Spy No More

To hear some teachers talk you'd think they were running covert operations in their classrooms. They go to extreme lengths to keep the content of their tests in Top Secret status and practically go undercover to seek out would-be cheaters on test day. But, with the arrival of the Common Core State Standards it is time to reconsider a method of operating that is more about the culture of school than a best practice for teaching.

"It should be clear to every student, parent and teacher what the standards of success are in every school" (corestandards.org/the-standards).

If students are truly informed about exactly what they are supposed to be learning, then how is it even possible for test content to be a mystery?

I know a teacher who bragged about his tough tests. He loved to generate test questions from obscure locations like footnotes and picture captions. He cackled gleefully as he posted students' scores on a bell curve and then dramatically hacked the curve into sections that would correspond to letter grades. His motivation for testing was to divide the class into winners and losers.

There are still times when it is necessary to rank students. For example, any time students are seeking admission to a program a ranking test will be necessary to decide who gets in and who does not. In the right context these tests are both appropriate and meaningful to their task.

The average classroom assessment, however, is not a ranking test. Instead, the purpose of classroom assessments is to measure the degree to which students have mastered a stated set of skills or concepts. Those skills and concepts are clearly stated in the Common Core State Standards at corestandards.org. One purpose for a common set of academic standards is so that every student and parent can know what students will be learning in school. Pssst…the cat's out of the bag, everyone already knows what's on the test.

Picture this. A teacher begins instruction by posting the two or three standards that will be taught next. As a group the teacher and students analyze each standard to identify key vocabulary words and to write a description of what it will look like when students are performing the skills and concepts of each standard. The description of what it looks like when students perform the standards leads to the teacher articulating for the students what types of assessments will be used to measure their mastery along the way. Knowing how they will be asked to show what they've learned will help students put future instructional activities into a larger context. Once this introduction to the upcoming standards is completed everyone in the room has a common mission for the next few weeks of school. Students can see how every instructional activity they participate in is a step toward total mastery of the goal skills and concepts. The teacher receives frequent feedback on how well students are mastering the content as they perform tasks which will culminate in a final, meaningful display of comprehension and application.

In the tests-as-ranking-tools philosophy of instruction the teacher and students are on opposite teams battling each other. The teacher tries to trip up the students while the students try to outmaneuver the teacher. When classroom assessments are seen as a connected, transparent outcome of instructional activities the teacher and students are on the same team striving toward a common goal of student success.