http://www.edutopia.org/blog/displaying-student-testing-data-ethical-elena-aguilar
This was a blog post that my daughter sent to me. She believes that it is ok to post the scores because students should know that it is not ok to fail math. Of course this is coming from a student who always found math to be easy and was on the math team in junior high and high school. Her and I do not see eye to eye on this point.
I personally liked the idea of having the kids set goals and then posting their progress toward their goal. No one has to know what their goal is just that they are making progress toward that end. Which to me is what school and differentiated instruction is all about. I don't think that their scores should be posted in the classroom with their names beside them for all to see. Humiliation for failure is not a good thing for an elementary or really any student. Showing whole class progress like the chart pictured might be ok but believe me the studetns always know who is at the top and who is at the bottom.
With so much focus on student scores and showing that you are improving the test scores in the classroom I can see where some of this thought comes from but I don't think that this is the way to go about motivating kids to do better. Teaching them goal setting and helping them to feel successful and to feel personal accomplishment is so much more important then the end score on a test. It is ok to fail sometimes as long as you don't dwell on it and get stuck in that failure. You need to learn from failure, look at why you failed and then learn how to improve. With that said, I go back to posting test scores in the classroom, how is that supposed to help them learn and improve if they are embarassed and humiliated in front of their peers.
I would be interested to hear everyone elses feelings on this, am I right or should children's test scores with their names next to them be posted in their classrooms or even on the classroom door for all to see?
Hi, I'm the daughter.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I was opposed to this article because I felt it was trying to treat the symptom and not the malady.
The problem is not whether or not the scores are on the wall, but whether or not the students feel safe in the classroom knowing that they might not always get as good of grades as others and will need to ask for help.
The chart is not the problem, it's how the students view the chart. Is it akin to a race results chart at the end of a track meet that denotes a pecking order, (Though, unlike track, being first in the classroom doesn't always mean gold medals and applause.) or is it a resource for students to know who needs help and where they can get help other than the teacher?
In many ways, the typical classroom of today is not a safe, reassuring, collaborative place, however much we'd like it to be. It's a cutthroat, competitive, and psychologically stressful place for a kid to go (without choice) day after day. And that's why this article ticked me off. She focuses on minimizing humiliation in a world where it's all too real rather than on creating a classroom environment where kids don't need to worry about feeling humiliated.