Fired Up About School Ranking
For my graduate program we were asked to address school ranking based on test performance in a forum discussion. I got pretty fired up about it and venting just to the people in my program didn’t have enough impact so I am sharing it on freedom philosophy as well.
Question – What concerns would you have about school rankings like those of the Fraser Institute based on achievement test results? If you are passionate about education and feel like you need some quick adrenaline check out this video by the same organization. Holy not educators Batman…
Here are some thoughts I expressed on this.
Point 1 - Academics are only a fraction of what makes a good school. As a parent and an educator, I am most concerned that my own kids and my students learn how to learn and how to love learning. While some fundamental skills are undoubtedly necessary, I would argue a case for the “intangibles” of a school as making the key ranking differences.
Such typically unconsidered factors would include: how interested are students (yes even high school) in going to school. How all school community members would rate the rapport between faculty and students. How satisfied the teachers are with their jobs. The quality and number of the extracurricular activities offered. The access the school provides to technology and web 2.0 tools. How varied the classroom practices are. Among others…
Point 2 -If the goal of education is to create people who perform well on standardized tests, then a system that is oriented toward that outcome is exactly what should be created. Performing well on standardized tests, however, is a near useless life skill as far as I am concerned. At this point, I am almost sick of the hype around 21st century education but considering the arcane nature of ranking schools based solely (soulessly) on test performance doesn’t the following make more sense?
“21st century education is flexible, creative, challenging, and complex. It addresses a rapidly changing world filled with fantastic new problems as well as exciting new possibilities” (Possibilities for 21st Century Education, 2008).
I am not worried about professional evaluation. I can teach students to do well on a test or I can help people develop into imaginative, motivated, voracious learners who know how to learn what they will need to know when they create the future. Unfortunately the differences between the two with regard to style of teaching, learning, and what it means to perform do not work well in tandem. One is teaching people how to succeed in a box that was created in the past. The other is teaching people how to succeed outside the box that hasn’t been created yet.
Possibilities for 21st Century Education. (2008). Retrieved July 05, 2010 from 21st Century Schools: http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/what_is_21st_century_education.htm.
Images: As far as I could tell these images are open source. If I am mistaken please post a reply to this post indicating that and I will take them down.
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