Public School System, and it clearly lays out the case that we are not doing much to assess our kids’ knowledge OR promote a learning disposition when we use them.

Research has found that when high-stakes tests are used:

1. Educators will teach to the tests.

2. Curriculum narrows to that which is on the test.

3. Instruction narrows to skill-drill test prep.

4. Academically disaffected students are more likely to drop out of school.

5. The pressure to raise scores in the face of severe sanctions increases the incidence of unethical behavior.

Research has not found sufficient evidence to support the notion that implementing high-stakes tests will improve student learning. In short, research suggests that high-stakes testing accountability measures not only will not improve education, but also may actually undermine education. Why would we enact a policy that would do that to educators and students?

Even without the research, this isn’t rocket science, is it? Very little of what we test is useful knowledge to any individual child, and we basically have no idea to what extent students can build on that knowledge nonetheless. It’d be nice if we trusted teachers a bit more to do that. 

(Do take a moment to read this reply to get the gist of the dysfunction in our thinking about this. The system is just doing a horrible job of teaching critical thinking, obviously.)