Round Two
Here we are for week two of EDUC
410 adventures, and I’m your host William Alspaugh. This week was a tough one
for me as we are starting another school year full throttle. The rigors of
being a full-time employee for ISS and a full-time student, have caught up to
me at the tail end of the week, but I will endure. Speaking of enduring, when
it comes to the laws that govern assessment and education, there have been a
ton of civil public laws passed. As the focus of our studies this week, I’ve been
digging and digging all throughout Google and every online site possible, that
has been verified, to delve into the laws governing assessment. To my surprise,
and utter lack of memory, I realized that most of the policies and laws that
are applicable to assessment and even education are mostly at the state level,
#The10thamendment. With federal laws,” what’s old is new again,” as
the new Every Student Succeeds Act(ESSA) is really a rebirth of the previous Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA); with some major focus equality, gap closure,
and accountability. The beautiful state of North Carolina is responsible for
making sure that it’s students, be it preschool to doctoral programs, excel and
achieve two great levels that are satisfactory to what the federal government
and world are looking for. Basically, the NCTC Standards that we constantly
referred to and embed in our minds are small summaries of the expectations that
the state has based on the laws and policies the legislation came up with. To
get more in depth with my local area, adding some outside research and talk to
one of the testing coordinator’s in the central office area. She was able to
provide me with some information that startled me. For the County for which I
work, their focus is to be as close to the state laws and policies as possible
therefore they really don't have specific direct individual laws, but policy implementations
that reflect state General Statues. Now I'm still doing research to find out if
she was factually correct with her statement. I am seeing through researching
the ISS Board Polices that there are many governing principles but only
redirections to NC G.S. When it comes pure assessment, the code of ethics must
be at the forefront and always on your mind.
So, what does all this mean now and
for the future? If I’m not mistaken him, as I said before the Teacher Candidate
Standards direct us to make sure that we are being affective in following the
code of ethics and state guidelines to ensure we are properly testing a student
and providing them with the best overall education that we can. At the reduce
some of the laws and statues myself, I can see where we may have dropped the
ball as a country at times. By not accommodating to the needs of the students
or seeing students as individuals and not generalizing every option or path to
success. I want to say I can ashore my students and future parents that I will
strive to make sure I don’t get that; however, I am going to have to make sure
I still stay within the guidelines that the county, state, and even federal
government provide.
Before I depart, I wanted to bring
up the interview that we all studied this week. Mr. Grant Wiggins, an expert in
assessment, brought to life some of the most intriguing view points in his view
of assessment. What stuck out for me the most was his statement about “backward
design.” It connected for me some of the processes I’ve seen other educators follow
when it comes to teaching and assessment. In the future, I want to make sure I
“begin with the end in mind,” in any of the processes I do when I comes to the
assessing of my students and striving with them in success. Knowing how the end
it should work will make it easier for me to possibly teach the subject matter
and know that they understand because they will discover the finished product.
The previous page before the interview provided here, https://www.edutopia.org/assessment-guide-importance,
had a section “When assessment works best, it does the follow.” This is a great
follow-up to what Mr. Wiggins were saying and how we need to really evaluate
our sales when it comes to assessment and helping students achieve the
standards that they have set before him. If no one else chooses to take up this
charge, rest assured I will give my best to accomplish the task. My students
deserve it, their parents deserve it, the world deserves it, and I want to
achieve it.
All right, until next time……
Always learning, Always Growing;
William B. A. Alspaugh
Hi William, I agree this week starting back to school and all has been quite an adventure! I am glad that you liked Mr. Wiggins statement that we should "begin with the end in mind." If we don't set a goal for our students to reach how will we know if they understand the content? It is important to set goals and to show the students their growth from where they started, where they are now and finally where they need to be. This helps motivate students and helps us as teachers keep track of how all the students are progressing so we know which way to go next. Whether we go back and address certain material again or build on the material for the next lesson. Great post this week!
ReplyDeleteWilliam I think you did a great job on your response! I have also found in my research that the state has more control and more say over the assessments and what goes on in the classrooms then the federal government or even counties do. I hope in my future class that I am able to abide by the laws and policies but still allow my students to enjoy their learning. As for my week it was a little less stressful because the students went back to school. That means at my daycare the school kids were back at school and didn't arrive until 2:30, which helped to give us some more help from the school kids teachers during the day. We have been experiencing being short staff with a few deaths in peoples families and others on vacation so it was nice to have some extra help this week. I also enjoyed reading the interview by Grant Wiggins, I found his answers very interesting and informative. I agreed with him and his responses. Especially, where it talked about how teachers say they do not have enough time to perform performance-based assessments. You cannot meet the standards if you do not perform these assessments. I think that teachers should make performing the performance-based assessments a priority. It is very important part for the success of their students and should be made a priority. I look forward to learning how exactly to conduct all of the different assessments in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWilliam your blog is amazing! It will surprise you how much our states has over the school systems in our country. I hope as a future teacher all of us abide by this laws and policies. I also hope that we can encourage our student to want to succeed and enjoy their learning environment. Like you said William we need to set goals for our students so that they can strive to succeed these goals. I can say i also enjoyed reading Mr. Wiggins article. Assessments are an important task, you could say, as a teacher this gives you answers. Are my students learning? What knowledge have they comprehend? What subject do they need help with? As a teacher you can look at their assessments and ask yourself these question. When doing so you can better educate your students to strive to further their education. As a teacher i think we should do these assessments more often.
ReplyDeleteWilliam,
ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts expressed here! I really appreciate the depth of your response, as I can truly see what you are taking in during a week. The good news is that the second half of the semester will be focused on Backwards Design, because I agree, that's where all teachers should start!
Next time, try to make specific connections to the NCTCS. For example, you talked about testing ethics. That's a direct connection to 1E. Also make sure to edit. I think you may be using text to speech for this so make sure to re-read through it.
Great post!