14 The Tested Curriculum and Changing Views of Assessment (14/9) -- Curriculum Essentials: A Journey

14 The Tested Curriculum and Changing Views of Assessment “You can enhance or destroy students’ desire to succeed in school more quickly and permanently through your use of assessment than with any other tools you have at your disposal.”–Rick Stiggins Introduction Much has been written about the effects of testing on student achievement as it relates to what is taught in the classroom. Some experts believe that society’s mission regarding schools has changed, and so have the reasons for large-scale assessments. Only recently have we begun to look at how assessment and curriculum can work to complement each other by supporting student learning and impacting what is taught in the classroom positively and dynamically. Essential Questions - How has society’s mission of its schools changed? - Has the annual standardized test movement increased student learning? - How do we help students develop a sense of control over the assessment process? - What does it mean to have “balance” in assessment? - Are we measuring what matters in schools? Assessing Assessments How has society’s mission of its schools changed and what is the link to assessment? It has been problematic that students who did not do well were not given the skills they needed to be successful in life. In times past, the goal of the assessment was to broaden the gap in student achievement. The “normal” curve is the clearest example of this thinking: a few students score at the top of the test, most score in the middle, and some fail. Restated, a normal curve assumes that to have a frequency distribution of a normal curve, 50% of the students must score below average and 50% score above. For example, if we randomly sampled 100 individuals, we would expect to see a normal distribution frequency curve for many continuous variables, such as IQ, height, weight, and blood pressure. This may be fine for physical characteristics, but as thoughtful educators, it is important to ask: is it all right to have a goal that relegates some students to failure? (English 2000). Another complicating factor is that test scores are driven largely by socioeconomic factors, so schools that have large populations of lower socioeconomic students are automatically assigned to the “below average” category. This is called “social determinism” based on wealth. English argues that instead of aiming for a normal curve, we should have the “J” curve as a goal. The “J” curve occurs when all the students are learning and “above average.” Geher (2014) states that the normal distribution is over-applied and over-used. Because few naturally occurring variables actually conform to the normal distribution, forcing humans into a bell curve has the capacity to stifle growth. In using a traditional approach to teaching that assumes a few students will do above-average work, some average work, and some below average work with some failing, grades do not motivate or inspire most students. The ideal outcome in this scenario is to have mo