Inservice Reaction

A few days ago, I attended a professional development with a speaker/researcher from the University of Oregon. Dr. Zhao has written a book about the "gap" that we are always fussing about as the United States between other countries and ourselves. I would definitely recommend reading some of the articles on his website: http://zhaolearning.com/ as well as looking at the presentation handouts.

While some have been skeptical about his viewpoints, I found his presentation very uplifting and encouraging. As Americans, we are doing so many things "right" and a lot of the pressure for performance comes from a public that doesn't always understand the goings-on of schools. While Zhao has a firm stance on his position about standardized tests and how inappropriate he believes they are, I certainly think that he is not alone in his belief. However, we must form some sort of measures for achievement and assessments. We must use data to drive our instruction and improve our performance. While standardized testing may not be the only answer, it is what we currently have.

Dr. Zhao's presentation left me thinking about my beliefs and positions as a mother and as a teacher. While we certainly want high test scores, we also must ask ourselves, what those mean. On one of his slides, there was a quote by an old philosopher that said something like, "What is knowledge worth?" If a child gets an 80% on their standardized math test, what does that tell us in particular to their future knowledge? What is that knowledge worth? Our children today are born to a day where careers they will have might not even be created yet! Raising and teaching children is challenging and we must put the children first. Thankfully, we don't use test scores to determine future careers like other countries have been known to.

I don't want to suggest that I agree with EVERYTHING that Dr. Zhao presented. As an educator and a thinker, I like to ponder and analyze the content and see what relates to me and what makes the most sense in the position I'm in. I do think that he makes some important thinking points however. As teachers, we must continue to think, learn, and become better for our students.