How do we evaluate and determine a particular school, grade, teacher, etc is doing better than another? Right now the only way we determine the value of the education is we give a test. That is arbitrary and except for very specific items is often not a good measure. And then we throw in standardized tests - which is the worse possible measure of valuing education.
Well if this is true & many studies have shown that standardized tests is not a good criteria for determining whether a student actually has learned & can use the information, then what measure should we use.
I propose we look at business for the answer. Why do we think one business is doing better then another? We look at the bottom line - is this company bringing in more then another company, are their products or services being used by more people, do the people who come from this business go on to be successful. Ok, my take away is that no-one in business is saying that the company that passes test better is the more qualified - they are looking for results. So turning back to schools - let's not measure on the test scores - lets measure based on results.
My proposal - a school should be evaluated on the success of their students. So there should be a ranking of schools based on the quality of colleges a student gets into AND/OR based on the quality of job they get into upon leaving the school. If we believe that success is measured on the ability of an adult to support themselves then we should see if the school has provided the education in order for that to happen.
I'd go on but I'm looking for some feedback here...
Last note: there is a push to now standardize the learning across all of America - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/06/01/33standards.h28.html?tkn=OLSFMiMEtX62W3pmvC32l5ixVKicSASMnV9l. There is some good & bad here, but if the quantity of the knowledge isn't critical & the successful application is what is important then shouldn't we shoot for some other approach?
Think well & learn something new today!
