Diane Neubauer was listening to the Tea with BVP show last week and reported back to us here:
…they had done a poll of people following them on Twitter. If I remember correctly, 85% either said “yes” or “yes, but…” to this question: “Do you think we should move to language instruction without tests and grades?”….
I think that this is astounding. Here’s the thing. We are so whipped down by administrators and district policy that we probably won’t follow the courage of our convictions and act locally on this. Our thinking is probably that “mommy and daddy won’t let us.”
Boo hoo! I guess we have to test!
And I know EXACTLY WHY this won’t change. Because if we changed it not one single traditional teacher would be able to keep the attention of their classes for more than five minutes. What a DISASTER that that is the reason we can’t even open up the conversation on even a local level. The traditional teachers would shoot us down before we even opened our mouths. At least the ones around me would.
And what is best for the kids, especially in the light of recent discussion here? NO TESTING IN WL. Evaluation – yes. Description – yes. But no testing! We just spent three weeks coming to that conclusion, unless I’m reading the threads wrong, and this idea of a more humane way to assess has been brewing for decades.