What will we learn?

Yesterday - April 11 - Michigan's high school testing program began. High school juniors arrived at school, greeted by smiling staff,  eager to communicate that today will be OK. It appears that our Novi High School students were taking the day in stride.

In a few weeks students will receive results. In a few months schools will be judged based on the results of this assessment.

In the end, what will we learn?

It is important that we have a way to determine if our schools are doing their job. There is a reasonable assumption that our students will learn how to read, write, do math, understand science, and know about our place in the world.

Over the years we have decided that state assessments or nationally standardized assessments give us a good sense of whether or not our students have developed those skills. There is some debate about whether or not that perspective is justified, given how test results often break down along class, socioeconomic, or racial lines.   

In addition, others have argued rather passionately that other skills are important. Skills in collaboration, adaptability, imagination, and initiative, for example. Those skills are much harder to assess via a paper and pencil test.

So we are left with the question of what will we learn from our state assessments?

We will learn that some students do very well, most do well, and some need improvement.

These are things that, quite honestly, we knew before we gave the assessment. The results of this high school assessment will not be known for months, will have little influence in the classroom, and will not unduly shape our instructional practice.

What does influence our instructional practice? What teachers see every day in the classroom. Engaged, informed, committed teachers know how to connect with students, engage students in meaningful work, and pull and push students toward competence and then excellence.

I trust what my teachers tell me about their students more than what the state assessment tells me about the students in my district.