A quote to think about...

There are so many quotes that inspire me about children and my students that it was hard for me to pick just one for this post. I have recently been trying to make an effort every day to think about this quote in the way that I talk to each of my students. Sometimes the idea of how much of an influence I can have on their lives and their self confidence can be daunting. But at the same time, I find it to be a great honor and privilege to be able to touch so many children in so many different ways. I have a great job!

Childhood Assessments

Considering the child in a holistic manner, I think there should more than just one factor in an assessment given to school-aged children to measure their growth. One of the aspects of an assessment I believe should be the cognitive stance of the child compared to other children that same age to give a baseline of their development. I also think children should be assessed on their social competencies and their relationships with other children (ie: working well in a group or solving problems independently etc). I think assessments should be measured based on data of where children can developmentally be at each age. I also think there should be more of a window or range for "successful scores" to allow for children of different ability levels to still be considered showing growth.
Finland is one of the leaders in education in the world and has had an educational reform since the 1970's. Finland does not have standardized assessments to measure student growth. Students in this country receive narrative feedback form their teachers that include examples of growth and suggestions for future growth instead of letter grades. "Samples of students are evaluated on open ended assessments at the end of second and ninth grade to inform curriculum." Students are also the center of their own learning in Finland. It is rare to see a teacher lecturing students in front of a classroom. Most students create their own weekly goals with their teachers and work at their own pace within the curriculum. The center of this curriculum seems to be real world problem solving and higher level reasoning and questioning. The idea is to teach children how to think in an abstract way to solve any problem, regardless of the subject, in a meaningful way.
Reference:
http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htm