Guest Speakers

Our latest Monday night class was, by far, the best one I've been to this semester. I really appreciated everything that our two speakers had to say about schools and their view. The most interesting portion of these questions were about NCLB/standardized tests. They brought up some great viewpoints that I don't think we discussed enough in our classes and that we probably should have.

One thing they mentioned was that the tests get teachers talking about what they can do to fix certain aspects of their curriculum. True, standardized tests may not be the most accurate way to test certain students, but if your scores in one area are consistently falling with all students, you can clearly see that there is a problem with the way that teachers may be teaching that subject and we can work to improve the students' education.

The other thing that I thought was great for them to bring up is the fact that standardized tests are just one part of the puzzle. Students are not being assessed solely on how they perform on ITBS tests or ACTs. The point of standardized tests are to get a rough idea of where students are compared to other schools or other classes. If you are teaching the right things and using the appropriate methods to help students learn, then there shouldn't be a problem with standardized tests! Students will do just fine if they're being taught the appropriate things in class, so I don't think it's fair to assume that standardized tests are completely bad!

All in all, I'm very glad that these speakers came. It was great to hear their input on issues that we've been discussing for several weeks. I really hope we get a chance to interview with other teachers in different school districts in the future!

Amy Streck